Communications

Design a Call-To-Action Campaign That Actually Works: 4 Key Tips

August 12, 2025 by joshjacobson Leave a Comment

Last month, we explored how nonprofits can move beyond reactionary messaging by sharpening their value proposition and communicating with greater intentionality. We argued that it’s time to stop speaking into the void and instead engage with purpose.

This month, we’re following that post with something practical — how to design a call-to-action campaign that cuts through the noise. Not a crisis campaign. Not a one-time emergency ask. But a thoughtful, intentional effort to grow your base of support in a way that aligns with your mission and builds trust over time.

Read on for four essential components of a successful campaign strategy:

1. Narrow Your Audience

You’ve got a mission that matters, and you want more people to care about it. So, you broadcast your message as widely as possible, hoping it sticks. But in a world saturated with content, a general message will almost always get lost.

This age-old adage still rings true: when you speak to everyone, you speak to no one.

Narrow your communication efforts to specific audiences. Who are you trying to reach? And what do you want them to do as a result?

Is this a campaign to acquire new supporters? Reengage lapsed donors? Recruit volunteers? Establish credibility with institutional funders? Each of those calls to action requires a different message.

Because even if your mission impacts “everyone,” your campaign shouldn’t try to. The narrower your target audience, the more tailored your message can be, and the more likely it is to resonate.

2. Align Messaging with the Call to Action

Many nonprofit campaigns jump straight to a request for financial support. And while that may be the ultimate goal, it’s rarely the right first ask. Once you’ve identified your audience, craft messaging that meets them where they are.

This is especially true if you’re trying to bring new people into your ecosystem. For that to work, you’ll need to do some trust-building first. The better approach is to design a message funnel that starts with low-barrier engagement — a social follow, event registration, or newsletter signup — and then gradually deepens over time.

Your messaging should support this progression. That means:

Leading with values and impact, not just needs and gaps.
Speaking in human terms, not organizational jargon.
Clearly articulating how someone can get involved — and why it matters.

Most importantly, the call to action should feel proportionate to the audience’s current level of engagement. Asking for $100 from someone who’s never heard of you is a long shot. But inviting them to learn more, attend something, or connect with others? That’s a lot more doable — and a better long-term bet.

3. Choose Platforms and Creative That Match the Audience and Message

We see organizations decide they need to run a “video” or a “social campaign” without considering whether that’s the right fit for their audience or call to action. Just because TikTok exists doesn’t mean your audience is on it. Just because email is free doesn’t mean it’s your best option.

Start with your audience: Where do they already spend time? What kinds of messages do they engage with? What inspires them to act? This is where narrowing your audience comes in handy. It’s difficult to make these decisions if you’re defining your target audiences too broadly.

Next, design creative that feels like it belongs in that space. That might mean:

A short video that humanizes your mission with powerful storytelling
A carousel post that breaks down a complex idea in a visual way
A series of emails that take someone on a journey of learning and engagement
A physical postcard or invitation that feels personal and compelling

Remember: consistency is more important than perfection. A campaign doesn’t need to go viral — it needs to be clear, consistent, and repeated enough to make an impression.

4. Follow Up and Deepen the Relationship

The best call-to-action campaigns are not designed as one-offs — they are doorways.

When someone takes that first step, whether it’s signing up, attending, donating, or sharing, what happens next? Do they get a thank-you? An impact story? A real opportunity to stay connected? Or do they fall into the void, never to hear from you again?

This is why movement-building is so crucial. Every interaction, no matter how small, presents an opportunity for your organization to strengthen your relationship with your target audience while also creating opportunities for people to connect.

Because people are seeking belonging, and social good organizations are well-positioned to foster it. But that will only happen if you set out to make it a measurable outcome. When you follow up with intention and create space for shared experience and purpose, you begin to build something far more powerful than a donor file. You build a community.

The Bottom Line

Every nonprofit campaign should be designed with purpose — anchored in strategy, tailored to your audience, and built for relationship.

