Thumbnail Marketing

With increased focus on alumni associations as portals for support for university strategic priorities, Duke and the University of Virginia have come forward with best practice communications worthy of serious notice. Both elite institutions with significant endowments, in 2009 they wrestled with what Jim Collins calls “the brutal facts” that “great” organizations must face — and then provided a full accounting, and solutions, to alumni and other constituencies.

In my whitepaper last year on “Communicating Value During the Economic Downturn,” I cited Duke’s early wins at keeping alumni informed and thus generating credibility, understanding and greater support. The recessionary spiral, the whitepaper argued, became “a timely chance to communicate more and focus a lens on the organization’s value while donors, alumni, volunteers, employees and those receiving services are seeking facts and assurance.” 

A year later in Duke Magazine’s November-December 2009 issue, “Sizing Up a Smaller Duke,” the university followed through with more details of its challenging financial realities and, importantly, its proposed remedies. Duke kept the faith with its constituents by focusing a lens on difficult, yet thoughtful, steps to scale back its ambitions due to to decreased endowment and fundraising revenues. Institutions build greater trust and buy-in when they share their realities with us, especially through comprehensive approaches that are more sustainable than knee-jerk cost-cutting occurring at many higher ed institutions. 

In his last year as president of UVA, John Casteen is carrying a similar message around the U.S. in his regional tours. Speaking to alumni and parents in San Francisco in January, he talked about the belt-tightening in a context of continued growth and progress in the university’s $3 billion campaign. And with his 20-year view as president, Casteen previewed the university’s continuing challenges and ongoing recalibration with declining state support. (That visit, by the way, was followed up with a personal note from Casteen to every attendee.)

Today UVA’s 2008-2009 annual President’s Report arrived by email in a stunning high-tech electronic format with links, videos and slideshows — and a clear message from the president: “Using new technology allows wider circulation with lower production costs. For the first time, we can now send the report to every member of the University faculty and staff, as well as all alumni.” The contents contain lengthy financial details along with a forward look at “imagining our third century.”

While alumni associations ask, “do we still matter?,” Duke and UVA are offering some solid answers through their communications strategies. And what they are also letting their supporters know is that university strategic planning is once again on the front seat as institutions rethink how best to balance mission and market. UVA’s 2020 plan is already in process.

“Thumbnail marketing” – doing more with less — is increasingly driving the thinking of nonprofits (from universities to community agencies), large and small business — and the communications pros/marketers who serve them — from agencies to sole proprietors. We see it daily in our client conversations, partner networking and online chatter. It’s not about decreasing quality — it’s about enhancing messages and customer connections with smart, efficient tools. Here are some recent finds offering technology and thoughtful resources that zero in on core activities that will advance your marketing goals:

Online Newsrooms

• Online newsrooms on small business websites are a marketing strategy must. Adding social media is the saucy sauce that keeps the conversations hot. None of this is difficult — but you have to establish your “story” before marketing can take off.

Social Media

• The 5 P’s of Social Media: Where Do You Start?” from Fast Company – steps that boil it down to the essentials for jumping into Web 2.0 successfully.

Websites

• Web Redesign on a Dime from University Business –tools and tips to update and revamp a higher education website when a major overhaul is no longer a budget reality. Universities are pushed to incorporate web best practices and social media tools ASAP given the expectations of their alumni, parents and students — who are likely ahead of the institutional curve.
• The eduStyle Guide to Usable Higher Ed Homepage Design, an e-book from eduStyle, which is dedicated to higher education websites. Don’t miss its popular blog.

Thumbnail Marketing

• The Complete (Thumbnail) Guide to Choosing the Right Media – for your small business. Of course, we love this idea since the entire focus of this blog is the thumbnail approach!

Despite the recession, there is some optimism for fundraising in 2009, but the road is rocky and clearly uneven. The Association of Fundraising Professional’s annual conference this week brings this news:

• Ony 46 percent of fundraisers raised more in 2008 than in 2007, a new low in the eight years of the annual AFP survey.
• Another AFP study found 60 percent of members expect fundraising income to stay the same or increase in 2009. Be “prudent, being realistic, and focusing on the fundamentals that got you here,” AFP President Paulette Maehara told the conference in New Orleans.
• Nonprofits should focus on the mission rather than the financials, ask donors to give now and focus on what their money will achieve, several veteran consultants said. Cutting programs across the board will head to failure, not success, while using part-time or contract talent can keep opportunities from losing traction, they added.

In another recent report, charitable contributions to colleges and universities grew by 6.2 percent in 2008, reaching $31.60 billion, delivering mixed results, according to the Council for Aid to Education.

While that’s the highest raised in one year and above the average 5.7 annual increase over the past decade, if the top 20 institutions were taken out of the data, giving declined by 4.2 percent. CAE’s annual Voluntary Support of Education survey says that data for fiscal year ending June 30, 2009 will give clues to the longer-term effects of the recession.

Sharply declining endowments are compounding the problems. Typically endowments have been a cushion for lean years, but in today’s environment, “endowments are not able to play as protective a role.”

This report offers gloomier predictions for 2009 than the AFP study. “Even at institutions that reported healthy gains in fiscal 2008, advancement professionals told us they had ‘hit a wall’ in January 2009 and that the decline was substantial,” said Ann E. Kaplan, director of the survey. “Both the number and value of contributions dropped early in the calendar year.” And the outlook for fiscal 2010 could be worse, the CAE report cautions.

Fundraisers by nature are optimistic, and data analyzed since the Depression show that these cycles do end. The best short-term course is to keep an “eyes forward” focus and stick to the tried-and-true fundraising fundamentals.

Here’s what the Association of Fundraising Professionals, the largest association of its kind in the world, advises:

• Keep cool, don’t panic, lead by example and believe in success.
• Be candid.
• Stay positive.
• Remember your mission.
• Act — put equal weight on planning and doing.
• Don’t stop asking for money. After September 11, 2001, many organizations stopped or postponed fundraising and discovered later that decision was a missed opportunity. Surveys show that people still give in hard times, sometimes even more.

Here’s what the AFP, the largest association of its kind in the world, advises fundraising marketers:

• Retain and cultivate current donors as the top priority.
• Continue awareness activities.
• Don’t cut marketing and advertising. Keep it steady and consider increasing it.
• Protect your brand reputation.
• Segment, segment and segment — personalize appeals in a cost-efficient manner.

For more tips, see my whitepaper, “Communicating Value during the Economic Downturn.”