Many NPOs, especially those that serve poor people, are faced with a distressing problem – while they may be well known among those they serve, those that can support them have never heard of them. What can you do about it?

Savvy NPOs are highly effective when they use “strategic wrapping” in their messaging strategy – that is, they surround every message with many ways to deliver it. They reason that if the same message is delivered by many sources, it will have more chances to be seen and heard, and it will become more believable.

How do you wrap a message strategically? It varies with the size of your organization and the sophistication of your audiences, but there are some basic rules and practices.

1. Have a clear message with a single topic. For example:
   
   "A few hundred dollars for filters will save thousands of villagers from River Blindness."
   
   "Educating women will increase the economic growth of our country and lower population growth."
   
   "If we can double the number of micro loans in this region, we turn poverty into success and raise the standard of living for everyone."


2. Determine who needs to hear your message – foundation staff, development bank executives, middle class television audiences in donor countries, elite audiences in your own country, etc. Keep in mind that you will likely have more than one audience.


3. Do some research to determine how your audiences receive information. Talk to local radio and television stations about what audiences they cover. Talk to other organizations about the kind of people who come to their home presentations. Use your contacts in ministries and development banks to find out what the staff and the executives read.


4. Choose your key message channel, the one that attracts the widest number of people in your audiences. This will establish your message presence. Then build supporting channels, usually smaller and narrower. They will reach fewer people, but they will garner more attention from those few people than larger message channels might.

There are many ways you can wrap your message, including ways that work within a specific country or culture. Let us know how you have gone about it and what the results have been.

smaclen - Oct 18, 2005 12:58 pm (#1 Total: 30)


I have just started an organization that is doing strategic wrapping, though I didn't have a term for it until I logged in here. I have worked with very small NPO's and NGO's for several years. All of the ones I have worked with had a common theme running through them, they are all doing something in mountainous regions. To cut to the chase here, I bundled them up, so-to-speak under one organization devoted to raising awareness of their existence and their work. We use this organization to promote the work of the ngo's and npo's. I would think this could be done in many other areas. Our thing is mountainous regions, but it could be oceans, or air, or people with a certain disability issue, it shouldn't matter. It does require finding the groups who are in this field and getting them to see the sense of circling the wagons for the common good. That last part can be hard. Often you have to get them past thinking that every other ngo or npo in the field is their competition. You can see what we're attempting at www.mountainfund.org and ask me anything you want about it.

Dominique Callimanopulos - Oct 18, 2005 3:00 pm (#2 Total: 30)
Elevate, Inc.


Love the Mountain Fund web site, and the idea behind it.

Makes a lot of sense for groups involved in any given area to partner up. I am aware that there are more and more groups focused on being the fundraising arm for a cause, and distributing funds raised. That's good, because some groups are best at program development, others better at fundraising.

So often, in the past, groups fighting for the same cause get into turf wars. I hope that's beginning to change.

As far as getting the word out, I think there are always different constituencies to cultivate. That just takes hard work and grows over time. A lot of groups can benefit by piggybacking onto concerts, celebrity and corporate events to increase their name recognition.

Most often, the difficulty in a small organization is having the staff to follow up on all the opportunities that arise.

I really appreciate the way some companies really integrate their non-profit partners and benficiaries into their company profile. Many One (www.manyone.net) is certainly a prime example of that. So are some true progressives like Stonyfield and others. Corporate partnerships really offer more than foundations in terms of creative publicity.

smaclen - Oct 18, 2005 4:06 pm (#3 Total: 30)


Turf wars are still a problem, sorry to say. I have a few overlapping groups that nudge each other a little. What I have tried to do, and in fact really insist upon is foster the idea that when one wins, everyone wins. If you are truly committed to the "cause" whatever that may be, then the goal should be the solution to the problem and not YOUR solution or A solution. I personally think NPO's and NGO's should put a time line in their charter that calls for them to be out of business by a certain date. Otherwise, if left open, if there is no "by when" statement the issues never go away. I work full time in low income housing for instance, and in order to get funding to build it you must commit to a 40 year agreement to stay low income. Nice, but here's the rub, haven't we all just agreed then to needing low income housing for at least 40 more years? Isn't this an agreement to continue to wage, but not win, the war on poverty? Ooops. I am ranting, sorry. Agreements are important though and deadlines should be a part of the story. If it involves several organizations working as partners, they should all focus on the problem they were created to solve, look to support what they are doing with the work others are doing (most have trouble getting that) and move toward solution. There will be another problem when you are done with this one, you don't have to close your doors, just close this door.

Patrick O'Heffernan - Oct 18, 2005 11:13 pm (#4 Total: 30)


A good technique for forming partnerships is to begin working at the staff level on a Memorandum of Agreement on a strategic wrapping project. Two NPO's that work in the same or related fields can link up to enhance their messages by sending joint messages to the different audiences each addresses, but crafting and crediting the message so both organizations get the benefit. Drafting and circulating a MOA is a great process for building the relationship that can make 1+1=3 work. Once you put something on paper, meanings become clear, and unclear meanings get worked on until both organizations understand each other, what is expected, and what the joint message is. The final agreement is not really the goal -- it is the process that is important, and the strategic wrapping that results from it.