If your organization is ready to design a call-to-action campaign that cuts through the noise and fosters long-term support, we’d love to help. Drop us a line.

Because the future belongs to those who design it — one call to action at a time.

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Beyond Crisis Messaging: How Nonprofits Can Cut Through the Noise

July 7, 2025 by joshjacobson Leave a Comment

When everyone is asking for help, lasting impact comes from inviting participation rather than requesting rescue.

A wave of financial instability is building across the nonprofit sector. Policy changes are threatening major funding streams, and health and human services organizations are bracing for the ripple effects of government contraction that could have long-term implications on their operations, staffing, and programmatic impact.

In response, many organizations are preparing to shift their focus to private philanthropy. The hope is to “close the gap” before budgets go underwater, but there’s a real risk this strategy could backfire.

As many local nonprofits activate crisis messaging at once, the volume of appeal communications will reach levels that are hard to process. Because although each organization will tell its story with clarity and conviction, with urgent messaging that highlights clear consequences should support fall short, the reality is, there are only so many donors.

And perhaps more concerning in the current climate, there’s only so much attention and emotional energy available.

A recent system leader put it bluntly: Fundraising in this environment is like trying to fill an empty swimming pool with a Dixie cup. Point blank, there’s simply insufficient capacity in the private sector to make up for public sector shortfalls.

While the instinct to sound the alarm is understandable, organizations that lean too heavily into crisis messaging may inadvertently push away the very people they’re trying to reach.

So what if there was a different way?

Read on to learn how nonprofits can “cut through the noise” by centering community strength and inviting genuine partnership — even in the most challenging times.

When Crisis Messaging Becomes the Default

In times of uncertainty, organizations often fall back on communicating urgent need. Appeals become centered on organizational survival, painting a picture of programs at risk and community members who could go unserved.

However, need-based, organization-centric appeals are often not fully effective. While they may generate a short-term giving boost, messaging that frames a nonprofit as a central character needing the public to come to its aid changes the dynamics of relationship-building. Constituents must become saviors. Donors simply become a means to an end.

Over time, this approach can fatigue even the most loyal supporters.

And we’re already seeing signs of community disengagement. Across the board, people are pulling back from civic involvement. Because when people feel overwhelmed by societal pressures, they seek distance and distraction. That’s why a steady stream of crisis communications, no matter how well-intended, can increase that desire to retreat.

The good news is that nonprofits have something commercial brands spend millions trying to create: authentic purpose that naturally brings people together. So by making small shifts in how you talk about your work — focusing on possibility rather than peril — organizations like yours can build deeper, more sustainable relationships with your supporters.

Centering People, Not Programs

Next Stage’s approach to brand marketing is rooted in the belief that nonprofits are uniquely positioned to foster connection, belonging, and shared purpose. The challenge is to ensure marketing efforts reflect that dynamic.

We’ve adapted Donald Miller’s StoryBrand framework for social good institutions in a service line we call Movement-Building Brand Marketing. This approach uses the “hero’s journey” narrative structure to position the person hearing the message as the protagonist in their own story.

Movement-building brand marketing assumes that the people you serve, and those who support your work, are already on their own unique paths to creating change. Your organization becomes the “hero’s guide” who helps them stay on course — introducing them to others on the journey, creating opportunities for collective action, and reminding them they’re not alone.

When organizations market through this lens, stories highlight resilience rather than scarcity. Campaigns focus on what’s possible rather than what may be lost. And people receiving the message are treated as active participants rather than sideline observers.

What to Do Now: A Practical Starting Point

Here are three simple shifts you can make in your nonprofit’s communication strategy to help cut through the noise and make a positive first impression with new constituents and donors:

1. Affirm community strength in your messaging. Start with what’s already working. Shine a light on the grit, creativity, and determination of the people you serve. Let your storytelling reflect forward motion, even in the face of difficulty. Crisis communication tends to highlight need rather than showcase a can-do attitude in the face of adversity. Find ways to be strengths-based rather than deficit-based in your communication.

Instead of: Food insecurity is at an all-time high, and we’re struggling to keep up with demand. Without your help, families will go hungry this winter.

