What is Social Marketing?

Social marketing starts by identifying target audiences -- It emphasizes the need to listen to the target audiences and learn what may motivate them to change; it also pinpoints the various obstacles that occlude the path to preferred behaviors. It does not hector, inveigle, or overwhelm its audience with facts, figures, or moralistic homilies. Instead, social marketing offers realistic alternatives to problem behaviors that can be reasonably embraced by the target audience...[Social marketing] is essentially a method for achieving social change.

Professor Alan Andreason

The goal of grantwriting is to convince your audience that there is a direct link between their support and effective, meaningful and lasting social change. Proposal writing is not about asking for money. Very few grantmakers simply want to give away money…they want to see that their money makes a tangible, measurable social difference.

Marketing your cause:

Writing grant proposals is less about meeting the charities needs and more about meeting the needs of the foundation. In direct mail we call it donor-centered fundraising, but in grant writing it is an opportunity to offer a (socially beneficial) product at a good price to the right audience who wants to buy. Simply put, proposals—just like consumer marketing—must address the Price, the Product, the Placement and the Promotion.

8 steps to marketing success:

University courses, famous entrepreneurs on tour, and volumes of literature exist about the history and the future of marketing products. Developing a market for a new soft drink or consumer electronics gizmo has become a matter of social science now.

Selling social good is a little less tangible, but the same principles apply to marketing success for your charity (or social movement!)

It is important to change the way you think of proposal writing such that the writing is simply more effective in generating new markets for your charitable work.

The Product

Charities do good work. Nobody but the cynic argues with that fact. However, they are often understaffed and lack the resources to generate widespread mass marketing campaigns. Thus, investments in fundraising need to be smart and target our message to the right audience.

First, think of your product. Not your mission statement. Not your esteemed executive director. Not even your balanced fiscal operations. The product you are selling is a deliverable to those you help. It can be a new hospital bed, it can be an animal rescue service, it can even be a free meal for the homeless….no matter what your cause, these “products” have a discrete cost and a direct measurable benefit to society. (at least to the individual(s) concerned)

The Customer

So, now that you know what you are selling, we need to research who can buy your “product.”

Ilene Mack of the William Randolph Hearst Foundation offers this advice: ". . . the very first step and one that is most important prior to writing anything is doing research on the foundation you wish to approach. The buzzword is homework. Do it well and thoroughly. It is more efficient and in the end more beneficial to send appropriate requests to fewer organizations than to send a shower of appeals in the hopes that one may land in the right place”

Remember that whoever gets to read your proposal has a set of guidelines for review, they have limited time, and they have to understand what you are selling.

As an aside, foundations are often viewed as secretive, especially private foundations. This is not true. They are often difficult to reach, but largely because they are busy. In fact, if you read the vibrant discussions among grantmakers, they struggle with communicating their message and with how best to advance philanthropy and social change. Their job is to give, but as Carnegie and others have said: “It is more difficult to give money away intelligently than it is to earn it in the first place.”

The Market

So you’ve got a product and a prospective customer. You may have already done a review of the market before you got to this place, but if you haven’t…now is the time. Take a look at how your product compares to others. Are other charities pitching the same “community outreach” program for new immigrants that you have developed?

Use language that addresses the goals of the foundation community (not the common jargon of the non-profit). For example, “empowerment in the community” could be more appreciated by the customer as “training for community leadership.” Jargon can kill a proposal, in any industry.

Increasingly, many foundations follow trends that may not be identified in their granting guidelines: investment in leadership, beneficiary involvement in developing the proposal, venture philanthropy, foundation “engagement” in the charitable activity, etc. Foundation executives speak to each other and discuss ways to advance philanthropy. A lot of grantmakers like to partner with others to meet a charitable need…therefore the more you can identify how one customer’s “purchase” compliments another customer’s “purchase,” the better off you are in selling both products.

Community foundations, with their donor directed trusts and large asset pool, are a viable alternative for grantmakers. These financial bodies do not behave like small foundations, but rather act as a granting body with a foundation structure managing pooled resources: Tides, Vancouver Foundation, Trillium, etc.

The inability of a charity to be able to follow through with what they are proposing because of internal challenges (especially on adequate reporting) can be the death of a foundation proposal, or at least any chance of future success.

The Vehicle

This is relatively easy: Foundations and Grant Makers often publish their submission requirements.

If you don’t adhere to what the grantmakers need, then you won’t even get through the door. When I’ve followed up on failed grant applications in the past, the most common explanation given to me (if at all) is that I did not fall within the giving guidelines. (ie…they never read my clever turn of phrase on page 5, or the beneficiary story in the beautifully crafted case for support).

We all have to keep in mind that foundations are run by people and that the vehicle used to communicate with them must be something with which they are comfortable.

The good news is that public charitable foundations and government agencies typically publish their giving guidelines, deadlines and formats and have to a large extent embraced digital technologies.

The bad news is that sometimes the brochure they sent you is out of date, or the agency has already committed their funds for the year, or…

Therefore, just as with any marketing campaign, it may be useful to use an integrated strategy to reinforce your message. Billboards and TV ads are not necessary, but online support, follow up telephone calls, board member connections and other medium are excellent ways (if appropriate in any given case) to ensure your message gets through.