Africaider - Oct 19, 2005 2:30 am (#5 Total: 30)
Africaid (Kenya)


Strategic wrapping sounds interesting. However, even with publicity, finding possible partners in Africa is indeed very hard. State laws on giving to charities are not favourable as the case in the US where, corporates and individuals give and is tax deductible. This has made it hard to access funding from local supporters. Internet frauds has also made it harder to pitch for funding or even partnership with other organizations overseas despite the great work we do locally. In such a case, how can we benefit from social wrapping?

smaclen - Oct 19, 2005 12:30 pm (#6 Total: 30)


I agree 100% that an MOA is needed. I also suggest taking a look at tools like www.smartchart.org to help with that process. It is a tool for communications. Since partnering is in fact a communication matter, at least in the context we are discussing here, a process like smartchart helps the protaginists really see what they want to communicate together and who they trying to reach. It allows an MOA to flow right out of that process very naturally. Re: Africa. It is harder by far be an NGO in many countries and often hard for a foreign NGO to reach the US audience. Only around 2% of all US giving goes to foriegn NGO's, a large part of the problem being accountability (by our standards I must add) and as you point out, the laws where you are. Partnering with a US NPO can go a long way to overcoming these problems though. Many of the NGO's I work with depend on me to be their portal to the US donor market. I would suggeset you use the internet to identify other organizations who would make good partners and send off an e-mail to start a dialouge with them. This is likened to a sales job though and expect to hear ten NO's to get to a Yes. A program I work with in Tanzania has been able to partner with US and UK companies working there, by the way. These companies often want to support local NGO's to improve their status in the country that is hosting them, so look around for those companies and sell them on why you make a good partner.

Dominique Callimanopulos - Oct 19, 2005 3:49 pm (#7 Total: 30)
Elevate, Inc.


As the founder of a social travel venture (www.elevatedestinations.com), which donates a percentage of all trips to local NGO's in Africa and India, I would encourage developing world NGO's to look to local tourism and hospitality sector companies for some degree of partnership.

Tourism revenues are huge, but are largely exported from developing world countries. It is worth your while trying to interest companies you know to feature your organization as a non-profit beneficiary. This is a trend I am trying to encourage in developing country destinations, as many tourists book travel at generous home country rates.

surya prakash.Vinjamuri - Oct 19, 2005 7:23 pm (#8 Total: 30)
Life-Health Reinforcement Group

How do we maintain ocean of information, you are providing.

I resisted myself not to post.

I find your workshops are quite relevant to organizations of our stature.

But I like to post that each workshop is ending abruptly.

is it that patrick you are going to continue with the previous one's or we keep getting into new and important one's.

An anxiety hope it is relevant question.

 

 

8776302 - Oct 19, 2005 8:13 pm (#9 Total: 30)

New ways to recognize the great work that is being done by NPO's are needed.

We have a new non profit in California developed to promote and reward the best projects in sustainable development. The Center for Sustainability and Economic Growth, a 501(c)3 corporation, is patterned after a European organization, "Energy Globe, the world award for sustainability"( www.energyglobe.at ) and will make awards on an annual basis along with website and database that promotes the best projects that are initiated by US non profits but may have an impact anywhere in the world.

Contact me if you want more information or if you have projects that should be considered. Our website is not up yet so you can reach me at dbaker@csegcenter.org

 

Evgeny Tyrtyshny - Oct 20, 2005 4:01 am (#10 Total: 30)
http://www.atasu.org/eng/command.html

I think Knowledge Management (KM) is a good way on doing strategic wrapping. This is essential level of public participation for decision-making. As National Water Partnership we use a virtual water network for its dissemination. From other side the KM works on capacitating water stakeholders and the public. 

Evgeny Tyrtyshny, Kazakhstan Water Partnership

etyrtyshny@atasu.org

 

Dominique Callimanopulos - Oct 20, 2005 6:24 am (#11 Total: 30)
Elevate, Inc.


I have to say that I really don't like awards in the non-profit sector.

There are so very many small groups toiling away at their mission that may not have the public profile of many of the groups that get awards, but they have just as much integrity and purpose in what they are doing.

Patrick O'Heffernan - Oct 20, 2005 8:00 pm (#12 Total: 30)


I find smartchart a very good intro and tune-up tool. It makes you think carefully about your commuications strategies, and I do recommend it. In the west, where mulitple channels for messages are now common, strategic wrapping is almost routine for corportions which go through a smartchart type of exercise on an annual basis. The NP sector could learn from this.