Try: Local families are finding creative ways to stretch their budgets and support each other through these tough times. Your partnership helps us amplify their resourcefulness by connecting them with fresh produce and cooking classes that build long-term food security.

2. Invite participation rather than transactions. Campaigns rooted in shared values tend to be more sustainable than those focused on crisis response. Consider the long-term relationship you want to build with your audience and develop messaging that invites them to join you (and others) in advancing a cause rather than solving a funding problem. Being part of a growing movement of caring people fosters a greater sense of purpose than having a one-to-one relationship built on the need for a financial contribution.

Instead of: We need $50,000 by December 31 or we’ll have to cut our after-school program. Can you help us reach our goal?

Try: Join hundreds of neighbors who believe every child deserves a safe place to learn and grow after school. Together, we’re building a community where working parents can thrive knowing their kids are supported, engaged, and developing skills for their future.

3. Focus on alignment, not comparison. Acknowledge the larger ecosystem in which you operate. Instead of arguing for your organization’s singular importance, emphasize the role you play within a broader community of partners. By lifting up your role in collaboration, you position the donor or funder in a role of catalytic action.

Instead of: As the only organization providing mental health services to teens in our region, we’re uniquely positioned to address the youth mental health crisis. Without us, these kids have nowhere else to turn.

Try: Your support helps us collaborate with schools, healthcare providers, and peer organizations to create a comprehensive network of mental health support for teens. Together with our partners, we’re ensuring young people have multiple pathways to healing and resilience.

Preparing for the Surge

If early indicators hold true, the back half of 2025 will bring a surge of appeals from nonprofits, particularly in health, housing, food access, and other safety net sectors.

As we enter this time of intense competition for attention, the instinct will be to lean into that urgency. But without thoughtful framing, your marketing’s call to actions may blend into the crowd or unintentionally contribute to a sense of futility — another wave of worthy causes crashing into supporters’ minds already awash with overwhelm.

So we encourage you to pause and consider your marketing approach. Ask yourself what story you’re telling and who you’re centering in that story. Ground your communication in belonging, community, and possibility.

The needs are real, but so is the strength of the people you serve. Let your brand reflect that. And let us know if we can help.

Help Shape the Future of Nonprofit Communications

We’re continuing our 2025 nonprofit leadership survey series to better understand how social good organizations are navigating today’s uncertain operating climate.

Join your fellow nonprofit colleagues and make your voice heard by taking a brief survey on the current state of fundraising communications. Your input will help inform strategies for digital engagement and donor activation, and we look forward to sharing those insights with you and the broader nonprofit community soon.

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Next Stage Strengthens Commitment to Health Innovation with Launch of “Impact for Health”

September 3, 2024 by nextstage Leave a Comment

Next Stage, a North Carolina–based social innovation company, is proud to announce the launch of its Impact for Health service line. The expansion reinforces the company’s dedication to partnering with healthcare and community-based organizations to address barriers to health equity.

The company has made two key appointments to spearhead its enhanced focus on health care:

Nimisha Patel fills the position of Vice President, Impact for Health
Jalah Blackmon takes on the role of Director, Impact for Health

These strategic shifts in assignment underscore Next Stage’s commitment to making a lasting impact in the healthcare sector.

“I’m proud to lead Next Stage’s Impact for Health domain at this critical time to find new ways to improve the health and well-being of our communities,” says Patel. “Our goal is to drive meaningful change by partnering with organizations and community partners to address the most pressing health challenges and create sustainable solutions.”

Building on a Decade of Experience

Next Stage isn’t new to the healthcare arena. For years, the company has collaborated with health and community-based organizations, gaining invaluable insights and experience. This moment marks a critical juncture where Next Stage recognizes the urgent need to formalize its focus and leverage its team expertise to tackle the significant barriers to health access and equity plaguing the system today.

The company’s unique positioning stems from the team’s deep understanding of the vital role collaboration management plays in bridging gaps between various health and community partners. Next Stage staff has been on the ground, doing the work, and identifying the pressing needs in this space.

