Create Cross-Department Visibility to Preserve the Donor’s Experience

Imagine for a second that you are not an employee of your nonprofit, but a donor to your nonprofit. Can you envision every communication you would see this month? Sure, you know exactly what you (the donor) would receive from your department, but what about multichannel interactions with other departments? Think about development, marketing, events, and volunteer outreaches — mail, email, social engagement, and display ads.

In many cases, nonprofits are creating communication strategies based on their departmental needs alone without taking into consideration the additional touches happening outside their purview. But when a donor receives communications, they don’t see it as coming from a particular department with a unique goal — they see it as another touchpoint from the nonprofit.

If your charity is prioritizing the donor’s experience (which, you hopefully are!), considering her total engagement with your organization is vital to protecting and cultivating her relationship with your charity.

The easiest way to more holistic communications planning is to create an integrated marketing communications calendar that is visible by all departments communicating with donors. At TrueSense, we use an online solution called TeamUp. This application not only allows for easy management, but it also:

1. Provides real-time visibility of communications plans with all shared members. (In our case, TSM as a fundraising agency and the nonprofit internal communication teams.)
   
   BONUS: There’s no version control issues. Everyone has the same information at all times.
2. Allows for segmented journey management. Not all donors receive all communications. This interface allows us to see what specific audience journeys look like in a particular timeframe (i.e., sustainer, mid-level, lapsed donors, etc.).
3. Filters to meaningful views. While we love the tool because we have the holistic view, we can also filter on a specific department or channel to see what the individual plans are.

Your communications, and the communications of other departments, become even more powerful when planned with each other, and with the donor’s total experience in mind.