Brittany Hoversten

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Tag: Nonprofit Marketing

  • How to Write a Five-Year Technology Plan That Finds Savings

    Most organizations don’t have a technology strategy. They have a stack of renewals. A software contract auto-renews in March, a laptop dies in June, someone signs up for a new tool with a credit card in September, and by December nobody can say what you’re paying for or why. A five-year technology plan is how you trade that pile of surprises for a set of decisions.

    At Tri-County Action Program, I served as Director of Communications, Technology and Data and built a five-year technology plan that identified $350K in savings. It also set up a move to outsourced IT. I’m a marketer by trade, which is exactly why I think marketers and communicators should be in the room for this work. A tech plan is a persuasion document as much as a technical one.

    Here’s how I’d approach it again.

    Why a five-year technology plan beats yearly budgeting

    Annual budgets ask, “What do we need to spend next year?” A five-year plan asks a better question: “What do we want to be true in five years, and what’s the cheapest responsible path there?”

    That shift matters because technology costs are lumpy. Hardware ages out in waves. Contracts lock you in for multiple years. A system migration costs more in year one and saves money in years two through five. If you only look one year ahead, every good long-term move looks expensive.

    A multi-year view also gives leaders something they rarely get from IT conversations: a story. Here’s where we are, here’s where we’re going, here’s what it costs, and here’s what it saves.

    Step 1: Inventory everything (yes, everything)

    You can’t find savings in spending you can’t see. Start with a full inventory, and expect it to take longer than you think.

    • Software and subscriptions. Every license, seat, plan and add-on. Check credit card statements and expense reports, not just the IT budget line.
    • Hardware. Laptops, desktops, phones, printers, network gear, with purchase dates.
    • Services and contracts. IT support, hosting, phone systems, copier leases, with renewal dates and cancellation terms.
    • Data systems. CRM, finance, HR, case management, email marketing. Note who owns each and how they connect, or don’t.
    • People time. Who spends hours each week keeping systems running or moving data by hand?

    That last category is the one most plans skip. Staff time spent re-entering data between systems is a real cost. It just doesn’t show up on an invoice.

    Ask the people who use the tools

    Spreadsheets tell you what you pay for. Conversations tell you what people actually use. A short staff survey plus a handful of interviews will surface the tool everyone works around, the shared password nobody should be sharing and the report that takes two days to build by hand. I’ve written about how to design a stakeholder survey that gets to decisions, and it applies here too.

    Step 2: Find where the money is hiding

    Once the inventory is done, patterns jump out. In most organizations, savings tend to come from a few familiar places:

    • Overlap. Three file-sharing tools, two project management platforms, a design tool bought by two different departments.
    • Unused seats. Licenses for former staff, or tiers that include features nobody touches.
    • Bad contract timing. Renewals that roll over automatically because no one had the date on a calendar.
    • Reactive hardware spending. Emergency replacements at full price instead of planned refresh cycles.
    • Support models that don’t fit. An in-house setup that’s stretched thin, or an outside arrangement that doesn’t match how you work.

    Savings aren’t always about cutting. Sometimes the right call is to spend more on one platform so you can retire three others. The plan should show the net effect over five years, not just the year-one bill.

    Look hard at your support model

    At Tri-CAP, the plan included moving to outsourced IT. That isn’t the right answer everywhere. But every organization should ask the question honestly: given our size, risk and needs, what support model gives us reliable coverage at a sustainable cost? Compare options on response times, security practices, coverage hours and total cost, not just the monthly fee.

    Step 3: Sequence the changes

    A five-year plan isn’t a list of everything you want. It’s an order of operations.

    1. Year 1: Stabilize. Fix security gaps, cancel obvious waste, get every renewal date on a shared calendar, and settle your support model.
    2. Year 2: Consolidate. Retire overlapping tools and move people onto the core platforms you’ve chosen.
    3. Year 3: Connect. Integrate systems so data flows between them, especially CRM, finance and communications.
    4. Year 4: Improve. Build better reporting, automate repetitive work and train staff more deeply.
    5. Year 5: Review and refresh. Reassess the whole stack and start the next plan.

    Sequencing matters because change fatigue is real. If you ask staff to learn four new systems in one year, they’ll learn none of them well. When I think about CRM rollouts, the same lesson holds. I cover it in more detail in CRM implementation best practices.

    Step 4: Write it for the board, then keep it alive

    This is where a communications background earns its keep. A technology plan has to be approved by people who don’t want to read about firewalls.

    Advising an executive team and a board taught me to structure the document around decisions and outcomes:

    • One-page summary. Current state, recommended direction, five-year cost, five-year savings and the top three risks of doing nothing.
    • The case for change. Plain language, real examples from staff, and what the mission gains.
    • The roadmap. One table by year: what changes, what it costs, what it saves.
    • Risks and mitigations. Security, staff capacity, vendor dependence.
    • Appendix. The full inventory and detailed numbers.

    Lead with the mission, support with the money. “This frees up staff hours for client work” lands differently than “This reduces administrative overhead,” even when they mean the same thing. If you want more on how boards read numbers, see my post on marketing metrics for a board of directors.

    Keep the plan alive after approval

    A plan that sits in a folder is just an expensive document. Build in a few habits:

    • Review progress quarterly with leadership, with a short update against the roadmap.
    • Keep the inventory current. Assign an owner, and update it whenever you add or cancel something.
    • Track savings as they happen, so you can show the board real results, not projections.
    • Revisit priorities every year. Five years is long enough for the tool market to change a lot.

    Key takeaways

    • A five-year technology plan turns surprise renewals into deliberate decisions.
    • A complete inventory, including staff time, is where savings start.
    • Look for overlap, unused seats, bad contract timing and reactive spending.
    • Sequence changes over years so staff can actually adopt them.
    • Write for the board: mission first, money close behind, details in the appendix.

    FAQ

    What should a five-year technology plan include?

    A five-year technology plan should include a full inventory of software, hardware, contracts and data systems, a clear picture of current costs, a year-by-year roadmap of changes, projected costs and savings, key risks and an owner for keeping the plan updated.

    Who should write an organization’s technology plan?

    Ideally a cross-functional leader who understands operations, budgets and communication, working with IT support and department heads. The plan needs technical accuracy, but it also has to persuade leadership and staff.

    How often should a technology plan be updated?

    Review progress quarterly and update the plan at least once a year. Keep the inventory current all the time, since every new tool or canceled contract changes the picture.

    If you’d like to see more of the strategy, technology and communications work behind this, browse my portfolio.

    / Work with Brittany

    Need a technology plan your board will actually read and approve?

    Hiring a marketing leader or need a hands-on partner for a project? See how we can work together or send me a note.

  • How to Design a Stakeholder Survey That Produces Decisions, Not Just Data

    Most surveys die in a slide deck. Someone spends three weeks writing questions, the team chases responses for another month, and the results get presented once to polite nods. Then nothing changes. If you want to know how to design a stakeholder survey that actually moves a decision, the work starts long before you write question one.

    I design and analyze stakeholder surveys in my nonprofit communications work, and I’ve watched plenty of others come and go over 10 years in marketing. The pattern is consistent. The surveys that changed something were built backward from a decision. The ones that didn’t were built forward from curiosity.

    Curiosity is nice. Decisions are the job.

    Start with the decision, not the questions

    Before you open a survey tool, write one sentence: “We are running this survey so we can decide ______ by ______.”

    If you can’t fill in both blanks, you are not ready to survey anyone. You’re ready to have a meeting about what you need to decide.

    Good examples sound like this:

    • We need to decide which two of our five programs to feature in the spring campaign, by March 1.
    • We need to decide whether donors want a printed annual report or a shorter digital one, before we sign the print contract.
    • We need to decide what our staff need most from the new CRM, so we can set training priorities for the first 90 days.

    Notice what those have in common. A real choice, a real deadline and a real owner. Every question you write later should earn its place by helping make that choice.

    Name who will act on it

    Write down the person or group who will make the call. A survey with no decision owner turns into a report with no reader. If the executive director is the one deciding, get ten minutes with them before you draft anything and ask, “What would you need to see to choose A over B?” Their answer is your outline.

    How to design a stakeholder survey, step by step

    Here’s the sequence I use. It’s not fancy. It works because it forces discipline at the points where most surveys get sloppy.

    1. Write the decision statement. One sentence, as above.
    2. List the unknowns. What do you not know that is blocking the decision? Usually three to six things.
    3. Map each unknown to one or two questions. If a question doesn’t map to an unknown, cut it.
    4. Pick the audience segments that matter. Staff, board, donors, clients, partners, volunteers. Decide in advance which groups you’ll compare.
    5. Draft, then cut by a third. Your first draft is always too long. Everyone’s is.
    6. Pilot with five real people. Watch them take it if you can. Where they pause is where your wording is unclear.
    7. Plan the analysis before you launch. Sketch the chart or table you expect to show for each question. If you can’t picture it, the question is probably vague.