“Next Stage has a demonstrated history of actively engaging in community health initiatives, with a deep commitment to advancing health equity and addressing social drivers of health through strategic collaboration,” says Blackmon. “I’m excited to build on this legacy and drive impactful change through the Impact for Health service line.”

Next Stage’s experience in health care is exemplified by its involvement in impactful projects:

Next Stage served as a third-party assessment partner for Care Ring’s The Bridge project, a mobile health unit addressing transportation barriers.
The company partnered with WellCare NC, a statewide managed care plan, to facilitate a leadership and team retreat.
Currently, Next Stage is collaborating with the Office of Violence Prevention to facilitate community-driven action planning in the Sugar Creek I-85 Corridor.
Other ongoing collaborations with key players in the health ecosystem include Constellation Quality Health in Raleigh, NC, and Piedmont Health Services, a multi-location community health organization.

Join Next Stage’s Free Impact for Health Webinar Series

Are you a professional in community or population health, social work, care management, health education, or clinical health settings? Next Stage invites you to be part of its movement toward innovative, community-driven health solutions!

Next Stage is launching a free, five-part webinar series, starting October 1, to bring peers and industry experts together to tackle today’s complex healthcare topics. The webinars will explore innovative collaboration examples and the evolving healthcare landscape, both locally and nationwide.

The series will be led by Nimisha Patel (VP, Impact for Health) and Jalah Blackmon (Director, Impact for Health).

Sign up for the Impact for Health email list to stay informed and join a growing network of professionals dedicated to advancing health equity and improving care quality.

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Ready to explore how Next Stage can support your organization’s health equity initiatives? Reach out to Jalah Blackmon and Nimisha Patel to start a conversation about innovative, community-driven health solutions.

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Nimisha Patel joined Next Stage in 2024. Previously, she led The New Guard, a consultancy working with clients in health care, hospitality, real estate, nonprofits and technology. She also served as National Director of Innovation & Design for Health Leads, a national leader in addressing the systemic causes of racial health inequalities, and as Associate Vice President at Duke Health, where she led innovation design and implementation.

Jalah Blackmon uses a social justice and health equity lens to empower underrepresented communities and challenge systemic barriers to wellness. Previously, she served as Director of Innovation and Capacity Building at Care Share Health Alliance and as Program Director at Charlotte-Mecklenburg Food Policy Council. She’s the cofounder of The Black Light Foundation, a 501(c)3, family-led nonprofit focused on bringing light to dark places for individuals suffering from suicidal thoughts and mental health issues.

Who is the “Hero” of Your Nonprofit’s Story?

August 6, 2024 by joshjacobson Leave a Comment

Your organization is doing important work to advance positive outcomes for the people you serve. You have a differentiated approach that makes your nonprofit uniquely qualified, and those who know your work best are true believers.

So why is it so difficult to get others to see what you, your staff and current volunteers see? Why does it feel like you’re continually fighting uphill to attract the constituency you need to make a bigger impact?

It likely has nothing to do with your competition or a need to demonstrate additional effort.

In fact, it likely isn’t about you at all…

Defining Movement-Building Brand Marketing

We know focusing on recruitment (when you’d prefer to focus on advancing your programming) is frustrating.

But we have a solution.

We’ve developed a strategy, informed by our work with 200+ social good institutions, called “movement-building brand marketing.” An adaptation of Donald Miller’s Storybrand, our approach focuses on the unique ways nonprofits can build belonging with their constituents.

The premise is simple — brands do best when they position the person they’re communicating with as the “hero” in their messaging. Why?

Because when people see themselves in your narrative, they’re more likely to engage with your brand.

However, we’ve seen that this communication strategy is counter to how nonprofits and other social good institutions typically present themselves. Organizations often place themselves as the hero of the story they’re telling — with their approach, their programming and their staff positioned front and center. While that may seem logical, it’s far less effective than the alternative and does little to foster the “belonging” necessary to achieve constituent buy-in.

