What are the best ways to identify and reach out to new stakeholders for your non-profit?

1 Define your goals and criteria

Before you start looking for new stakeholders, you need to have a clear idea of what you want to achieve and who you want to reach. What are the specific objectives and outcomes of your stakeholder engagement and communication strategy? Who are the most relevant and influential stakeholders for your non-profit's mission, vision, and values? What are the characteristics, needs, preferences, and expectations of your target stakeholders? How will you measure and evaluate your stakeholder engagement and communication efforts? Having a clear and realistic set of goals and criteria will help you narrow down your search and focus on the most promising prospects.

2 Research and map your stakeholder landscape

Once you have defined your goals and criteria, you need to do some research and analysis to identify and understand your potential stakeholders. You can use various sources and methods to gather information, such as online databases, directories, websites, social media, newsletters, reports, surveys, interviews, focus groups, or referrals. You can also use tools like stakeholder analysis matrices, power-interest grids, or network maps to categorize and visualize your stakeholders according to their level of interest, influence, relationship, and value for your non-profit. This will help you prioritize and segment your stakeholders and tailor your outreach and communication strategies accordingly.

3 Craft your value proposition and message

Now that you have a list of potential stakeholders and some insights into their profiles and perspectives, you need to craft a compelling value proposition and message that will resonate with them and motivate them to engage with your non-profit. Your value proposition should highlight how your non-profit creates positive social change, what benefits and opportunities it offers to your stakeholders, and what makes it unique and credible. Your message should be clear, concise, consistent, and customized to your stakeholder's needs, preferences, and expectations. You should also use storytelling, data, testimonials, or case studies to illustrate your impact and showcase your success.

4 Choose your channels and tactics

Finally, you need to choose the most effective and appropriate channels and tactics to reach out to and communicate with your potential stakeholders. You can use a mix of online and offline channels, such as email, phone, social media, website, blog, newsletter, podcast, video, webinar, event, meeting, or presentation. You should also use a variety of tactics, such as personalization, segmentation, segmentation, follow-up, feedback, referral, or collaboration. You should also test and optimize your channels and tactics to ensure that they are reaching your target audience and generating the desired response.

By following these best practices, you can identify and reach out to new stakeholders for your non-profit and build lasting and meaningful relationships with them. This will help you increase your visibility, credibility, support, and impact in the social sector.

5 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?