    Step seven is the one people skip, and it’s the one that saves you. When you sketch the output first, you catch questions that would produce data you can’t use.

    Write questions that people can actually answer

    Bad questions are the most common reason survey data is mush. A few rules I hold myself to:

    One idea per question

    “How satisfied are you with our communication and events?” is two questions pretending to be one. If someone loves your newsletter and skips every event, what are they supposed to click? Split it.

    Ask about behavior before opinion

    People are better at reporting what they did than predicting what they’d do. “In the last three months, how often did you open our email newsletter?” is more reliable than “Would you read a monthly newsletter?” Opinion questions still have a place. Just anchor them to real experience when you can.

    Keep scales consistent

    Pick one scale and stick with it across the survey. If question four uses 1 to 5 where 5 is good and question nine uses 1 to 10 where 1 is good, you’ll get errors and you won’t know where they came from.

    Use open-ended questions sparingly, and on purpose

    One or two open-ended questions are gold. Ten of them is a homework assignment. My favorite is simple: “If you could change one thing about how we work with you, what would it be?” It’s specific enough to answer and open enough to surprise you.

    Watch for loaded wording

    “How much do you value our life-changing programs?” isn’t a question. It’s a press release with a slider. Neutral wording feels less flattering to write. That’s the point.

    Get the right people to respond

    A survey is only as good as who answers it. A few practical moves:

    • Send it from a person, not a department. A note from the executive director or a program lead tends to get more attention than a generic “info@” message.
    • Tell people why it matters and how long it takes. “This takes about six minutes and will shape how we plan next year’s events” is honest and specific.
    • Close the loop in advance. Promise that you’ll share what you learned and what you’re changing. Then do it.
    • Watch your segments as responses come in. If board members have all responded and clients haven’t, adjust your outreach before you close the survey, not after.
    • Make it accessible. Mobile-friendly, plain language, and offered in the languages your stakeholders actually use.

    For client or community surveys in nonprofit settings, think hard about trust. People who rely on your services may worry that an honest answer will affect their support. Say clearly that responses are confidential and will not change anyone’s eligibility, and make sure that’s true.

    Turn results into a decision memo, not a data dump

    This is where most of the value lives, and where most of it gets lost.

    When the survey closes, resist the urge to chart every question. Go back to your decision statement. Your report should answer it on page one.

    I use a simple structure that I’ve also written about for reporting marketing metrics to a board of directors:

    1. The decision we needed to make. One sentence.
    2. What we learned. Three findings, maximum, in plain language.
    3. What we recommend. A clear choice, with the trade-off stated.
    4. What we’ll do next and when. Owners and dates.
    5. Appendix. Every chart, for the people who want it.

    Leaders don’t need forty charts. They need the three that matter and the confidence that you looked at the other thirty-seven.

    Segment before you summarize

    Overall averages hide the story. If staff rate internal communication at 3.8 and frontline staff alone rate it at 2.6, the overall number is comforting and wrong. Always cut results by the segments you chose in step four before you write a single finding.

    Pair numbers with voices

    A short quote from an open-ended response, shared with permission and without identifying details, often lands harder than a bar chart. Use one or two per finding. Not ten.

    Mistakes that sink survey results (I have made a few)

    • Surveying because it’s that time of year, not because there’s a decision.
    • Asking questions you already know the answer to, so the survey feels thorough.
    • Letting every department add “just one question” until it takes twenty minutes.
    • Changing the questions every year, so you can never compare trends.
    • Never telling respondents what happened, then wondering why next year’s response rate drops.

    That last one matters more than people think. Each survey trains your stakeholders on whether surveys are worth their time. If you close the loop, you build a group of people who answer honestly. If you don’t, you teach them to ignore you.

    If your survey data lives in a CRM, plan for that from the start. Survey answers get far more useful when they sit next to the rest of the relationship record. Having helped shape a Salesforce CRM rollout, I’d put that on the requirements list early. I share more of that thinking in my post on CRM implementation best practices.

    Key takeaways

    • Write a one-sentence decision statement before you write a single question.
    • Every question should map to an unknown that blocks the decision.
    • Sketch your charts before you launch, so you only collect data you can use.
    • Report the decision on page one, with three findings and a clear recommendation.
    • Close the loop with respondents every time, so they answer honestly next time.

    FAQ

    How many questions should a stakeholder survey have?

    Most stakeholder surveys work best with 10 to 15 questions and a completion time under eight minutes. If you need more, you likely have more than one decision and should consider separate, shorter surveys for each audience.

    What is the difference between a stakeholder survey and a satisfaction survey?

    A satisfaction survey measures how people feel about an experience. A stakeholder survey is built to inform a specific decision, so it asks about priorities, behaviors and trade-offs from the groups who are affected by that choice.

    How often should an organization survey its stakeholders?

    Survey each major group once or twice a year, plus targeted pulse surveys when a specific decision comes up. Keep a few core questions the same every time, so you can track trends from year to year.

    If you want to see how this kind of thinking shows up across my projects, take a look at my recent work.

    / Work with Brittany

    Have a survey coming up that needs to change something, not just fill a slide?

    Hiring a marketing leader or need a hands-on partner for a project? See how we can work together or send me a note.

  • Event Video Production on a Budget: A Shot-by-Shot Plan

    The gala is over. The room was full, the speeches landed and people cried at the right moments. Then someone asks for “a quick video” for social, and all you have is 40 shaky phone clips, half of them vertical, a few with the DJ drowning out the speaker. Good event video production on a budget isn’t about better gear. It’s about walking in with a plan.

    I launched a corporate videography service line at Buyers Edge Platform that brought in more than $60K in its first year, and today I produce campaign photo and video work at a nonprofit where budgets are, let’s say, Minnesota modest. The thing that separates usable event footage from a pile of clips is almost always the same: a shot list, decided before the doors open.

    Here’s my shot-by-shot plan.

    Decide what the video is for before you film anything

    “Cover the event” is not a brief. Before you pack a bag, answer three questions:

    1. What’s the main deliverable? A 60-second social highlight, a two-minute recap for the website, a thank-you video for sponsors or a full recording of the program?
    2. Who is it for? Attendees, people who couldn’t come, donors, future sponsors or your own staff?
    3. What should viewers do after watching? Register next year, donate, share or simply feel proud?

    Your answers decide everything else. A sponsor thank-you needs logos and sponsor moments. A recruiting video needs volunteers and staff. A donor video needs the “why,” usually in the words of the people you serve, shared with their consent. (More on that in my post about telling client stories with consent and dignity.)

    The budget kit: what you actually need

    You can shoot a great event video with a modern smartphone. What you can’t fake is audio, stability and light. Spend there first.

    • Audio: a wireless lavalier mic or a small on-camera shotgun mic. Bad audio ruins good footage faster than anything else.
    • Stability: a small tripod, plus a gimbal or a handheld grip if you plan to move.
    • Power and storage: a battery bank, spare cables and plenty of free space. Clear the phone the night before.
    • Light: a small LED panel for interviews in dim rooms.
    • Backup: a second phone or camera running on a tripod for the main program.

    If you have a little more budget, the next best upgrade is usually a second person, not a second camera. One person can film. Two people can film, grab interviews and keep an eye on audio.

    Your event video production on a budget shot list

    Print this. Put it on your phone. Check it off as you go.

    Before doors open: establishing and detail shots

    • Exterior of the venue and the signage.
    • Wide shot of the empty room, then the room filling up.
    • Details: table settings, name badges, the welcome table, sponsor signage and the program.
    • Staff and volunteers setting up (this footage is gold for recruiting videos later).

    As guests arrive: energy and people

    • Greetings, hugs and handshakes at the door.
    • Medium shots of small groups talking and laughing.
    • Close-ups of faces reacting, smiling and listening.
    • A slow, steady walk through the room at hip height.

    During the program: the story backbone

    • A locked-off tripod shot of the stage for the full program. This is your safety net.
    • Tight shots of each speaker’s best lines. Mark the time on your shot list when something great happens, so you can find it in the edit.
    • Audience reactions during key moments: applause, laughter and quiet attention.
    • Wide shots that show the full room, so viewers feel the scale.

    Interviews: two minutes each, three questions

    Pull four to six people aside for short interviews in a quiet corner with decent light. Ask:

    1. “What brought you here tonight?”
    2. “What does this organization mean to you?”
    3. “What would you tell someone who’s never been here?”

    Ask them to answer in full sentences (“I came tonight because…”) so the clips stand alone in the edit. Always get permission before filming and confirm how the footage might be used.

