I’ve always felt that basic, healthy habits are pretty easy to define. To stay in shape, you need to eat a balanced diet, drink enough water, get some exercise and a good night’s sleep. To keep your car running, you need to get the oil changed regularly, rotate the tires, and remember to fill up with gas so you don’t unexpectedly run out in the middle of the highway.

I believe that if you want to have any kind of long-term success, you need to get the fundamentals down. That might not sound very exciting, but it’s the foundation everything else is built on. If you don’t do maintenance on your car, you might win a race or two, but you shouldn’t be surprised when you run into engine trouble halfway through the next track.

To me, marketing isn’t any different. There are a lot of practices that may not bring in an immediate influx of cash, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t necessary to keep your organization healthy, ensuring that you’re actually ready for the race. Without maintenance, any marketing effort you make might very well be compromised. It’s like slapping on a shiny new coat of paint without bothering to check what’s going on under the hood.

It can be difficult to get nonprofit organizations on board with this approach to marketing. Most organizations have urgent, immediate needs, whereas setting up a long-term plan towards sustainability takes more time and may not bring in rewards right off the bat.

Still, for me, it’s frustrating to see clients turn to the latest fads and one-off trends time after time. While I understand wanting to keep up with what’s current, sometimes it feels like watching a friend crash diet without ever making the basic changes they need to develop a healthy lifestyle. Sometimes, these fads and trends don’t even result in a great ROI.

I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about how to make it easier for nonprofits to at least try out a more long-term approach. For many organizations, I’ve worked on small pieces of the puzzle, but then there’s always the next shiny thing or fire that needs putting out or changing of the guard. I believe there is one solution that has a lot of merit, and I’ve started pitching it more recently: donor-led initiatives. 

By this, I don’t mean that you should invite your donors to direct your marketing or pull strings around your mission or messaging. Instead, what if you sold them on the idea of supporting your organization by helping you put the marketing fundamentals in place?

Donors can take on this kind of risk because they aren’t under pressure to deliver instant rewards. They aren’t limited by terms, so you don’t have to worry that someone will pull the plug halfway through the project. If they gift you a holistic marketing package instead of just writing a check, they free you up from having to nickel and dime and justify every single, individual step involved in implementing a broad-based marketing plan.

A one-off donation is like the parable about giving a poor man a fish – it lets your organization eat for a day. On the other hand, helping you achieve long-term fundraising health is like teaching that same man to fish – it will let your organization feed itself for a lifetime.

What do you think of this plan? What changes would you make to your marketing, if you had the freedom and resources to do whatever you wanted?