The Strategic Response: An Introduction to Non-profit Communication
2008, Third Sector Research, 14(2), 9-50
The professionalisation of communication is challenging the day-today practice of non-profit organisations as well as... more
The professionalisation of communication is challenging the day-today practice of non-profit organisations as well as their research. Communications are among the most underestimated topics in the third sector studies. The capacity of non-profits to communicate, however, is a valuable organisational resource. Communication planning, strategies and skills help organisations to become more cost-efficient in the short term and to build up their competitive advantage in the long term. Non-profits vary in the ways they communicate. Advocacy groups, charities, community services, public education campaigns and online grassroots campaigns – despite the significant similarities between some – require skilling in different areas of professional communication. Regardless of this, there are some general imperatives that relate to the way all non-profits communicate.
Non-profits have to know how to turn their inability to profit into a strategic advantage. Strategy is not doing better what others do (organisational efficiency) but acting differently than others act (strategic positioning). Community organisations will beat the (for them) lethal trend of homogenisation between the sectors – including institutional isomorphism – when they better highlight their values-driven non-profit mission rather than reassuring their publics that they are becoming more businesslike. Thus they should strive to strike a balance between mission and market. Yet to communicate their mission, they must translate it into messages that are tailor-made for their specific publics. New technologies are opening new low-cost opportunities for non-profit organisations – the vast majority of which are resource-poor – to produce their own direct publicity and so not depend as greatly on coverage in the big media. Understanding the mechanics of this shift from (mass-)media publicity to direct publicity is critical. Successful organisations increase their communications capital – they build their legitimacy and authority as credible, reliable and regular news sources – by learning how to subsidise news. There is one subsidy investment that even resource-poor groups possess aplenty – the communications skills of their volunteers. The most important of these are the ability to conduct discourse analysis, to frame and prime messages, and to research the particular needs and desires of all target groups.
A cardinal challenge to non-profits, especially the larger ones, is to overcome the dualism between managerial and technological roles that is entrenched in business and government organisations. In the mindset of the ‘new managerialism’, managers take decisions and set goals, whereas communicators are the technicians – they are outside ‘dominant coalitions’ and in charge only of ‘deliverables’. In the third sector the absurdity of such opposition becomes especially obvious. It may set the example that organisational strategy depends intrinsically on the (self-) empowerment of the communicators. Non-profits have to know how to respond to the underlying shift from member organisations to advocacy and online groups. This change is in line with the professionalisation of communications. In particular, organisations must reconcile professional communications with their volunteer nature. In addition, non-profit organisations need to master their internal communication with both staff and volunteers.
The paper closes with a suggestion for a universal and sustainable model of community engagement by non-profit research, to help third sector organisations build and develop their communications capacity.
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