Identifying your nonprofit’s audiences: be specific

How does your nonprofit organization identify, group and categorize your audiences? Are you focused on what your organization wants from audience members? Or, do you think about what draws and connects them to you?

When I first discuss audiences with a new client, they’ll often use broad, internally focused categories like “donors,” “volunteers,” and “program participants,” or even “fundraising audiences” vs. “marketing audiences.” While these labels might help with internal distinctions, they lack nuance — and helpful information — about the individuals involved.

Be specific: who do you truly need to reach?

Identifying your nonprofit’s audiences is a crucial first step for audience-centred communications, but for this step to be helpful, you have to be specific. Consider who your audiences are and the contexts that connect them to each other and your organization, including shared experiences, roles, perspectives, motivations, and needs.

How specific should you get? Here’s a list of audiences from a mix of my nonprofit clients who have successfully narrowed in:

• Adult literacy educators
• People who have experienced a serious injury at work
• Caregivers of people with diabetes
• Tourists and international visitors
• Leaders of global health organizations
• Landscapers and arborists
• Senior leaders in civil society

Generate useful information.

Because the audiences I’ve listed above are so specific, you may already be picturing individual members. Can you see the potential for capturing and exploring rich details that can guide communications design?

For example, for each group above, we can determine the websites they use, publications they follow, questions they need answered, and the support and guidance they need. Specific, meaningful information like this can guide the design of your communication strategies, messaging, engagement practices, and overall definitions of success.

Focus your limited resources.

Getting specific can be difficult, and you might hesitate to “rule anyone out.” However, most nonprofit communicators work with limited resources that you can’t afford to waste on generic content for formless audiences. Decide who you can realistically reach and engage with during a specific time period and improve your chances of moving the needle.

Recognize the overlap between audiences.

Another problem with grouping audiences by internal departments is that the lines between these categories are blurry for many organizations. For example:

• How many donors or volunteers are directly impacted by your cause and, therefore, may also be (or be very close to) program participants?
• Volunteers contribute their time, but how many also seek information and even support from your organization because of their connection to your cause or issue?
• How many of your experts, researchers, or advisors might want to contribute financial or volunteer support (in addition to guidance or knowledge) to your organization?

Recognizing that your nonprofit’s audiences are dynamic, and that individuals may be moving between various roles related to your mission, will help you be sensitive to potential overlaps and avoid missteps.

Is it time to change your nonprofit’s audience identification approach?

Do you need to change the way your organization approaches audience identification? The answer might be yes if any of the following apply:

• Internal assumptions shape your communications decisions.
• Your organization groups audiences using internally focused categories like “donors,” “volunteers,” and “program participants.”
• Your audience personas lack helpful information about perspectives, motivations, and questions.
• Your approach fails to account for the complexity and interconnectedness of individuals’ relationships with your nonprofit.

Reflect on these points as you decide whether or not a change will help you design more meaningful, effective communications. If you’d like more details about selecting and identifying your priority audience groups, let me know, and I’ll explore the topic further in a future post. (Or, if you know of a good article that already covers the topic, please share it with me so I can link to it!)

This post originally appeared on moflow.ca.