My three main areas of expertise are writing, working with data and digital marketing. I put these 3 together in the form of a creative, data-driven marketing strategy and I do this in the service of important work such as fighting climate change or trying to reduce the global nuclear threat.
A modern nonprofit strategy is a digital strategy. What is rare and valuable is the artful and social implementation of that strategy. In the context of organizations such as Ploughshares Fund and Sierra Club, strategy has to be understood as having a true end-game, because these organizations seek to put themselves out of business. When nuclear weapons are considered relics of the past and when humans live in environmental harmony, respectively, these organizations will cease to exists. Simultaneously, these organizations exist within the contexts of movement building and political influence. Social marketing and digital communications are, in this context, tools we use to expertly advance a cause. Movements are successful over generations, and they transform societies.
In the US, movements such as Civil Rights, Feminism, the Peace Movement and LGBT Rights are models of change that may seem natural to Millenials and Digital Natives. So, an organization is not a credible agent of change to a younger audience if it doesn’t appear as participating in a movement. But more importantly — they’re right. Movements, which eventually became mass movements, have brought almost all the progress we’ve seen in the last 50 years. Over the ages, progress has been made in many ways. But in the last 50 years, mass movements are largely how it’s been done. Because social marketing and social communication mean highly contextualized communications, the organization will be judged in relation to mass movements. This wasn’t true in the past, but it’s true now.
Political communication is necessary as well. And wins here are important. These wins show credibility and expertise, which are important to donors, and support the broader movement. These wins give you credibility as an organization. Social marketing and digital communications complement more traditional communications and political communications, which also happen to be done digitally, by focusing on self-published, re-published and contextualized communications. In these types of communications it’s all about engagement and connection. To best support a movement for generational change, humanize and personalize the message. Successful social marketing and digital communication make the organization more sustainable. To a cause-oriented nonprofit, sustainable means: able to survive as long as the problems you aim to eliminate, long enough to put yourself out of business.