    After the program: the closing moments

    • People lingering, hugging and saying goodbye.
    • The cleanup crew and volunteers (thank them on camera if you can).
    • A final wide shot of the room as it empties, or the venue sign at night.

    Shooting tips that save you in the edit

    A few habits make editing dramatically faster:

    • Shoot horizontal for the main video and grab a few dedicated vertical clips for stories and reels. Decide before you start.
    • Hold every shot for at least 10 seconds. Editors need room to cut in and out.
    • Move slowly or not at all. Fast pans look frantic. Let people move through the frame instead.
    • Get the B-roll. Hands, details and reactions give you something to cut to when a speaker says “um.”
    • Record room tone. Thirty seconds of the room’s natural sound helps smooth audio edits.

    Edit fast, then repurpose everything

    The value of event video drops quickly. Aim to post something within 24 to 48 hours, while attendees are still talking about it.

    A simple editing order

    1. Pull your selects: the best speaker lines, interview answers and reaction shots.
    2. Build the story with audio first (interviews and speeches), then lay B-roll on top.
    3. Add captions. Plenty of viewers scroll with the sound off, and captions make your video accessible.
    4. Add your logo and a clear call to action at the end.
    5. Export versions for each channel.

    One event, many assets

    From the same footage you can make a 60-second highlight, a two-minute recap, individual speaker clips, sponsor thank-you cuts, short interview quotes for social and stills for your website. Plan those deliverables up front and the editing gets much faster. My guide to a social media strategy for small teams shows how to spread one event across weeks of posts.

    Then file everything properly, with names, dates and consent notes, so next year’s team can find it. Your future self will thank you.

    Key takeaways

    • Decide the deliverable, audience and call to action before you film.
    • Spend your budget on audio, stability and light before cameras.
    • Work from a shot list covering setup, arrivals, program, interviews and closing moments.
    • Hold shots longer, move slowly and capture plenty of B-roll.
    • Edit within 48 hours, add captions and repurpose footage into multiple assets.

    FAQ

    How do you film an event video on a budget?

    Use a smartphone with an external microphone and a tripod, bring a shot list and focus on clear audio, steady footage and good light. Capture setup, arrivals, the program, short interviews and closing moments, then edit a short highlight within two days.

    What shots do you need for an event video?

    You need establishing shots of the venue, detail shots, guest arrivals, wide and tight shots of the program, audience reactions, short interviews and closing moments. A locked-off tripod shot of the stage gives you a backup of the full program.

    How long should an event highlight video be?

    For social media, 30 to 90 seconds is a good range. For a website recap or sponsor thank-you, two to three minutes usually works. Make the shorter version first, because it’s the one most people will see.

    Want to see event and campaign video in action? Visit my photo and video portfolio.

    / Work with Brittany

    Have an event coming up and want video you’ll actually use?

    Hiring a marketing leader or need a hands-on partner for a project? See how we can work together or send me a note.

  • How to Roll Out a CRM Without Losing Your Team: CRM Implementation Best Practices

    A CRM rollout rarely fails on go-live day. It fails quietly, six months later, when half the team is back to tracking contacts in personal spreadsheets and the expensive new system holds a partial, outdated picture nobody trusts. I’ve seen enough technology projects to know the software is almost never the problem. People are. More precisely, the way we ask people to change is the problem. That’s why the CRM implementation best practices that matter most have very little to do with features.

    I helped shape a Salesforce CRM rollout at Catholic Charities of the Diocese of St. Cloud, and before that I built a five-year technology plan at Tri-CAP that identified $350K in savings. Both taught me the same lesson: technology projects are change management projects with a software budget attached.

    Start with the problem, not the platform

    Before anyone books a demo, get leadership to agree on what’s broken. Not “we need a CRM,” but the specific pain:

    • “We can’t see every interaction a donor has had with us.”
    • “Program and development teams keep contacting the same people without knowing it.”
    • “Reporting to the board takes a week of spreadsheet work.”
    • “When a staff member leaves, their relationships leave with them.”

    Write down the three to five problems the CRM must solve. Those become your success criteria, your training priorities and your answer every time someone asks, “Why are we doing this?”

    Only then compare platforms, and score each one against your list. Ask vendors to demo your actual scenarios, not their favorite features. Ask about total cost, including licenses, implementation help, integrations and the staff time to run it. A cheaper system your team can manage often beats a powerful one nobody has time to maintain. That same lens is how a good technology plan finds savings: you stop paying for capability you’ll never use.

    CRM implementation best practices: plan the people side first

    Name a real owner and a sponsor

    A CRM needs two people: an executive sponsor who clears obstacles and protects the budget, and a day-to-day owner who knows the system inside and out. If the owner is “IT” or “everyone,” it’s no one.

    Map how work actually happens

    Sit with the people who will use the system and watch how they work today. Where do they write things down? What do they hate re-entering? What reports do they dread? You’ll find the shadow systems, the sticky notes and the spreadsheet tabs nobody admits to. The CRM has to be easier than those, or it won’t replace them.

    Recruit champions in every team

    Pick one respected person from each department to help test, give feedback and answer their colleagues’ questions. Peer champions carry more weight than any memo from leadership, and they spot workflow problems before launch instead of after.

    Get the data right before you migrate it

    Bad data is the fastest way to destroy trust in a new system. If the first thing a fundraiser sees is three duplicate records for their biggest donor, they’ll decide the CRM is broken and go back to their spreadsheet.

    A practical data checklist:

    1. Inventory every source: spreadsheets, email lists, old databases, event sign-ups and paper files.
    2. Decide what not to bring over. Old, incomplete or unusable records can be archived instead of migrated.
    3. Define required fields and standard formats for names, addresses, phone numbers and dates.
    4. De-duplicate before import, not after.
    5. Agree on definitions. What counts as an “active donor” or a “client served”? Write it down.
    6. Test with a sample and have real users check it before the full migration.

    That fifth item matters more than it looks. If two departments define the same word differently, your reports will contradict each other, and leadership will stop trusting the numbers. Clean definitions are the foundation for the metrics your board actually cares about.

    Launch in phases and train for the job

    The temptation is to configure everything, migrate everything and turn it all on at once. Resist it. Phased rollouts give people time to learn and give you time to fix what breaks.

    A phased approach that works

    • Phase 1: Core records. Contacts, organizations and basic interaction tracking for one or two teams.
    • Phase 2: Key workflows. Donations, program enrollment, event registration or sales pipeline, depending on your organization.
    • Phase 3: Reporting and dashboards. Built on data people have been entering consistently.
    • Phase 4: Automation and integrations. Email tools, forms, websites and finance systems.

    Automation comes last on purpose. Automating a process before people trust the data just spreads bad information faster.

    Train for the job, not the software

    Generic CRM training is where good intentions go to die. People don’t need a tour of every menu. They need to know how to do their five most common tasks.

    • Build short, role-based training: one session for fundraisers, one for program staff, one for managers.
    • Record each session and keep the recordings next to the CRM login, not buried in a shared drive.
    • Create one-page quick guides for the most common tasks.
    • Hold weekly open office hours for the first two months.
    • Make the CRM part of regular meetings. If the weekly pipeline review runs from the system, people will keep it current.

    That last point is the quiet secret of CRM adoption. When leaders use the system to run meetings, it becomes the source of truth. When they ask for a separate spreadsheet “just this once,” the rollout starts to slip.

    Measure adoption and keep improving

    Go-live is the start of the project, not the end. Track a few signals for the first six months:

    • Logins and active users by team.
    • Record completeness for required fields.
    • Duplicate rate over time.
    • Report usage: are leaders actually opening the dashboards?
    • User feedback: a short survey at 30, 90 and 180 days.

    When adoption lags in one team, go sit with them. Usually there’s a real workflow reason, like a missing field or a process that takes too many clicks, and fixing it earns more goodwill than any reminder email.

    This is where marketers with technical range help a lot. You don’t have to be a developer, but understanding how the system works, how data flows and how to build a simple report changes the conversation. It’s a big part of why I believe in being a T-shaped marketer.

    Key takeaways

    • CRM rollouts fail because of people and process far more often than software.
    • Define the specific problems the CRM must solve before you choose a platform.
    • Name a sponsor and an owner, and recruit champions in every team.
    • Clean, de-duplicate and define your data before migration.
    • Launch in phases, train by role and run real meetings from the system.

    FAQ

    What are the most important CRM implementation best practices?

    The most important practices are defining clear goals before choosing software, naming an executive sponsor and a system owner, cleaning data before migration, launching in phases, training by role and measuring adoption for at least six months after go-live.

    Why do CRM implementations fail?

    CRM implementations usually fail because staff don’t adopt them. Common causes include poor data quality, unclear ownership, generic training and leaders who keep asking for separate spreadsheets instead of using the system.

