Unpacking the creator economy in the nonprofit sector

I'm gearing up to begin writing a dedicated series around the conceptual framework behind Generosity Experience Design, so as of late, my mind is split between very organized planning and wandering into dreams and hopes and less-than-formed ideas.

Internally at Neon One, we have two types of mindsets for planning:

• Think In The Five: long-term strategic engagement of our biggest goals and objectives. This is where I'm more comfortable.
• Act In The One: immediate tactical steps to focus on. I'm getting better here when it comes to coordinating with my team.

I've begun to try to separate my broadest and least formed thinking for off periods where it won't impact my being able to get my team what they need. I think that strategic dreaming is a critical investment that people working with brands should prioritize, but it can be a very wonky thing to secure leadership support around.

The Rise of the Creator Economy

Much of my strategic dreaming has been around the increasingly obvious role of creators in the nonprofit sector. Yesterday I spoke about my visit to the Museum of Art and Design in New York City and an exhibit on craft.

When I speak of the creator economy, this type of marketing engagement is "individuals using their talent, expertise, and unique personality to create content, build an audience online, and grow their own businesses. There are many different types of creators, ranging from bloggers, video creators, and?influencers, to?course creators, podcasters, and even Twitch streamers.

But apart from those producing content, the creator economy also comprises brands that work with creators, as well as numerous platforms and startups that support their content and help them make money online."

There are a lot of things to unpack when it comes to the nonprofit sector specifically, so I'm going to break things into three distinct audiences that revolve around the creator economy itself. Since this is a very nascent evolution, I'm outlining some thesis points that need to be proven or have more research behind them.

Also, for this newsletter, I'm going to leave out creators doing things like live stream fundraising. Alyssa Sweetman touched on this in an excellent roundup of thoughts around the Greater Giving Summit so I'd encourage you to read that.

Now that I've covered my ass, let's get into it. The nonprofit sector's creator economy has three primary audiences to take into account:

• Creators: these are individual consultants and nonprofit leaders who have developed an independent following around specific subjects.
• Practitioners: these are folks who work for nonprofits and at this point are a passive part of the creator economy.
• Sponsors: these are companies like Neon One that want to partner with creators to get access to practitioners.

I'm going to break down a bit of each of these different groups and the current landscape around how education and engagement work in our sector. I'll outline what I hope will be the future of the creator economy for nonprofits.

Creators

This will easily be the hardest term even to qualify since there will not be any definition of what a Creator is for the nonprofit sector. However, I have noticed a few common threads when it comes to successful creators in the nonprofit sector:

• Strong LinkedIn presence with a supporting presence on platforms like Instagram and TikTok
• A focused point of view around specific topics, such as video production for nonprofits or major donor cultivation
• Some extension of a "digital community" that is either Slack or a platform like Circle
• A rise of cohort models and VIP days for focused client acquisition

There's an interesting observation my wife made over the weekend about creators in an unrelated type of content field (e.g. we were at a Taylor Swift concert) and how people who follow creators can notice when a bunch of them have come out of some conference or gathering since everyone ends up talking about the same topic.

The role of the creator when they are at their best is to give subject matter expertise to a topic of interest to their audience.

Neon One has its foundations in deeply respecting creators since our point of view is that Generosity Experience Design is an emerging discipline of thought with multitudes of potential viewpoints. We want to build an inclusive approach toward building a community of generosity, and it is important to admit and embrace when an expert will be beneficial.

However, the negative side to the creator economy is the constant hustle culture that drives much of the thought leadership seen on platforms like LinkedIn. The worst tendencies of how creators need to market will be around gated resources pumped out of Canva, which is made much worse now that ChatGPT is widely available.

This leads to the second part of the creator economy: the audience.

Practitioners

If I'm generally doing my job right, this will hopefully mean you, dear reader. People who work at nonprofits are the intended audience of much of the creator economy for our sector.

This means people who are looking for guidance in their daily work. Years ago, you would drive to the monthly meetings put on by your local chapter of the Association of Fundraising Professionals. Now, all you have to do is fire up your laptop or join from my phone while driving to get the kids from afterschool.

My thesis is that people aren't just looking for advice but also community regarding the creators they choose to follow. That there is something core to a person's identity that is reflected when they choose to follow and engage with someone's content.

There's still a lot more to understand about what drives certain segments in our sector and why they choose to follow folks or not. Motivation can be a tricky thing, but what I've learned through my exploration is that practitioners are primarily looking for:

• Useful and actionable advice from sources that they trust
• A feeling of community and collaboration with fellow nonprofit professionals
• Collaboration and peer mentorship that is given space by the creator to thrive

Especially when it comes to thought leaders from under-recognized communities, there is a sense of pride in building that community and a special space to have conversations that may otherwise by difficult in a general public setting.

That feeling of "this is for me" is central to creators' bi-directional conversations with their audiences. The best creators actively listen and engage with the people who follow them, which ultimately separates snake oil sales from authentic advice.

Sponsors

Now to the weird part about the creator economy. It would be quite simple if the only participants in the economy were those who create and then those who digest.

However, some companies want to tap into the audience that a creator has cultivated. The alignment of a brand with a creator is a very complicated and convoluted process that is still in its maturity compared to other sectors, so I'll keep this simple.

There are many different ways that brands can work with creators, but the most common in the nonprofit sector are:

• Sponsored Content, such as promoted emails to a newsletter audience
• Podcast Underwriting, where pre- or mid-roll ads are inserted into episodes
• Experiences, such as being headline sponsor of a creator-led conference

I've worked with dozens of creators to outline what should be seen as a "triple win" approach to partnering with brands like mine.

1. The audience needs to win by having the content be of value to them
2. The creator needs to win by getting paid for their labor and enhancing their personal brand by affilating with a values aligned partner
3. The sponsor needs to win by achieving mutually agreed upon goals for the investment as well as elevating their brand's reputation by working with a respected creator

One of the best resources I discovered was the Creator Wizard and they put together a resource about how creators can work with sponsors in a mutually beneficial way.

It is also how we approach everything we do - if the sponsor, the creator, and the audience aren't all aligned at the same time, then the content won't work and the investment will fail.

The issue that I want to ensure that brands like mine address is the economic imbalance when it comes to choosing which creators to work with. I recently spoke about some of the economic imbalances starting to emerge around education in our sector, so ensuring that under-recognized voices are prioritized will be important.

That's why I'm thrilled to be working with Michelle Shireen Muri and Rachel D'Souza on this year's Generosity Xchange. They will be headlining our October 11-12 event and we'll be planning some surprise guests as well.

Strategically Dreaming

As you can appreciate, this is a deeply complex subject that directly impacts how you will learn in the years to come. As more and more people turn to self-directed learning to develop their skills and professional development, experts will need to step in where needed.

The primary questions will come down to:

• What is the difference between a creator and a subject matter expert? What is expertise in the creator economy?
• How can we ensure gatekeeping doesn't mute alternative approaches to problems?

I've both been impressed with the creativity and vibrancy I've seen from creators that may be "new" to the sector but are outlining critical perspectives you might not hear about otherwise. I have also seen tenured "experts" who haven't been inside a nonprofit's operations for decades pumping out advice every week on what "good fundraising" should be like.

I've been impressed with the work of companies like Social Currant in understanding the role of the creator in our sector. I've also listened to our partners outline how other brands demand unreasonable things from individual creators who are just trying to pay their bills.

This is an exciting new way for nonprofit practitioners to learn and build connections with fellow fundraisers, but we must continue to be on guard against those who are here to make a quick buck and the majority of the sector who is meaningfully ready to embrace the changes we need to thrive.