Reframing the Narrative

Social good leaders often grasp this concept quickly but often struggle to apply it in their communication efforts. Here are some indicators your organization should consider reframing its narrative:

Your communications focus on the institution rather than the audience. One of my favorite social-good thought leaders Penelope Burke suggests counting the number of times your messages use the word you instead of we or us. It’s a great way to build a metric around shifting to human-centered communication. Your audience wants to connect with your messaging, so speaking directly to them is a simple way to accomplish this. (Check out the opening paragraphs of this blog for an example of how to “make it about them.”)
Your organization outlines funding as a need — with the stakes being your nonprofit’s survival. Fundraising is always tricky. It requires a deeply nuanced approach to build human-centered narratives that motivate people to give. But we’d argue there’s no more nonprofit-centric narrative than this: If we don’t exist, people suffer. Making the nonprofit the “hero” and challenging people to donate to support your work is a classic misstep (and one that raises far fewer dollars than one that positions the donor as the change agent).
Your organization continually reiterates the story of how the nonprofit came to be. This is one of the hardest tropes to disrupt because the founder-centric story is often a powerful strategy for awareness-building in an organization’s early days. But over time, constituents become less interested in a nonprofit’s past and instead want to see how they can be a part of its future. This will require your organization to reposition the spotlight onto each new person who discovers your organization. To do so, share messaging that elevates the constituent as an important part of how your nonprofit can advance its mission. It takes a great degree of humility to move on from an oft-told founding story, but it so often holds the key to future growth.

Using Community Voice in Your Market Research

Determining what “you-centric” messages will resonate with the people you aim to reach can be best determined with community voice research. Why guess when you can directly ask representatives of the people you want to attract?

We shared methods for conducting such market research earlier this year as part of our free Community Voice webinar series. We believe community voice is essential to a strong movement-building brand marketing strategy because it creates a strong sense of shared values and belonging with your constituents.

Catch the encore of our free Marketing & Community Voice webinar this Thursday at 11 am.

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Interested in elevating your organization’s messaging to connect with new audiences?

Reach out and let’s set up a time to chat.

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Next Stage CEO Josh Jacobson launched Next Stage as a social enterprise in 2014, bridging his professional experiences as a nonprofit practitioner with his consulting expertise. He has led Next Stage’s work with 200+ clients, including nonprofits, private-sector companies, municipalities, faith institutions, philanthropies and community-based organizations. Josh’s skills in strategic positioning and tactical design help clients achieve their goals. He guides Next Stage’s work in strategic planning and collaboration management and is a major contributor to the company’s thought leadership efforts.

Navigating the New Realities of Corporate Social Responsibility

July 18, 2024 by joshjacobson Leave a Comment

On August 22, I will present a session at the AFP NC Philanthropy Conference on one of my favorite topics: corporate social responsibility. The session will continue a decade-long series of talks I’ve given at this annual conference.

Our company has done a significant amount of research on this topic, which informed the launch of our corporate impact services line. Now, Next Stage works with multiple private-sector companies to realize compelling public-private partnerships. It’s some of the most innovative and game-changing work our company has done.

Helping nonprofit organizations understand what has changed about corporate social responsibility requires near-constant updating because so much has changed — and continues to change — so quickly, which is why we’ve found it important to share our latest findings regularly.

Alignment to Materiality

As we previously shared in our 2023 report, Profit & Purpose: The ESG Addendum, the speed with which corporate social responsibility has been evolving has accelerated in recent years. A more sophisticated methodology for social impact efforts has replaced the shotgun approach of previous decades. “Spreading it around” has given way to something more strategic.

That approach is part of what I’ll unpack in greater depth at the conference next month. Companies are focusing their impact efforts on areas of greater alignment to their work, often to mitigate unintended negative consequences of their operations. This concept, for companies to choose social issues aligned to their business processes, is called materiality. For example, a residential home builder is likely to focus on social impact efforts related to affordable housing, while a lending institution may work to create more racially equitable access to capital.