    How long does a CRM implementation take?

    It depends on size and complexity. A small organization with clean data can launch core features in a few months, while a larger rollout with migrations and integrations can take much longer. Plan for at least six months of adoption work after launch.

    If you’re weighing a CRM project and want a partner who speaks both marketing and technology, learn more about my background.

    / Work with Brittany

    Rolling out a CRM and want your team to actually use it?

    Hiring a marketing leader or need a hands-on partner for a project? See how we can work together or send me a note.

  • Canva Brand Templates: Design Guardrails for Everyone on Your Team

    You can tell when a flyer was made by someone who isn’t a designer. The logo is stretched. There are four fonts. The photo is a little blurry, and the brand blue has turned into a slightly different blue. None of that is the volunteer coordinator’s fault. They needed a flyer by Friday and nobody gave them a better option. Good Canva brand templates are that better option. They let everyone on your team make something on brand in fifteen minutes without a designer looking over their shoulder.

    At Catholic Charities of the Diocese of St. Cloud, building branded Canva templates was one of the most practical things I did for the organization’s look and feel. Here’s how I approach it, and what separates templates people love from templates people quietly ignore.

    Why every small team needs design guardrails

    In small organizations and nonprofits, a lot of people make marketing materials. Program staff, development officers, event volunteers and executive assistants all need to make something occasionally. Telling them to “wait for marketing” doesn’t scale, and telling them to “follow the brand guide” rarely works, because brand guides are written for designers.

    Templates solve the real problem. Instead of asking people to learn the rules, you build the rules into the starting point. The goal isn’t control for its own sake. It’s making the right choice the easy one.

    The payoff is real, even if it’s hard to measure precisely:

    • Materials look consistent across programs and locations.
    • Staff spend less time fiddling and more time doing their actual jobs.
    • The marketing team stops being a bottleneck for simple requests.
    • The brand gets stronger with every piece people make, not weaker.

    Start with the Brand Kit, not the templates

    Before you design a single template, set up your foundation. In Canva, that means a Brand Kit with:

    • Logos: every approved version (full color, one color, reversed, horizontal and stacked). Delete the rest.
    • Colors: your primary and secondary palette with exact hex values, named so people know when to use each.
    • Fonts: heading, subheading and body styles set once, so nobody has to guess.
    • Photos and graphics: a curated set of approved images, icons and patterns.

    That photo set matters more than people think. If staff can’t find a good, approved photo, they’ll grab whatever’s on their phone or the first stock image they see. If your image library is a mess, my guide to digital asset management for marketing teams is a good place to start before you build templates.

    How to build Canva brand templates people will actually use

    Build from real requests, not imagined ones

    Look at the last six months of requests. What do people make most often? For most organizations, the core set looks something like this:

    1. Event flyer (letter size and a social version).
    2. Social media post templates for your main channels, in a few layouts.
    3. Presentation deck with title, section, content and closing slides.
    4. One-page program sheet or fact sheet.
    5. Email header and newsletter graphics.
    6. Simple certificates, name badges or signs.

    Start with five to eight templates. You can always add more, but a library of 60 templates is as overwhelming as having none.

    Design for the least experienced user

    Assume the person using your template has never opened Canva before and has ten minutes. That means:

    • Clear placeholder text that explains itself, like “Event name, 3 to 6 words.”
    • Image frames sized correctly, so any photo dropped in crops nicely.
    • Generous space, so a slightly longer headline doesn’t break the layout.
    • No tiny decorative details that look broken when someone nudges them.

    Lock what matters, free what doesn’t

    Canva lets admins lock elements in Brand Templates so they can’t be changed. Their help center has a good overview of the different Brand Template lock options, including locking position only, which keeps text styles fixed while leaving the words editable.

    My rule of thumb: lock the logo, the background and the layout grid. Lock text styles but leave the text editable. Leave photos swappable. If people can’t change what they need to change, they’ll duplicate the design and break it anyway.

    Name and organize them like a library

    Use a consistent naming pattern, such as “Flyer | Event | Letter” or “Social | Announcement | Square.” Group templates into folders by use, not by department. People search for “flyer,” not “Development Team Assets 2026.”

    Roll them out with a short launch, not a memo

    Templates fail when they show up in an inbox with no context. A simple rollout:

    1. Run a 20-minute demo. Show how to find a template, swap a photo, edit text and download the right file type.
    2. Create a one-page cheat sheet with the most common steps and which file format to use for print, email and social.
    3. Name a go-to person for questions, so people ask instead of improvising.
    4. Celebrate early adopters. When someone makes a great flyer, share it.

    Govern lightly and keep improving

    A template library needs a little maintenance, not a review board. Here’s my light-touch approach:

    • Quarterly review: retire unused templates and refresh the ones people use most.
    • Watch for workarounds: if people keep editing the same element, the template is wrong, not the people.
    • Spot-check finished work: a quick look at what’s going out tells you where the guardrails need adjusting.
    • Update after brand changes: if you’ve refreshed your identity, templates are the fastest way to roll it out everywhere at once.

    That last point is worth emphasizing. If you’re planning a refresh, templates should be part of the launch toolkit. I covered that in how to rebrand an organization without losing your audience.

    What templates won’t fix

    Templates are guardrails, not a design department. They won’t fix unclear messaging, a weak photo or an event nobody has explained well. They also won’t replace a designer for high-stakes work like an annual report, a major campaign or a new identity. Use templates to free your designers for that work, not to replace them.

    Key takeaways

    • Canva brand templates let non-designers make on-brand materials quickly and confidently.
    • Set up the Brand Kit first: approved logos, named colors, font styles and curated photos.
    • Build five to eight templates based on real requests, designed for the least experienced user.
    • Lock logos, backgrounds and layouts, but keep text and photos editable.
    • Launch with a short demo and cheat sheet, then review the library every quarter.

    FAQ

    What are Canva brand templates?

    Canva brand templates are designs that admins publish for a team to reuse, built with the organization’s approved logos, colors and fonts. Team members make a copy, edit the content and download it, while locked elements keep the brand consistent.

    How many Canva templates does a small team need?

    Most small teams do well with five to eight core templates, such as an event flyer, social posts, a slide deck, a fact sheet and an email header. Add more only when real requests show a gap.

    Can you lock elements in Canva templates?

    Yes. Canva lets admins and brand designers apply locks to Brand Templates, either fully locking elements or locking position only, so formatting and placement stay fixed while text or photos can still be edited.

    Want to see branded design work in context? Browse my portfolio.

    / Work with Brittany

    Want templates that make your whole team look good on deadline?

    Hiring a marketing leader or need a hands-on partner for a project? See how we can work together or send me a note.

  • Social Media Strategy for Small Teams That Can’t Post Every Day

    Here’s a hard truth nobody puts in the social media webinar: if you’re a team of one or two, posting every day on every platform is not a strategy. It’s a slow route to burnout and mediocre content. I’ve worked inside nonprofits and small businesses where “social media manager” was one line in a job description that also included the newsletter, the website, the annual report and, occasionally, setting up chairs. A realistic social media strategy for small teams starts by admitting that time is the scarcest resource you have, and then planning around it.

    The good news? Consistency beats frequency. Three strong posts a week, on the right channel, will do more for you than a daily feed of filler that nobody stops for.

    Why “post every day” is the wrong goal

    Daily posting advice usually comes from brands with content teams, agencies and budgets. When small teams try to match it, a few predictable things happen:

    • Quality drops, because there’s no time to plan, shoot or write well.
    • Posts become generic (“Happy Monday!”) because generic is fast.
    • The calendar collapses during the first busy week, and then the account goes dark for a month.
    • The person running it starts to dread it, and it shows.

    A sustainable cadence you can keep for a year beats an ambitious one you abandon in six weeks. Pick a pace you could keep during your busiest season, not your slowest.

    Build a social media strategy for small teams in five decisions

    You don’t need a 30-page strategy document. You need five clear decisions, written on one page.

    1. Choose one primary channel and one secondary

    Go where your audience already spends time and where your content naturally fits. A food shelf might focus on Facebook, where local families and volunteers are active. A B2B consultancy might put most of its energy into LinkedIn. Pick one primary channel to invest in and one secondary channel to maintain. Everything else gets a profile that points people to the place you’re active, or nothing at all.

    2. Set a cadence you can keep

    For most small teams, I recommend starting with two to three posts a week on the primary channel and one a week on the secondary. Stories and quick reposts are a bonus, not a requirement. You can always add more once the rhythm is solid.

