A Grateful Life Lived

After ten years of work in the nonprofit sector, I have quite a collection of proverbial hats; I’ve done everything from writing ads to serving cotton candy, and I appreciate that diversity! I’m a better—individually and professionally—because I’ve inched from my comfort zone into humble willingness.

Maybe that’s where you find yourself at this point in your career. If you are in nonprofit communications, than that’s most likely the case. To bring a little reprieve, I want to offer >25 easy suggestions for content you can provide to your people. After all, the key is to provide valuable deliverables—not just content for content’s sake.

Let’s go through this together.

What’s The Aim?

First, I want you to think of an upcoming initiative, event, or campaign that you have in 2-6 months (Ex. back to school, a conference in September, new sermon series).

Next, consider which of the following your people (I.e. customers, clients, members, etc.) need most:

1. Awareness/Clarity
2. Resources
3. Connection

Once you’ve identified which type of resource is most needed, you’re almost there! There are multiple ways to meet the primary need. Before you look at the list, I want to caution you to only select 1-4 deliverables. One of the biggest mistakes communicators make is pushing out too much content—it’s overwhelming!

Meeting the Needs

Curious what types of content you can provide? Take a look:

Content Needs + Types = Examples

I’m going to make this nice and easy for ya. Let’s look at a few examples to help you think through your options.

Biggest Need ➔ Initiative ⬇	Awareness/Clarity	Resource/Training	Connection
End-of-summer church festival	Newsletter campaign to members—dripped out weekly starting four-weeks out.	Social media graphics and captions people can share to invite neighbors!	Testimonial from someone who attended last year and made friends
New app launching for program members	Video tutorial on how to download and use the app	Behind the scenes with staff explaining why the app was created/why the change	Challenge! Every member who is active on the app this month is entered to win $100 gift card
Colorado Gives Day (Dec. 9)	Fact sheet or postcard about Colorado Gives Day, distributed to stakeholders at your organization	Featured button on top of your website or text marketing message to give easy access: This is how you give	Special video thank you to those who give, sent in a group message or thread to connect them
New Monday running group at running store	Advertise a <2 min. video of tips for beginner runners, and a promise to share more at the first running group	Free 5k and 10k training plans with info about the running group in them. Offer free coaching chats after each run group	Pick a runner of the week from each week’s group run and share in the newsletter + social media to connect the athletes

Time to Get Going

Hopefully you found a few items on the list that will serve your people well for the upcoming initiative or event you’re championing.

Speaking of championing: If you want help walking through content planning like this or need someone to execute on your nascent content idea, you’ve come to the right web page. I would be honored to help you as a newly-full time creative strategist and consultant. Let’s Work Together!