If you’re curious about what a company considers its materiality, take a look at its ESG report. Delta Airlines’ report, for example, suggests that climate change is an area of particular focus — not surprising given that the aviation industry is responsible for 2–3% of total carbon emissions annually. A deeper dive into the report reveals that education and equity are also key areas of focus, with the need for a future STEM-based workforce critical to the company’s future success.

Metric-Based Goal-Setting

One way the private sector and nonprofits have come closer together in recent years is how they are evaluated. Like the nonprofits they have granted funding to for years, companies are now compiling their impact data and making it available to third-party reviewers for assessment. Why? Because future backing from socially conscious investors hinges on how those outcomes stack up against others in their industry.

The Lowe’s Foundation Gable Grant program is a $50 million, 5-year program to train 50,000 job-ready skilled tradespeople. Beyond the stated financial commitment and multiyear design, the effort is also carving out a specific and measurable goal of 50,000 people served. The grantmaking strategy includes investing in national-level nonprofits, technical and community colleges, and community-based organizations nationwide, recognizing the importance of working at macro and micro levels to affect change. It’s an advanced approach to grantmaking that was not very common in the past. (Disclosure: Next Stage is helping the Lowe’s Foundation to implement this innovative initiative).

Commitment to Research

The history of corporate social responsibility is one without much grounding in research. Companies often decided to support issue areas based on internal decision-making, and organizations were selected as much on their social capital (e.g., board connections to corporate executives) as on the merits of their programming. That framework has largely disappeared, with far more evidence-based approaches to grantmaking becoming more of the norm.

The PNC Foundation was ahead of the curve when it launched its Grow Up Great initiative — an effort to prepare children from birth through age 5 for success in school and life — in 2004. As the PNC Foundation celebrates its 20th anniversary this year, it’s positioning its grantmaking against the backdrop of research that indicates an area where its impact can be particularly effective. PNC-funded research, in partnership with the National Institute for Early Education Research, is helping to reframe the need for more nature-based play and learning environments.

Leveraging Grantee Connectivity

One area where Next Stage has been pioneering new social impact efforts is in the development of digital communities of practice for corporate foundations seeking to better harness their portfolios of investees. Companies have changed how they treat the nonprofits and agencies they support, from seeing them as charitable investments to vendors of corporate-aligned social impact. As such, realizing stronger outcomes collectively is a top priority.

Next Stage has developed an approach to building social cohesion among grantee organizations that increases the potential for collaboration. Working together, grantees convened by a single corporate grantmaker may be able to realize more impact than when working in isolation.

Next Stage uses a digital collaboration management platform called Cultivate Impact ® to unite grantee organizations, often through the lens of professional development and organizational strengthening. We have built a curriculum to support grantee learning communities that leads to stronger relationships, deeper trust and increased impact.

Want to learn more? Feel free to get in touch! We’d welcome the opportunity to discuss our approach further.

Community Voice: Passing Fad or Lasting Disruption?

April 25, 2024 by joshjacobson Leave a Comment

Over the past few months, Next Stage has been developing a new approach to advancing social good — offering workshops and learning management for professionals on a range of topics including movement-building brand marketing, effective forms of collaboration and dynamic methods of building public-private partnerships. You can learn more and register for our webinars here.

The first topic we are tackling is Community Voice, which we define as “a two-way directional approach geared toward listening to individuals and institutions alike while building trust as an asset, embracing transparent communication and moving change-worthy initiatives forward together.” It is a concept that has existed for some time – the Google Ngram Viewer suggests a spike in its usage in the 1990s – but it has taken on increasing importance in the 2020s.

The one-two punch of the start of the COVID-19 pandemic and the murder of George Floyd in early 2020 shifted approaches to reaching people in need. Systems and service providers realized the importance of building stronger relationships with the communities they were serving.

But in the years since, we’ve noticed something else occurring – an appropriation of the language of social good, transforming definitions and ultimately devaluing the concepts they represent. It is a scourge and we feel the need to call it out.

