Post 9: nonprofit work and direct marketing

Direct marketing is defined as “organizations communicate directly with target customers to generate a response or transaction” (Belch 474). Regarding nonprofit organizations, employers or advocates of nonprofit sectors must communicate with the community as their customers. Nonprofits must use the cause they are advocating to be the message that they want to portray through direct marketing.

This past weekend I visited Washington D.C. for an Unlocking Nonprofits: Careers and Innovations seminar sponsored by the Public Leadership Education Network (PLEN). As a nonprofit organization, PLEN conveys the message of offering college-aged women the opportunity of education around various topics including nonprofit work, science and engineering fields, and other forms of advocacy. PLEN uses integral aspects of direct marketing such as direct mail, print, and the online sphere (474). I found out about this opportunity through the internet and through Chatham which attributes to the technological advances that direct marketing has endured.

Regarding the specific nonprofit organizations that took part of the seminar, each organization had employers represent their cause by reaching out to the audience through promotional strategies. For example, Jennifer Lockwood Shabat spoke on behalf of her organization, Washington Area Women’s Foundation. She focuses on reproductive health rights for women specifically in D.C. During her talk to the seminar participants, she combined direct marketing with public relations by discussing “direct-response techniques” that are incorporated within her nonprofit (476). Her talk consisted of a lot of research that she has been conducting around the subjects of women’s health. She also participates in the grant-writing process where she is able to write grants to get money for her organization as well as rewarding grants to other nonprofits that need start-up funds. She gave the audience promotional materials such as her business card and other print media filled with information about her organization. 

One of direct marketing’s objectives is to “stimulate repeat purchases” (479). Although this does not correlate as much with nonprofit work, it does hold some weight in the decisions consumers can make about which nonprofit organizations they will donate to, work for, or volunteer with. Nonprofit organizations work like businesses: they have to make profits. Although volunteer work has a nonmonetary value, it is an important aspect to keeping nonprofits up and running and making a difference.