A lot of nonprofits are doing a lot of good things that are ineffective in achieving their mission. Your organization’s ability to accomplish your mission can become strained when you don’t keep a sharp eye on your mission and objectives. Beware of mission drift in your product development, programing and other planning. Just because you can do something doesn’t mean you should. Even if you can do it well. Don’t let your mission be stampeded under a herd of Purple Cows! And don’t assume that because you have always done something in your organization that it is essential to your mission. Who knows, leaders before could have lost their focus on the mission too.  Guerrillas are focused on long term results and sustainable impact.

Could you be convicted of success?

One of the problems with nonprofit marketing is people have trouble finding the right metrics to track in their outreach. Well, here’s an idea to help. As an exercise, ask yourself if your organization were on trial for accomplishing your mission, what would be the evidence used to convict?  What would the charges be? Who would the lawyers interview as witnesses? Could your strategies stand up under cross-examination? What are the exhibits that would be used in the case? If the media were covering the trial, what would be the headlines? These are the metrics for your organization’s success, track these things.

The real crime is to be guilty of nonprofit marketing and only have a little circumstantial evidence of your effectiveness.