Nonprofit organizations need to place more emphasis on communications, according to Suzanne Hawkes, director of communication services at IMPACS, the Institute for Media, Policy and Civil Society. Earlier this year, nonprofit leaders from across Canada gathered for Canadian Centre for Philanthropy’s 2001 Symposium. Hawkes shared some of the knowledge she has gained through her communications work with charities at the Symposium.

How are we doing as a sector in getting our messages out and heard?

Andre Picard of the Globe and Mail says:

Canada’s $90 billion a year voluntary sector…is an invisible giant, an integral part of the lives of citizens, but largely ignored by the media. Few leaders of charities and non-profits have the skills to communicate effectively. And, as a result, their work does not register on the journalistic radar screen, even though the voluntary sector is playing an increasingly important role in shaping public policy and delivering services.

Why do we need to place a greater emphasis on communications, particularly our interactions with the media?

• Non-profit organizations need the media to help win support. In the eyes of the public and most decision makers, the media defines what and who is important and newsworthy and what the issues of the day are.
• Good communications, particularly public relations and media work, translates into greater credibility and higher profile. These are both essential ingredients for successful fundraising.
• Good communications also leads to greater engagement. We need to tell our stories in a way that engages people’s imaginations and motivates them to get involved. 
• Long-term communication strategies help reframe debates and turn around assumptions over time. Many feel that there is a “war of ideas” out there, and that those working for social and environmental justice are losing the war, partly because we’re more focused on the short-term battles.
• The market of ideas is more crowded than ever before. Because of a lack of strategic and effective media and communication efforts, the messages of most voluntary organizations are drowned out.
• Voluntary groups need to counter the massive resources being poured into influencing the public from other sectors. Some academics who study media estimate that about 40% of mainstream “news” flows virtually unedited from public relations offices hired by political and business organizations.

How can the voluntary sector do a better job of communicating its messages?

Voluntary sector organizations need to be strategic, focusing limited communication resources on very specific and carefully selected opportunities.

We need to do our homework in assessing where the levers of change really are related to the issue we are addressing. Do they rest with individual consumers? Donors? Policy makers? Business leaders?

We also need to understand what motivating factors would bring about the change we desire. Do they include the opportunity to secure votes? To gain favourable market positioning? To receive the approval of their peers? To assuage feelings of guilt?

Finally, we need to deliver the right message, to the right audience, at the right time, many times.

What is the right audience? A typical cross-section of 10 Canadians might look something like this:

• Two people will be completely opposed to your issue. They should never be ignored, but as they are not likely to ever come “on-side,” there’s no point in spending too many resources on trying to changing their minds or behaviours.
• Three people will be apathetic or “blocked” – either they don’t care about your issue, they are not aware of your issue, or they face systemic barriers to becoming engaged in your issue.
• Another two people will be completely supportive. It’s critical to keep communicating with them, in order to maintain their support, but again, they are ideally not the major focus of your efforts.
• The final group of three people will be the persuadables. For most groups, this segment of the public is the most important audience.

And the right messages? They are:

• Clear, simple & brief: The rule is: less is more. The shorter the message, the easier it is to remember.
• Compelling: `Lead with values, follow with facts.’ Effective messages hook onto the deeply held values of the target audience.
• Believable and True: Credibility is difficult to establish, and remarkably easy to destroy.
• Positive (almost always) – i.e., what we’re for, rather than what we’re against: In Canada, research suggests that people do not respond well to messages about “banning” or “stopping” activities.
• Funny or ironic (sometimes): Humour often works very well, especially with younger audiences. Be careful that the humour is appropriate and will not offend. 
• Visual (almost always): Messages are usually far more compelling if they are delivered visually as well as verbally (with images as well as text).
• Tailored to your audience – their values & their language: Ensure your messages are delivered in ways that resonate with your target audience.
• Tested: The single most effective way to ensure your messages actually work for your target audiences – as opposed to whether they work for you – is to test them, through some form of opinion research. 
• Delivered by the right messenger: Who delivers an effective message is as important as the message itself. It is important to think carefully about who can best reflect the kind of tone and positioning your group seeks with your audiences.

According to the global opinion researcher Angus McAllister, effective messages also include answers to the following three key questions. The answers today are very different than they were twenty years ago:

CHOICE: Do I have a choice?

Twenty years ago, people were more fatalistic. Today, voluntary choice is important.

BENEFITS: What’s so good about it?

Older generations tend to be more concerned about social duty. Today’s 18-35 year old audiences are much more concerned about individual fulfillment.

CREDIBILITY: Says who?

Twenty years ago tended to believe that messages delivered by traditional authority figures, like doctors and politicians, were generally credible. Today’s younger demographics trust themselves, their peers, and often NGOs.

There’s a growing movement in the voluntary sector toward developing more strategic, effective communications. Most of us know that it’s going to cost time and money to do a better job with communications — more time and more money than most of our organizations are spending now.

Some communications experts, like Herb Gunther of the Public Media Centre in San Francisco, suggest that 30% of a group’s resources should go to communications. At IMPACS, many groups tell us that 5% is closer to their current reality.

The market of ideas may be crowded out there, but the fact is, our stories are some of the most compelling of our time. If we commit the resources to telling those stories effectively, we can move mountains.

Suzanne Hawkes is Director of Communication Services at IMPACS, the Institute for Media, Policy and Civil Society, a Canadian charity headquartered in Vancouver (For more information about IMPACS, visit their website: www.impacs.org). In that capacity, she has worked on the communications initiatives of dozens of voluntary sector organizations in Canada and elsewhere.