Have You Pissed Off a Constituent This Year?
“The best laid plans of mice and men often go awry.” - Robert Burns
Back to the title in a minute. For the purposes of this post, your Giving Tuesday and End of Year campaign development is well underway. You are currently:
Taking your already-determined theme and using it as a foundation for content creation.
Creating a look and feel that is in alignment with your brand guide (you have a brand guide, right?). This includes an email header, social media templates, a banner for your homepage, a print solicitation (should you choose to send one).
Building a plan that incorporates fresh web page content, constituent stories, snack size videos, educational and call to action social media posts, scaffolded emails, and check-ins along the way.
Working with your marketing team (in- or out-of-house) to calendar out the plan so that ALL organization communications co-exist in harmony during this very busy time.
YES? Yes. (Yes?)
Have you thought about what might have happened this year (not necessarily your doing) that has pissed off your constituents? This might include:
A conference attendee walked from their hotel upon check-in.
A conversation gone wrong with a parent over a bad grade.
An unacknowledged good deed.
Emails that went unresponded.
A bus that showed up late multiple days in a row without explanation.
Never seeing a child in a camp photo.
Can you make everyone happy all of the time? Unrealistic. Especially difficult people. Also, some of these one-offs may seem insignificant. But to the constituent, they aren’t. The animosity doesn’t necessarily come from the “thing,” but how it’s handled afterwards.
Your challenge, should you choose to accept it, is to convene a meeting with your staff. Lay out all of the dirty laundry. And discuss the follow-up. Should we dwell on the past? Only if productive action can come out of it.
A story to tie this together.
A family’s child breaks a bone at a nonprofit camp. It was preventable. The camp is part of a larger organization that a spouse has been tied to in multiple ways for three decades. This spouse gave modestly, but was also considering sponsoring the organization’s largest fundraiser and applying for a seat on the Board. The organization’s head chose to: disregard the parent’s time and call well after a scheduled time to speak, interrupted the parent multiple times, refused to see their point of view, and was patronizing, unapologetic, and condescending. This family disassociated from the organization. Hasn’t made a gift in years and will probably never make one again. Has moved past the broken bone, but not the way they were treated.
Save your best laid plans. Before they go awry.
