Reputation Builders

Resource
Marketing Workbook for Nonprofit Organizations Volume I: Develop the Plan, 2nd Edition

Contents
"Positioning" review
Claiming and maintaining your position
Thirteen reputation builders

From Vince Hyman, former Publishing Director, Fieldstone Alliance:

"Positioning" review
The last issue of Tools You Can Use focused on the marketing art of "positioning" an organization. We explained the difference between a mission statement and a positioning goal, and used the following example for an adoption agency:

• The organization's mission is to build and sustain nurturing families where adopted children flourish.
• The organization's positioning goal is to be known for leadership and excellence for adoption in a diverse world.

We covered six steps that would help your organization develop a positioning statement. Those steps were:

1. Check in with your mission
2. Look at needs and results
3. Assess the environment to see how you fit in
4. Draft your positioning statement
5. Test your positioning statement
6. Refine and clarify your niche

Claiming and maintaining your position
But deciding what position you want to hold in the nonprofit marketplace is only a start. You have to actively develop and maintain that position. In this issue, we focus on reputation builders. These are steps every organization should take to claim and maintain its position. These should be helpful whether you already have a well-established position or you are still struggling to formulate your position strategy (let alone stake your claim).

We've added to Gary Stern's work some notes from branding consultants Mike Brunner and Greg Beaupre of B3 consulting in Minneapolis, who helped with our re-branding when we spun off from the Wilder Foundation.

Thirteen reputation builders

1. Make sure your entire board, volunteer corps, and staff are aware of your positioning statement and understand what it means for the organization.
It's a good idea to reinforce this in a number of ways, such as informal conversations, meetings, memos, screen-saver messages, and in-house newsletters. Be sure to invite comments from anyone who hasn't been involved to date in the positioning process. Remember, your positioning statement not only provides the platform for the image you project, but serves as an internal tool to help make your focus and identity clear.

2. Continue to test your positioning statement with a broader circle of people in the community.
There is no more powerful way to build awareness, involvement, and support than by person-to-person meetings. Invite honest feedback. The instincts of individuals outside of your organization will often provide you with your most valuable information. Their distance gives them objectivity. It provides the kind of feedback that helps you truly understand how others see you. While you may hear contrasting perspectives, search for the common themes that surface from those you query.

3. Make a consistent public statement.
Develop a boilerplate paragraph for your organization and use it in all publications and promotions. A boilerplate is a description of your organization that is a composite of your mission and positioning statements. It should also include key message that helps build the reputation you want. Here is a sample boilerplate:

The Greater Regional Association of Nonprofit Theorists (GRANT) is at the crossroads of philanthropy in Texas, providing the most comprehensive and up-to-date information on philanthropic trends. GRANT's research, conferences, web site, and publications help corporations, foundations, and social entrepreneurs make the most informed giving decisions possible. Established in 1950 and awarded a Presidential Medal for Community Service in 1995, GRANT is the oldest and largest organization of its kind in the United States.

Support your written boilerplate with an elevator speech. An elevator speech is the plain-language story of your organization. It must be something anyone can understand, and you must be able to relay during the time you would be standing in an elevator. It should reinforce the key messages in your boilerplate—and absolutely EVERYONE connected to your organization should be able to deliver it.

The reputation you want must continually be reinforced. You can't repeat your boilerplate and key messages often enough.

4. Maintain a leadership presence.
Be sure people in your organization join—and seek leadership roles in—professional networks, associations, and online communities in your field. Showing up and being a leader among peers increases your visibility and brings recognition and opportunity with it.

5. Become known by the media.
You are an authority in your own area of expertise. Find out who in various media covers your issues, introduce yourself, and make your organization a reliable source. And when you deserve feature coverage for your innovations or results, use your contacts, and go after it.

6. Publish, teach, tour, and link.
Many organizations develop specific and unique knowledge worthy of passing along. Whether it's a book, CD-ROM, conference presentation, web-cast, or community education class, publishing and teaching bring credibility, attention, and respect. In the arts, regional, national, or international touring may be a geographic positioning strategy in its own right and set the stage for a triumphal encore back home.

7. Take a stand.
When issues arise that affect you or those you serve, consider getting right out front with your values and your voice. Number one, it's often the right thing to do. Number two, you'll definitely be noticed.

8. Join leadership networks.
No matter what your specific mission or niche, it is beneficial to your organization to be well known and recognized within leadership networks—and not just those of the nonprofit world. For example, there are hundreds of organized community leadership development programs in the United States. Many are affiliated with chambers of commerce, United Ways, or foundations, and some are independent. If you've got one in your town, join up. If not, consider starting one—online or on the ground.

9. Form an advisory council.
Aside from the extremely beneficial input and guidance you may receive, inviting consumers, experts, and other community representatives to advise you goes a good way toward establishing the profile you want. And remember, today's advisors can convene on the net from anywhere in the world.

10. Be creative.
A Canadian United Way successfully repositioned itself from needs-based fundraiser (think thermometer) to visionary community-builder (think beam of light). Breaking out of the box in any number of ways got the community's attention. Fall campaign theme: "The future's so bright you'll have to wear shades." Volunteer campaigners swarm through town in signature sunglasses day and night. Response goes into warp speed.

11. Be different—and capitalize on your uniqueness.
You have a unique organization. You deserve to occupy a unique spot in the minds of all your target audiences. One way to claim your ground is to simply do things differently than others with whom you compete. Find better, smarter, quicker ways to position your company. One way is to establish "strategic alliances" with others who share your same high standards, target the same audiences, but don't compete in the same arena. How can you work together? Out-of-the-box ideas are inexpensive to conceive. And, with some hard work, they can be inexpensive to execute. (For background on forming strategic alliances, see the August 23, 2005 issue of Tools You Can Use.)

12. Deliver.
Nothing will ruin your position—and ultimately defeat your positioning efforts—more effectively than making promises you don't fulfill. The two most critical factors building your reputation are superb customer service up and down the organization and top-notch performance that builds community and changes lives. There never has been and never will be a substitute for quality.

13. Continue to assess.
Positioning your brand is not a stagnant process. It is an evolving process that needs to be nurtured every day. On a daily or weekly basis, make it a point to contact a variety of people who interact, or should interact, with your brand. Among those you should engage are: existing clients, prospects, previous clients, employees, partners and vendors. Knowledge is power and it is at your fingertips if you chose to act on it. Use what they tell you about your organization to keep on top of your reputation and your position in the market.

Sincerely,

Vince Hyman
Publishing Director
Fieldstone Alliance

November 15, 2005

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