    3. Define three to four content pillars

    Pillars are the recurring themes that tie every post back to your goals. For a nonprofit, they might be:

    • Impact: stories and outcomes (shared with consent).
    • Community: volunteers, partners and events.
    • How to help: donate, volunteer, attend, share.
    • Behind the scenes: the people and work most supporters never see.

    When you sit down to plan, you’re not staring at a blank page. You’re filling slots.

    4. Decide what success looks like

    Pick two or three metrics tied to a goal, not to vanity. If the goal is volunteers, watch link clicks to the sign-up page and sign-ups. If it’s awareness in your county, watch reach among local followers and shares. Check them monthly, not hourly.

    5. Decide what you won’t do

    Write it down. “We won’t chase every trend. We won’t open a new platform without dropping an old one. We won’t post just to fill a slot.” This list protects your time more than any scheduling tool.

    Batch, repurpose and schedule

    The single biggest time saver for a small team is batching. Instead of creating one post a day, set aside a two-hour block every two weeks to plan, write and schedule the next batch. Your brain stays in one mode, and the quality goes up.

    The one-to-many method

    Every bigger piece of content should feed several social posts. One event, for example, can become:

    1. A pre-event reminder with a photo from last year.
    2. A short video clip from the day.
    3. A photo carousel the following week.
    4. A thank-you post naming partners and volunteers.
    5. A quote or story from an attendee, with permission.
    6. A “save the date” for next year, months later.

    Same with a blog post, a newsletter or an annual report. If you made it once, find three more ways to use it. This is also where an organized photo library pays off. If your best images are scattered, read my guide to digital asset management for marketing teams before your next batch session.

    Build a simple social calendar

    Use a shared calendar or spreadsheet with columns for date, channel, pillar, copy, visual and link. You can build it inside your broader content calendar so social isn’t living on an island. Then use the native scheduler on each platform or a scheduling tool you already have.

    Make every post work harder

    When you post less, each post has to earn its spot. A quick checklist before anything goes out:

    • Does it stop the scroll? A real photo of a real person almost always beats a text graphic.
    • Is the first line strong? Plenty of people only read the opening, so lead with the point.
    • Is there one clear action? Read, register, donate, share or reply. One, not four.
    • Is it accessible? Alt text on images, captions on video and plain language.
    • Does it sound like us? Not like a press release, and not like a brand trying to be a teenager.

    Video deserves a special note. In my experience, short, simple video holds attention better than another polished graphic, and you can shoot it on a phone. When I redesigned a nonprofit YouTube channel, the focus was organization, consistent thumbnails and clear titles, not expensive production.

    Protect the person running it

    This part gets left out of strategy decks, and it matters. Social media can be emotionally heavy, especially in nonprofits, where comments sometimes come from people in real distress. A few guardrails:

    • Set response windows (“We reply within one business day”) and post them.
    • Turn off notifications after hours. The world can wait until morning.
    • Write a short escalation guide for hard comments, crisis messages and media inquiries.
    • Have a backup person who can log in during vacations and sick days.

    If you’re the whole department, my one-person marketing department playbook covers how to protect your time across every channel, not just social.

    Key takeaways

    • Consistency beats frequency. Choose a cadence you can keep during your busiest season.
    • Commit to one primary channel and one secondary, and let the rest go.
    • Use three to four content pillars so planning is filling slots, not starting from zero.
    • Batch content every two weeks and turn every big piece of content into several posts.
    • Measure two or three goal-based metrics monthly, and protect the person behind the account.

    FAQ

    How often should a small team post on social media?

    Two to three posts a week on your primary channel and about one a week on a secondary channel is a sustainable starting point for most small teams. Consistency over months matters more than daily volume.

    Which social media platform should a small business or nonprofit focus on?

    Focus on the platform where your audience is already active and your content fits naturally. For many local nonprofits and small businesses, that’s Facebook or Instagram. For B2B and professional services, LinkedIn is often the best primary channel.

    How can a small team save time on social media?

    Batch planning and writing into one block every two weeks, schedule posts in advance, use content pillars and repurpose each larger piece of content, like an event or blog post, into several social posts.

    / Work with Brittany

    Need a social media strategy your small team can actually keep up with?

    Hiring a marketing leader or need a hands-on partner for a project? See how we can work together or send me a note.

  • How to Rebrand an Organization Without Losing Your Audience

    Most rebrands don’t fail in the design review. They fail three months later, when a longtime donor can’t find the website, a partner keeps using the old logo and the front desk is still answering the phone with the old name. The new look is beautiful. The audience is confused. If you’re figuring out how to rebrand an organization, the logo is the smallest part of the job. The real work is moving people with you.

    At Tri-County Action Program (Tri-CAP), I stepped into a rebrand midway, finished the transition and built out the brand materials. What made it work wasn’t a prettier logo. It was a plan that treated the people who already knew us as the most important audience in the room.

    First, decide whether you need a rebrand at all

    A rebrand is expensive in money, time and attention. Before you commit, be honest about which problem you’re solving. In my experience, there are three levels, and they’re not the same project:

    • Refresh: The brand is fundamentally right but looks dated. Update the type, colors, photography style and templates. Keep the name and the core mark.
    • Realignment: The organization has changed what it does or who it serves, and the messaging no longer fits. The visuals may change, but the bigger shift is in positioning and story.
    • Full rebrand: New name, new identity, new positioning. Usually triggered by a merger, a major strategic pivot or a name that actively works against you.

    Plenty of leaders ask for a full rebrand when a refresh would do. Others ask for a refresh when the real issue is that nobody can explain what the organization does. A one-week brand audit will tell you which one you’re dealing with before you spend a dollar on design.

    How to rebrand an organization: the five phases

    Here’s the sequence I use. The phases overlap a little, but the order matters.

    Phase 1: Listen before you draw

    Talk to the people who know you best: staff, board members, clients, donors, partners and volunteers. Ask what they think you do, what they’d lose if you disappeared and what words they use to describe you. Write those words down exactly. Your audience’s language is usually better copy than anything a committee will produce.

    Phase 2: Lock the strategy, then the visuals

    Agree on positioning, audiences and key messages before anyone opens a design file. If leadership hasn’t signed off on what you stand for, every logo review turns into a debate about strategy wearing a color-palette costume.

    Phase 3: Design with real use cases

    Test new identity concepts on the things people will actually see: a social post, a flyer taped to a community board, an email header, a vehicle, a name badge, the website on a phone. A mark that looks great on a presentation slide and falls apart at favicon size isn’t finished.

    Phase 4: Build the toolkit before launch day

    Launch day is too late to start making templates. Before you go public, have these ready:

    • Logo files in every format and color variation, organized in one shared library.
    • A short brand guide people will read (aim for 10 pages, not 80).
    • Templates for the most-used items: letterhead, slides, social graphics, flyers, email signatures.
    • A messaging sheet with your new boilerplate, tagline and a few approved descriptions.

    Phase 5: Launch, then keep launching

    Launch is a season, not a day. Plan for the first 90 days, because that’s when confusion peaks and habits form.

    Bring your audience along: the communications plan

    This is where most rebrands lose people, and it’s where a strategic communications mindset earns its keep. (If you want the longer argument, I wrote about why leaders need both strategic communications and marketing.)

    Tell people in the right order

    1. Staff and board first. Nobody should learn about their own organization’s new name from social media. Give them the why, the timeline and talking points.
    2. Key partners and major supporters next. A personal email or call before the public launch shows respect and turns them into messengers.
    3. Clients and the community. Plain language, practical details and what isn’t changing.
    4. The public and media. The announcement, the story and the new look.

    Lead with what stays the same

    People resist change when they’re afraid of losing something. Say clearly what’s staying: the services, the people, the phone number, the mission. Then explain what’s new and why it helps them. “Same people, same services, a name that finally says what we do” lands better than a page about design philosophy.

    Use the bridge period

    For a name change, use a transition lockup for a few months, such as “New Name (formerly Old Name).” It feels clunky. It works. Retire it once you see people using the new name without prompting.

    Don’t break the website on the way out

    A website redesign is often part of a rebrand, and it’s where you can quietly lose years of search visibility. If URLs change, every old page needs a permanent redirect to its closest new equivalent, not a blanket redirect to the home page. Google’s guidance on moving a site with URL changes is the best checklist I know of, and it’s worth giving to whoever builds your new site.

    My pre-launch web checklist:

    • Map every high-traffic old URL to a new one before launch.
    • Update your name, logo and contact details in your Google Business Profile and other directory listings.
    • Update social profile names, handles (if changing), bios and profile images on the same day.
    • Search your own site for the old name and fix every instance.
    • Set up analytics annotations so you can measure before and after cleanly.