Words, Words, Words

It wasn’t that long ago that other buzzy impact terms like ESG and CRT were vilified politically, twisted in their meaning to suggest something they were not. DEI is similarly under attack, with efforts across the country to either limit or completely eliminate diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives on public university campuses. Corporations that once championed these concepts have quietly shifted their strategies, downplaying past statements and pulling out thesauruses to find less triggering language.

Inside the world of social good, we have also observed an opposite trend. As opposed to running from these terms, organizations have adopted them to describe their programming, whether earned or not. Large, agency-like nonprofits have taken to calling themselves “community-based organizations,” stretching the definition to fit as new sources of funding flow to trust-built neighborhood groups. The concept of community voice has also been appropriated, with every digital survey and focus group rebranded to suggest a deeper and more impactful form of engagement.

We know language matters, so who defines what constitutes authentic trust-building in the community? If every form of engagement is rechristened as Community Voice, won’t that devalue its substantial potential to disrupt the status quo?

In short: yes.

Recently, Next Stage published a community report on the topic – Inside-Out: The Case for Community Voice – highlighting the role Community Voice plays in bridging divides that limit referral pipelines and slow pandemic recovery. In it, we make a passionate argument for increasing community voice efforts to overcome a crisis we fear is dismantling decades of forward progress on social causes

A Crisis of Trust

According to Gallup’s annual survey, confidence in America’s ‘trusted’ institutions has eroded significantly in recent years. While this trend of declining trust has been decades in the making, extending back more than 40 years, there has been a sharp downward dip, with community trust in businesses, government, faith communities, media and the medical, justice and education systems at an all-time low.

It doesn’t take long on social media to see how this mistrust is breeding misinformation, upending social norms, and fostering disdain across socioeconomic lines. With the rise of AI and lifelike avatars of real humans, the future looks uncertain for how to recapture trust in systems.

Nonprofits have been similarly feeling this pinch. Traditionally, nonprofits have not self-identified as being part of ‘the system.’ Instead, they think of governments, corporations and institutional philanthropy in those terms, seeing their programming on the same side of the table as the people they aim to serve. And yet, these organizations are wrestling with the same lack of engagement as these other institutions. They are learning that ‘systemness is in the eye of the beholder.’

Not all nonprofits are having the same experience. Those 501c3 organizations that had previously invested in growing relationships with the constituents they hope to serve have fared much better than those that largely sat back, depending on referral pipelines from safety net partners. Nonprofits that often brag about how many organizations they receive referrals from are more often passive in building unique relationships themselves, satisfied instead to await the person in need to come through their front door.

At Next Stage, we believe there is another way – one that requires an increased focus on relationship-building ahead of the deployment of services. It is a shift in practice that is too often not funded, not prioritized and not done effectively.

It is a shift that centers Community Voice as an essential first step.

Championing Authenticity

With such a challenge of mistrust to overcome, nonprofits that slap the term Community Voice on pre-existing strategies are likely to find themselves moving backward.

We recognize the challenges faced by service providers, who struggle with limited resources to address trendlines like this crisis of trust. This is why, as a follow-up to our report, we have launched a webinar series on the topic of Community Voice.

On May 8 at 11 am, Next Stage’s Senior Director of Community Voice, Helen Hope Kimbrough, and I will lead a free webinar entitled “Programming Matters: How to Strengthen Nonprofit Effectiveness Through Community Voice.” We will walk through the ways Community Voice aids in evaluating program efficacy, increasing constituent acquisition, deepening partnerships and growing peer engagement. It is a session ideal for chief administrators, program directors and philanthropic leaders.

On May 30 at 11 am, Helen and I will be back for another free webinar entitled “Marketing Matters: How Community Voice Leads to More Effective Marketing.” This session will focus on how community voice can help your organization understand its true value proposition, test market language, leverage gatekeepers and “neighborhood PHDs,” and tell stories that celebrate equity and honor the people you profile.

We believe every organization has the potential to adopt approaches to community voice that lead to stronger services, more equitable storytelling, and ultimately better decision-making. We hope to see you at our webinars in May.