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Five Ways Nonprofit Boards Can Support the Marketing Function
They’re easily integrated into daily operations
I’ve served on several nonprofit boards in marketing and communications roles and have seen first-hand that marketing is often an afterthought. Even for nonprofits lucky enough to have healthy budgets, it’s often the most misunderstood function.
Board members can have expertise in ANY function and still support the marketing effort to set an example for volunteers, donors, supporters, and grantors by publicly supporting your organization’s mission and why your stakeholders’ hard-earned dollars should flow to you versus other causes your donors may also believe in.
With just a little planning (and maybe some training), this is my list of high-impact tactics for boards to support the marketing function in helping to build a solid foundation for growth:
Marketing Check-ins
First, have regular marketing check-ins. An easy way to do this is to set aside a slot on each board meeting agenda to discuss marketing. Especially if there’s just one person doing this work, they need the board’s support. It warrants investing time on agendas for thoughtful discussions to keep this all-important function on everyone’s radar.