    Measure whether people came with you

    Decide what success means before launch, not after. The metrics I watch in the first 90 days:

    • Search behavior: are people searching the new name, and does the old name still bring them to you?
    • Web traffic and engagement: sessions, returning visitors, key page views and conversions compared with the same period before launch.
    • Direct feedback: what are front-line staff hearing on the phone and at the door?
    • Adoption: are staff and partners using the new templates, or is the old logo still floating around?

    That last one is my favorite early warning sign. If the old logo keeps showing up, the toolkit isn’t easy enough to use. Fix the tools before you blame the people.

    Key takeaways

    • Decide whether you need a refresh, a realignment or a full rebrand before you start.
    • Lock strategy and messaging before visual design.
    • Build templates and a short brand guide before launch day.
    • Tell staff and board first, then partners, then the public, and lead with what’s staying the same.
    • Protect your website with page-level redirects, and measure adoption for at least 90 days.

    FAQ

    How long does it take to rebrand an organization?

    For most small and midsize organizations, plan on four to nine months from discovery to launch, plus a 90-day transition period. A visual refresh can move faster. A full name change usually takes longer because of legal, signage and partner updates.

    How do you announce a rebrand without confusing people?

    Tell internal audiences first, then key partners, then the public. Lead with what isn’t changing, explain why the change helps your audience and use a “formerly known as” bridge for a few months after a name change.

    Will a rebrand hurt our SEO?

    It can if URLs change without redirects. Map each old page to its closest new page with a permanent redirect, update your business listings and keep the old name on your site in context for a while so searchers can still find you.

    Curious what a rebrand like this looks like in practice? See my recent work.

    / Work with Brittany

    Planning a rebrand and want your audience to come along for the ride?

    Hiring a marketing leader or need a hands-on partner for a project? See how we can work together or send me a note.

  • The Ethical Storytelling Nonprofit Clients Deserve: Consent and Dignity

    Imagine a client agrees to share her story for the annual appeal. She’s grateful, she wants to help and she says yes in the hallway right after a hard appointment. Six months later, her photo is on a mailer in her neighbor’s mailbox, and she isn’t sure she ever really agreed to that.

    That scenario is why I stay careful. Stories are among the most powerful things a nonprofit has, and the people in them are often at a vulnerable point in their lives. The kind of ethical storytelling nonprofit teams can stand behind starts with one belief: the person in the story matters more than the campaign. I produce campaign photo and video work at Catholic Charities of the Diocese of St. Cloud, and telling client stories with care is the part of the job I take most seriously.

    Why consent is more than a signature

    A signed release protects the organization. It doesn’t automatically protect the person. Real consent is informed, freely given, specific and ongoing.

    • Informed: They understand exactly where the story will appear, who will see it and for how long.
    • Freely given: They don’t feel that saying no could affect their services, their relationship with staff or how they’re treated.
    • Specific: Agreeing to a quote in a newsletter isn’t agreeing to a face on a billboard.
    • Ongoing: They can change their mind, and you have a real process to honor that.

    Power dynamics matter here. When someone relies on your organization for food, housing, counseling or other help, a request from staff can feel like an obligation. Build your process assuming that pressure exists, even when nobody intends it.

    Take extra care with children, people in crisis and anyone whose safety could be at risk if they’re identified, such as survivors of abuse. Get guardian consent for minors, and think about whether a story could follow a child into adulthood. Sometimes the most ethical choice is to tell the story without a face, without a name or not at all. That’s not a lost opportunity. It’s the job done right.

    The ethical storytelling nonprofit checklist

    Here’s the process I’d recommend, from the first conversation to the final archive.

    Before the interview or shoot

    1. Have someone the person trusts make the first ask, and make clear that saying no changes nothing about their services.
    2. Explain the use in plain language. Show examples of past stories if you can.
    3. Offer options. First name only, a different name, no face, voice only, hands or silhouette, or a written story with no photo at all.
    4. Use a consent form written for humans, in the person’s preferred language, with a checkbox for each channel and a clear time limit.
    5. Avoid moments of crisis. Don’t ask for consent in the middle of a hard day. Come back later.

    During the interview or shoot

    • Let the person tell their story in their own words. Ask open questions, and don’t steer them toward the most dramatic version.
    • Tell them they can skip any question or stop at any time, and mean it.
    • Photograph people with dignity: eye level, natural light and moments of strength and agency, not just need.
    • Leave out identifying details they haven’t agreed to share, such as street signs, house numbers, school logos and children’s faces.

    Before publishing

    • Share the final story, quote or video with the person when it’s safe and practical, and invite changes.
    • Check for language that defines people by their hardest moment. “A mother of two who is rebuilding after losing her job” says more than “a homeless mother.”
    • Confirm the final placement matches what they agreed to.

    After publishing

    • Track consent status in your image library. Every photo of a person should have a record of what was agreed and when it expires.
    • Set a review date, and retire stories that have run their course.
    • Make it easy for someone to ask you to remove their story, and act on it quickly.

    Dignity in the craft: photo and video choices

    Ethics isn’t only paperwork. It shows up in every creative choice you make behind the camera and in the edit.

    A few principles I bring to photo and video work:

    • Show agency, not just need. People are more than the problem your program solves.
    • Skip the guilt tropes. Dark, sad imagery may grab attention, but it often reinforces stereotypes and treats people as props.
    • Let people be specific. Real details, told in their own voice, beat a generic composite every time.
    • Edit honestly. Don’t splice quotes in ways that change their meaning, and don’t use music that makes a story more tragic than the person told it.
    • Think about who sees it. A story that feels fine in a donor newsletter may land very differently on a public social feed where the person’s neighbors, coworkers or family will see it.

    If you want a deeper framework, the Dóchas Guide to Ethical Communications is an excellent resource written for NGOs. It covers values, power dynamics, authentic representation and informed consent.

    Build the system behind the stories

    Good intentions break down without a system, especially on small teams. Make these part of your standard process:

    • A standard, plain-language consent form with channel-specific options
    • A consent field or tag on every image and video file
    • A shared library where consent records live next to the assets
    • A short decision guide for staff on when a story needs extra review
    • A named person who handles removal requests

    Organizing an image repository in my current role reinforced how much this matters. When consent lives in someone’s email inbox, it’s only a matter of time before the wrong photo ends up in the wrong place.

    Client stories are also a strategic communications issue, not just a marketing one. They affect reputation, trust and the organization’s relationship with the community it serves. That’s why I treat them as part of the bigger strategic communications vs. marketing picture. You can see how I approach visual storytelling on my photo and video work page.

    Key takeaways

    • Real consent is informed, freely given, specific and ongoing. A signature alone isn’t enough.
    • Account for power dynamics, and make saying no truly safe.
    • Offer privacy options, and let people tell their stories in their own words.
    • Show people with dignity and agency, not just need.
    • Track consent next to every asset, and make removal requests easy.

    Frequently asked questions

    What is ethical storytelling for nonprofits?

    Ethical storytelling is the practice of sharing the stories of clients and community members with informed consent, accuracy and dignity. It puts the well-being and wishes of the person in the story ahead of campaign goals.

    How do you get consent for a nonprofit client story?

    Explain in plain language where the story will be used and for how long, offer privacy options, use a clear consent form with channel-specific choices and confirm that saying no won’t affect services. Let people withdraw consent later.

    Can nonprofits use client photos without names?

    Yes, if the person agrees. Many organizations offer first-name-only, changed names or images that don’t show faces. Consent should still be recorded, because a face can identify someone even without a name.

    / Work with Brittany

    Have stories worth telling and want to tell them with care?

    Hiring a marketing leader or need a hands-on partner for a project? See how we can work together or send me a note.

  • Marketing Metrics for Board of Directors Meetings: What Boards Actually Care About

    Picture the board packet. Forty pages of financials, program reports and committee minutes, and somewhere in the middle, a marketing slide with follower counts, website sessions and an email open rate. Board members glance at it, nod and move on. Nobody asks a question. That’s the problem.

    When marketing metrics for board of directors meetings are built around activity instead of outcomes, the board can’t use them. And when the board can’t use them, marketing starts to look like overhead. I’ve advised an executive team and a Board directly, and what I learned is simple: boards don’t need more data from marketing. They need the right data, framed around the decisions they’re responsible for.

    What boards are actually responsible for

    Start here, because it shapes everything else. A board’s job is governance: mission, strategy, financial health, risk and leadership oversight. They are not there to manage your Instagram.

    So every metric you bring them should help answer at least one of these questions:

    • Are we advancing the mission?
    • Are we financially sustainable?
    • Is our reputation healthy, and are we managing risk?
    • Is the strategy working, or do we need to change course?

    If a metric doesn’t help answer one of those, it belongs in your team dashboard, not the board report.

    This also changes how you talk about marketing. You’re not reporting on what the team did. You’re reporting on what the organization gained, what it risked and what it should decide next. That framing alone can change how a board sees the marketing budget.

