Turn ad hoc messages into a high-impact strategy aligned with your mission. Learn how to create an effective nonprofit communications plan with five simple steps and a free downloadable template to guide the way.
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Many nonprofits are eager to elevate their social media presence, enhance their website, and boost brand awareness. But without a solid strategy, achieving these goals can seem daunting for busy changemakers—and sometimes downright impossible.
In this article, we’ll cover all the basics of nonprofit communications. And if you need a bit more inspiration, we’ve got just the thing: a free downloadable nonprofit communications plan template.
Nonprofit communications can have a broad scope, but essentially, it encompasses an organization’s strategy for conveying mission-related messages to stakeholders and the wider community.
Traditionally, communications for nonprofits include a range of activities, such as public relations, nonprofit marketing, social media management, content creation, and more, all centered on crafting compelling narratives, engaging with stakeholders to build and maintain relationships, and inspiring support for your organization's cause and goals.
Given the diverse array of mediums and channels involved in nonprofit communications, crafting a cohesive strategy is imperative. A communications plan for a nonprofit is like a game plan, assisting organizations in strategically and effectively conveying their mission, objectives, and activities to stakeholders.
Typically, this process involves:
Without a nonprofit communications strategy, achieving your goals can get pretty messy, pretty quickly. With the right plan, you can:
✅ Better manage projects: Set deadlines, track goals, allocate resources, and more.
✅ Respond to crises: Effectively respond in a manner that is timely and on brand.
✅ Save time and energy: Your team members can reference your communications plan at any time—meaning they don’t have to reinvent the wheel for every social media post, campaign, or event.
Crafting a nonprofit communications plan might seem daunting. But by revisiting your mission, auditing your existing systems, and setting smart goals you can create one in no time.
Before jumping into the nitty gritty of content creation and channel distribution, you’ll want to revisit your mission. This will inform how you approach your messaging and help you get a clearer sense of what kind of story you’re telling and to whom.
When reviewing your mission, you might ask yourself:
Next, identify all communication channels your nonprofit organization uses, including your social media presence, email marketing, websites, blogs, and print materials. Understanding your current position will help you create goals for the future.
To conduct an audit, run a SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats) analysis on your organization's existing communication strategies.
At this stage, you can also conduct an in-depth audience analysis. Identify your primary and secondary audiences, their preferred mediums, and potential engagement strategies.
Using the answers from your SWOT analysis, you can establish SMART (specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, time-bound) goals. Here are a few examples:
Altogether, the high-level plan you produce might look something like this:
Over the next six months, we will increase engagement with our nonprofit’s social media content by achieving a 25% increase in interactions (likes, comments, shares) and gaining 500 new followers on Instagram. By dedicating five hours a week to creating and posting high-quality content, and leveraging volunteers for support, we’ll be able to raise awareness about our programs and drive more donations.
With your goals in place, it’s time to gather all the support needed to accomplish them.
It’s important to measure the success of your nonprofit communications plan, too—both as you make progress and when you’ve achieved your goal.
The metrics you track will differ depending on your goal and channels, but they may include the following:
You’ll want to regularly monitor and evaluate these metrics over time and adjust your plan, if necessary.
Need a bit more help drafting your communications plan? Check out this free template! Simply download the template on to your computer or tablet and edit it to reflect your unique organizational goals and objectives.
A good nonprofit communications strategy effectively aligns your organization’s messaging with your mission. With the right plan in place, you can skip posting on social media for the sake of posting and start moving the needle on your organizational goals.
In addition to a full suite of fundraising features, you can enjoy free communication and engagement tools like email, texting, and letter creation, plus a built-in CRM to track all of your donor activity in one streamlined platform.