Email is common, but some foundations (particularly private foundations) like to see signatures of senior people in your organization, or they like the safety and “completeness” of a couriered package. For extra information that you’d like to share (pictures, videos, case studies, testimonials) consider posting them on a webpage and offer the link to the foundation: a sort of personal site of supporting material, rather than a tome of papers.

NOBODY has time for a 30 page proposal anymore. If they do, they’ll ask for it.

In fact many foundations are asking for an initial letter of inquiry to save both you and them time. Also, the abstract you may be requested to send with your full proposal may be the only document that gets circulated to a reviewing council. Succinct writing is both a skill and an asset in marketing of any sort, but this is particularly true when drafting a funding abstract.

The Price

This is actually pretty easy, although I’ve known fundraisers who sweat over the price.

If you’ve done your market research, you’ll already know the scale of grants previously awarded. That narrows your parameters pretty quickly. You know what you need (the product). Simply cost out the product so that it falls within the parameters. If it doesn’t, then you can either amend the scope of the product, or you can ask for a portion of the price.

Foundations normally fund discrete activities, not ongoing programs or overheads (although according to a 2003 survey conducted by the Max Bell foundation, many private foundations in Canada will accept administrative costs of 10-15%.) Of course, lower overhead costs are better if reasoned, as they are a good way to differentiate your product from the competition. Note, however, that many business people who are now grantmakers know that you can’t operate programs without incurring costs.

The Ask

Don’t make your proposal look like a direct mail appeal. Don’t believe that grantmakers are swayed by a glossy cover or a photo of a smiling child. They are in the business of social change…and you’ll need to prove to them that your group is the best agent for their investment.

Be clear, succinct, accurate and honest in your pitch. After all, as a budding social marketer, you are motivating your audience to change their behavior (and invest in your organization’s specific deliverables). You need to be compelling, and provide proof of your agencies capacity and integrity, but you don’t need to wow them with balloon animals.

After all, for the foundation, grantmaking is business. And it is a difficult business when there is a lot of “noise” in your inbox. Make it easy for your audience to buy your product.

The Evaluation

Most foundations don’t want to provide ongoing support…so the proposal must have measurable deliverables and outcomes that have a life after the deliverable is given.

Of course, the grantwriter can measure their own success (10 proposals, 2 successful grants!) but the real issue here is to evaluate and quantify the CHANGE that has occurred as a result of the investment on the part of the foundation.

Foundation executives know that $10,000 is not going to eradicate poverty, but if it will provide 20 families who can’t work because they are hungry with food for a month…then the investment is both time limited and has a sustained effect.

The Reporting

This is the one element that doesn’t make sense using the Marketing model for foundation proposal writing, but it is absolutely vital for building credibility in the foundation community. When was the last time that Pepsi reported back to you, the consumer, how many cans of their beverage your city consumed? Never. This information is only valuable to the investor in the private sector products/services, but not to the consumer.

Ironically, for most grant applications, a clear set of reporting mechanisms is part of the “product” you are selling. Most funders will only entertain a proposal in which the organization has already agreed to report back in a certain format.

Interestingly, it has been my experience that reporting back on products that did not go well is not necessarily a bad thing. After all, not all investments actually create the return that was anticipated, and the funding community understands that failures are an important part of future success in social change.

But proposals aren’t Marketing

I’ve just listed all the ways that you might re-think the grant-writing process using a (social) marketing model, but commercial theory is not completely transferrable to the charitable sector. After all, fundraisers have a unique and valuable skill to bring to any social call to action. I believe that applying some commercial marketing thinking to foundation and grant appeals strengthens (but does not replace) the expertise in the non-profit community.

After all, we are not selling fast food or perfume…we are in the business of selling social change and that change only occurs through the cumulative effects of small measurable successful iterations.

Making it all count…

In my experience, the first challenge is to conquer your fear of rejection. This is usually not difficult for fundraisers, but proposals are unique and if done correctly, they are hand hewn. A decline is tantamount to a personal rejection. It is certainly more difficult to accept a failed proposal than it is to know that 99% of your direct mail prospecting will be recycled.

Remember to think like your audience. They care about price, product, and promotion. So should you.

Communication is a challenge. Be clear, accurate, and concise. The funders will appreciate it.

Foundation fundraising is not about the investment in postage, graphic design or expensive printing. It is about an investment of time. Research and adhering to the published guidelines of the target audience take time, but are absolutely fundamental to proposal writing success.

Selected Further Resources

And for the private foundation perspective:

This article is adapted from a presentation delivered at MARCOM ‘08 by Jonathan Wade, President of Social Delta,
June 11, 2008 Ottawa, Canada

Contact Social Delta for more information on how they can assist your charity, professional association or company in generating successful fundraising and social marketing campaigns.

Market Musings

Using Marketing to Enhance Foundation and Grant Funding

Writing foundation and grant proposals that employ marketing savvy will be more successful.