    The marketing metrics for board of directors that matter

    Here’s the short list I’d build from. You won’t need all of them. Pick the five to seven that map to your strategic plan.

    Mission and growth

    • Program inquiries or enrollments tied to marketing. How many people sought services, applied or signed up, and where they came from.
    • New donors, members or customers, compared with the same period last year.
    • Volunteer recruitment. Sign-ups, and how many actually showed up.

    Financial health

    • Revenue influenced by marketing. Online donations, event revenue, campaign totals or sales tied to specific campaigns.
    • Cost per acquisition. What it costs to gain a new donor, client or customer through marketing channels.
    • Retention. Donor retention, membership renewals or repeat customers. Boards understand instinctively that keeping people matters as much as finding new ones.

    Reputation and risk

    • Stakeholder sentiment. Survey results from clients, donors, partners or staff. I design and analyze stakeholder surveys in my current role, and a few well-chosen questions asked consistently can tell a board more than a pile of social stats.
    • Media coverage and tone. Not just how many stories ran, but whether they were positive, neutral or negative.
    • Issues and response time. Any reputational issues that came up and how quickly they were handled.

    Strategic health

    • Audience growth in priority segments. Not total followers. Growth among the specific people your strategy targets.
    • Reach on owned channels. Website traffic and email list growth, framed as assets the organization controls instead of renting from a platform.

    Metrics to keep out of the board report

    These aren’t useless. They’re just not board-level. Keep them in your team dashboard:

    • Likes, impressions and follower counts on their own
    • Email open rates without context
    • Posting frequency
    • Page views with no link to an outcome
    • Anything you have to explain for more than 30 seconds

    Vanity metrics aren’t evil. They’re early signals, and your team should watch them. But a board that keeps seeing “impressions are up” with no connection to mission or money learns to tune marketing out.

    How to present marketing metrics to a board

    The format matters as much as the numbers. Here’s the structure I recommend:

    1. Lead with one sentence. “Marketing is on track to meet our volunteer goal and behind on monthly donors.” Board members should know the headline before they see a chart.
    2. Show five to seven metrics, max, on one page. Use the same metrics every time so the board can see trends.
    3. Always show a comparison. Against goal, against last year or against last quarter. A number without context is trivia.
    4. Add one story. One client, donor or volunteer story, shared with consent, that shows what the numbers mean in a real life.
    5. Name the risk or decision. “We need to decide whether to fund a second campaign this spring” gives the board something to govern.
    6. Put the details in an appendix. Let curious board members dig in without making everyone else wade through it.

    Tools help, but they’re secondary. I build reports in Power BI and pull from Google Analytics, Search Console and CRM data. A clean one-page summary in a slide or document works fine if the thinking is clear. A gorgeous dashboard with muddy thinking doesn’t.

    Connect every metric to the strategic plan

    The most useful thing you can do is tie each board metric to a goal in the strategic plan. When I was Director of Communications, Technology and Data at Tri-County Action Program, I built a five-year technology plan that identified $350K in savings. It landed with leadership because it spoke the board’s language: cost, risk, sustainability and mission.

    Marketing works the same way. When the social, newsletter and website work I led there grew engagement across every channel, the point wasn’t the numbers. It was what more reach meant: more people finding services and more supporters finding ways to help.

    A few habits keep that connection tight:

    • Write the strategic goal next to each metric in the report.
    • Retire metrics when the strategy changes. Don’t keep reporting a number just because you always have.
    • Ask the board chair or a committee member once a year whether the report helps them make decisions. Then listen.

    If you’re a communications leader, this is where strategic communications earns its seat at the table. I wrote about that distinction in strategic communications vs. marketing. And if you’re the only marketer in the building, a lighter monthly version of this report is one of the best ways to show your value, a point I made in the one-person marketing department playbook.

    Key takeaways

    • Boards govern mission, money, reputation and strategy. Build your metrics around those.
    • Choose five to seven metrics that map to the strategic plan, and keep them consistent.
    • Keep vanity metrics in your team dashboard, not the board packet.
    • Lead with a headline, show comparisons, add one story and name a decision.
    • Frame results in the board’s language: outcomes, cost, risk and sustainability.

    Frequently asked questions

    What marketing metrics should be reported to a board of directors?

    Report metrics tied to mission, finances, reputation and strategy, such as new donors or clients, revenue influenced by marketing, cost per acquisition, retention, stakeholder sentiment and growth in priority audiences.

    How often should marketing report to the board?

    Most boards benefit from a short marketing summary at each regular meeting, often quarterly, using the same metrics every time so trends are easy to spot. A deeper annual review can tie results back to the strategic plan.

    Should social media metrics be included in board reports?

    Only when they connect to an outcome the board cares about, such as growth in a priority audience or traffic that led to donations or sign-ups. Standalone likes and follower counts belong in a team dashboard.

    / Work with Brittany

    Want marketing reports your leadership and board will actually use?

    Hiring a marketing leader or need a hands-on partner for a project? See how we can work together or send me a note.

  • The One-Person Marketing Department Playbook for Nonprofits

    You’re the marketing department. You’re also the social media manager, the photographer, the web person, the newsletter writer and the person who gets asked to “just make a quick flyer” at 4:45 on a Friday. If you work at a nonprofit, there’s a good chance that description fits.

    A one-person marketing department isn’t a failure of planning. For many nonprofits and small organizations, it’s the budget reality. What makes or breaks the role is whether that one person has a system or just a longer to-do list. I’ve lived the small-team, wear-every-hat version of this work, and this is the playbook I’d hand anyone stepping into it.

    The hard truth about a one-person marketing department

    You can’t do everything. You can do the right things well and the rest on purpose.

    The trap is trying to match what bigger organizations do: daily posts on every platform, a weekly blog, a monthly newsletter, a video series, an annual report and full event support. Spread that across one person and everything ends up mediocre and late.

    Your job isn’t to do more. It’s to decide what matters, protect time for it and make everything else easier.

    Set direction: outcomes first, then channels

    Decide what marketing is for this year

    Before you touch a calendar, get leadership to agree on two or three outcomes marketing is responsible for. Not tactics. Outcomes. For example:

    • Increase volunteer sign-ups for a specific program
    • Grow the monthly donor base
    • Raise awareness of a service within a specific community
    • Support a capital campaign with consistent stories

    Then write down what you’re not responsible for, or what gets a lighter touch. This conversation is uncomfortable once and saves you from a hundred uncomfortable conversations later.

    If your organization blurs marketing and communications (most do), it helps to name which hat you’re wearing for which work. I break that down in strategic communications vs. marketing.

    Pick two or three channels and cut the rest

    A one-person shop should run two or three core channels well. Usually that’s:

    1. Your website. It’s the one channel you fully own. Keep it accurate, fast and clear about how to give, get help or get involved.
    2. Email. Your most direct line to supporters. A consistent, well-written email often does more than sporadic social posting.
    3. One or two social platforms. Choose where your audience actually is, based on your own data, not on what’s new.

    Everything else is optional. Keep other profiles accurate, with a clear bio and a link, but don’t feed them daily. A quiet, tidy profile beats an abandoned, messy one.

    Build systems that do the work for you

    This is where breadth pays off. Systems are what let one person work like three.

    Templates

    Build branded templates for the things you make most: social graphics, flyers, event signage, email headers and one-pagers. At Catholic Charities of the Diocese of St. Cloud, I built branded Canva templates so staff could create materials without starting from scratch or breaking the brand. Good templates turn “Can you make this for me?” into “Here’s the template. Have at it.”

    An organized image library

    Lost photos cost you hours. Set up a simple shared library with a clear folder structure (year, program, event) and a naming convention. Record consent status for any photo of a person. I organized an image repository in my current role for exactly this reason, and earlier led a company-wide digital asset management rollout at Buyers Edge Platform. Big team or tiny one, the principle holds: if you can’t find it, you don’t have it.

    A front door for requests

    Create one way to request marketing help: a short form that asks for the goal, audience, deadline and key details. It does two things. It stops requests from arriving by hallway, text and sticky note. And it gives you data on where your time actually goes, which you’ll want later.

    Repeatable content formats

    Pick three or four formats you can produce on repeat: a monthly client or volunteer story, a “by the numbers” update, a staff spotlight and an event recap. Formats cut decision fatigue and make planning almost automatic.

    Protect your time like it’s budget

    Because it is. A few rules I’d recommend:

    • Set a request lead time. Two weeks for standard requests, longer for print and video. Publish it. Hold to it kindly.
    • Batch your work. Write a month of social posts in one sitting. Edit photos in one block. Constant context switching quietly eats small teams alive.
    • Block focus time. Put two or three recurring blocks on your calendar for strategy and deep work. Treat them like meetings with your CEO.
    • Say “yes, and here’s the tradeoff.” When a new request lands, name what moves to make room for it. Leaders usually respond well to that, because it shows them the real cost.

    Show your impact and know when to get help

    Report monthly, on one page

    The one-person department is easy to undervalue because the work is spread so thin. Fix that with a short monthly report to leadership: three or four numbers tied to your agreed outcomes, one story that shows impact and one decision you need from them.

    Keep it short. A one-page report they read beats a 20-page deck they skim. I’ll go deeper on the metrics leaders actually care about in my next post.

    Bring in help with clear briefs

    You don’t have to do it all yourself, even as the only marketing staff member. Smart help includes:

    • Volunteers or interns for photography, event coverage or social scheduling, with clear guidelines and templates
    • Freelancers for specialized, high-stakes work like a major video or a website rebuild
    • Board members or partners with professional skills who can review or advise
    • AI tools for first drafts, transcription and resizing assets, with a human reviewing anything that goes public

    Outsourcing works best when you can write a good brief. That’s another reason the solo marketer needs range. You don’t have to be an expert in everything, but you need to know enough to direct the work. That’s the heart of being a t-shaped marketer.

    Key takeaways

    • A one-person marketing department needs a system, not a longer to-do list.
    • Agree on two or three outcomes with leadership, and name what you won’t do.
    • Run two or three core channels well instead of every channel poorly.
    • Templates, an organized image library, a request form and repeatable formats multiply your capacity.
    • Protect your time, report impact monthly and bring in help with clear briefs.

    Frequently asked questions

    How do you run a one-person marketing department?

    Agree on a few outcomes with leadership, focus on two or three core channels and build systems such as templates, a request form and an organized asset library. Batch your work and report results monthly on one page.

    What should a nonprofit marketer prioritize first?

    Prioritize the website, email and one or two social platforms where your audience is most active. Tie that work to the outcomes leadership agreed on, such as donations, volunteers or program awareness.

    When should a one-person marketing department ask for more help?

    Ask when important work is consistently late or skipped, when requests regularly exceed capacity or when a high-stakes project like a rebrand or website rebuild needs specialized skills. Request-form data makes that case far easier to prove.

    / Work with Brittany

    Running marketing solo and ready for a system that actually holds up?

    Hiring a marketing leader or need a hands-on partner for a project? See how we can work together or send me a note.

  • Strategic Communications vs. Marketing: Why Leaders Need Both

    Here’s a pattern I’ve seen in more than one organization. A crisis hits, or a big change is coming, and leadership turns to the marketing team and asks, “Can you put out a post?” The rest of the year, those same leaders treat marketing as the people who make flyers.

    That gap is the strategic communications vs. marketing question in a nutshell. Most organizations blur the two, then wonder why their messaging feels reactive and their campaigns feel disconnected from the mission. They’re related. They’re not the same. And leaders need both, on purpose.

    I’ve worn both hats, sometimes in the same week. Here’s how I separate them, and why the separation matters.

    Strategic communications vs. marketing: the short version

    Marketing is about driving action from a defined audience: buy, donate, register, enroll, volunteer or apply. It’s measured by response and conversion.

    Strategic communications is about building and protecting understanding, trust and reputation across all of an organization’s stakeholders: staff, board, funders, partners, media, regulators and the community. It’s measured by alignment, reputation and how well the organization holds up under pressure.

    A simple way to hold the difference:

    • Marketing asks: “How do we get this audience to take this action?”
    • Strategic communications asks: “What do all of our stakeholders need to understand and believe about us, and how do we keep that true over time?”

    Marketing sells the program. Strategic communications makes sure the organization behind it is credible enough to sell.

    Where they overlap (and where they collide)

    They share a lot of tools: writing, design, social media, video and the website. That’s why they get lumped together, and why the same person often produces both.

    The collisions happen when the goals compete. A few examples:

    • Marketing wants a bold, urgent campaign. Communications knows a sensitive partner conversation is underway and the wrong tone could cause damage.
    • Communications wants a careful, measured statement on a hard issue. Marketing knows the audience will scroll right past it.
    • Marketing wants to feature a client’s story to boost a fundraising push. Communications is weighing that person’s privacy and dignity.

    None of those are wrong instincts. They just need someone with the authority and context to weigh them. When nobody owns that call, the loudest deadline wins.

    Who should make the call

    In most organizations, the tie-breaker should be whoever is accountable for reputation, usually the communications lead working directly with the executive director or CEO. That doesn’t mean communications always wins. It means the person deciding can see the whole picture, not just this week’s campaign.

    A quick gut check I use before anything sensitive goes out:

    • Would we be comfortable if a funder, a client and a reporter all saw this on the same day?
    • Does it match what we’ve already told staff and the board?
    • If it’s misread, do we have a plan for the follow-up?
    • Is the person or community being featured better off, or just more visible?

    If any answer feels shaky, slow down. A campaign can usually wait a day. Trust takes much longer to rebuild.

    Why leaders need both

    Marketing without strategic communications

    You get activity without alignment. Campaigns perform, but the story drifts. Staff hear about new initiatives on social media first. A press inquiry lands and nobody knows who answers it. The brand looks polished on the outside and feels confusing on the inside.

    Strategic communications without marketing

    You get alignment without growth. Everyone understands the mission, the board is well informed and the statements are careful. But nobody new hears about you. Enrollment, donations or sales stay flat because nobody is asking audiences to act.

    Both, working together

    You get a clear story that holds up under pressure, and campaigns that move people because they’re built on that story. That’s the goal.

    When I was Director of Communications, Technology and Data at Tri-County Action Program, a big part of the job was advising the executive team and the Board. That’s strategic communications: deciding what stakeholders needed to understand, in what order and from whom. I finished a rebrand already underway there, and the social, newsletter and website work I led grew engagement across every channel. That was the marketing side doing its job on top of a clearer story.

    Today, as Marketing Specialist at Catholic Charities of the Diocese of St. Cloud, I spend real time on work that never shows up in a campaign report: stakeholder surveys, CRM planning, how client stories are told and how internal teams talk about the work. Those choices shape what the marketing can credibly say.

    How to set up both on a small team

    You don’t need two departments. You need two clear jobs, even if one person holds both. Here’s how I’d set it up:

    1. Write down the core narrative. Three to five sentences on who you are, why you matter and what’s changing. Both disciplines draw from it. If you’ve never pressure-tested yours, a one-week brand audit is a good place to start.
    2. Map stakeholders, not just audiences. Customers and donors are audiences. Staff, board, funders, partners and the community are stakeholders. List what each group needs to know and who tells them.
    3. Give communications a seat with leadership. The person responsible for reputation needs to hear about decisions before they’re announced, not after.
    4. Set a simple escalation rule. Decide in advance which topics get communications review before anything goes out. Safety, finances, legal matters, partnerships and clients’ personal stories are a good starting list.
    5. Measure each one honestly. Track conversions and reach for marketing. Track internal understanding, stakeholder feedback, media tone and issue response time for communications.
    6. Plan on one calendar. Campaign launches and major announcements should live in the same place, so neither side surprises the other.

    How to tell which one you need right now

    If you’re a leader deciding where to invest next, ask yourself:

    • Are our campaigns performing, but our staff and board are confused? Invest in strategic communications.
    • Is our story clear, but our growth is flat? Invest in marketing.
    • Are we weak at both? Start with communications. A clear story makes every marketing dollar work harder.

    Then look for someone who can do both and knows the difference. That person is rarer than they should be. You can read more about my background in strategic communications and marketing on the About page.

    Key takeaways

    • Marketing drives action from defined audiences. Strategic communications builds understanding and trust across all stakeholders.
    • They share tools but have different goals, and those goals sometimes collide.
    • Someone with authority and context needs to own the tradeoffs.
    • Small teams can run both with a core narrative, a stakeholder map, an escalation rule and a shared calendar.
    • If you’re weak at both, start with communications.

    Frequently asked questions

    What is the difference between strategic communications and marketing?

    Marketing focuses on persuading specific audiences to take an action, such as buying, donating or enrolling. Strategic communications focuses on building understanding, trust and reputation with all stakeholders, including staff, board, partners, media and the community.

    Can one person handle strategic communications and marketing?

    Yes. On many small teams, one person does both. It works best when that person has access to leadership decisions, a written core narrative and clear rules about which topics need extra review before anything goes public.

    Which should an organization invest in first?

    If the organization’s story is unclear or inconsistent, invest in strategic communications first. A clear, credible narrative makes marketing campaigns more effective and less risky.

    / Work with Brittany

    Need someone who can protect your reputation and still grow your audience?

    Hiring a marketing leader or need a hands-on partner for a project? See how we can work together or send me a note.