Dominique's point about groups working but not getting high profile is well taken. I do not agree with her about awards, however. Awards are not always given to high profile organizations, and in fact are used by some foundations and instituions to help small organizations gain visibility. The San Francisco Foundation's annual awards is designed precisely to do this. Rather than eliminate awards, insure that they are "strategically wrapped" -- i.e., serve mulitple purposes, one of which is highlighting a hard working, but unknown group. The tourism comment on Africa is also very helpful. Tourists can be an communications channel. While tourists usually do not go to areas that NGOs are working in, NGOs can come to tourists... put up displays in hotels, partner with tour agencies to put the NGO material in travel kits handed out to tourists, and hold events in tourist areas that will attract tourists who want "to see beyond the tour bus". Materials that are designed to be a keepsake will likely be carried home and shown to friends. If the nGO has an internet connection and/or a website, tourists who attend events or receive materials can be asked to pass them on so others can learn about (and donate to) the NGO thorugh its website.

Patrick O'Heffernan - Oct 20, 2005 8:07 pm (#13 Total: 30)


smaclen and Evgeny Tyrtyshn, could you give us your url's. Sounds like you do a great job and it would be interesting for the rest of us to see a little of it (even if it is not in English).

Also, for those not familiar with KM, see http://www.systems-thinking.org/kmgmt/kmgmt.htm

smaclen - Oct 21, 2005 11:54 am (#14 Total: 30)


Thank you Patrick, my site is www.mountainfund.org

smaclen - Oct 21, 2005 12:08 pm (#15 Total: 30)

I have had some of the same frustrations with tuning in to a conversation just in time for everyone to tune out. Checking back often is one way of course. This site also has rss/xml feeds that you could have automatically imported to your desktop with a program like Awasu, which is free.

As Evgeny pointed out above, knowledge management is a good path to wrapping as well. We added rss feeds to our site that are revelent to the issues people visit our site for. News feeds or topic feeds help to give people a reason to visit your site over and over (stickiness) as well as bump you up a bit on the search engines. For many smaller orgs, it is imperative that your audience not only knows what you do, but why you do it. That sounds like a chapter from the adventures of Captain Obvious, but many orgs are working hard to solve problems that many people did not even no were problems. Sometimes we get so involved in our work that we forget that others may not have the level of knowledge about it that we do, hence they can see you are busy but not get the reason why.

We've been discussing all week in my office our own lack of clarity in defining what we are. It isn't simple, but it should be. We know what we do (most days) but why we do it (i.e. the problem we address) and what our role is (why we are important) gets more complicated to explain. I gotta fix that, maybe today.

Just to chime in for a sec on the awards issue. I like awards, where can I get one

surya prakash.Vinjamuri - Oct 21, 2005 8:39 pm (#16 Total: 30)
Life-Health Reinforcement Group

1.Time is an essential component,for moving with one's Vision & Mission.

2.Covictions should be collective.

3.Faith that we would achieve, should be motivating factor.

4.Process has to be respected.

While I was reading posts these words came in, I was talking to myself so, I transfered as post.

Smclean,Patrick,Evgeny,Dominique & other readers who are reading but not posting,I feel one has to break inhibitions & express.

To grow one has to share apart from what they say & do but also what they think.

We have very small stint in this huge world, we have to come together and dwell what we can do with the TIME - we were given to hang on. 

I see many passing by

Stretching their hands out

We see they need us

While we stretch our hands

Saying I saw hands going

Could you give your bit

So that I give my hand

Before they disappear

Dear friends,

I am experiencing (as each one must have) situations where in we could have saved lives, but we couldn't because we are not resourceful.

Curse if we call is this that you are made feel guilty of your helplessness.

So, petition to Social Edge & individuals like Patrick,Smclean,Evgeny,Dominique & others of the posts, to make attempts of similar nature - To share - so that we don't miss the opportunity - of holding the stretched hand.

 

tutormentor - Oct 23, 2005 6:01 am (#17 Total: 30)
Cabrini Connections Tutor/Mentor Connection


I have lead an effort in Chicago for the past 12 years that attempts to address some of the turf and visibility issues that have been discussed. It's called the Tutor/Mentor Connection.

I started by building a survey process, so I could generate a database of most of the organizations in Chicago doing volunteer-based tutoring/mentoring. This requires constant update, but is essential to everything else I do.

I use GIS maps to show where these programs are located in relation to each other, and to where they are most needed (poverty, poor schools, high violence).

I've created an online library where people can view the maps, and can find contact information for programs in the Directory. This library links to information and organizations throughout the world, making good ideas available to anyone searching for them. The library even contains sections about knowledge management, innovation, elearning and collaboration, so that people can learn these concepts and apply them to using the T/MC as a resource.

I share information that I'm learning, via newsletters that connect programs with each other, and conferences, that connect programs and leaders and information with each other. The conferences are part of a year round sequence of capacity building events that I've hosted for 10-12 years, thus they generate the attention of the media and help us get our story into traditional news channels more frequently than might be possible otherwise.

I focus on non profits, volunteers and business and professional groups because unless we educate volunteers and business and turn some into partners who see this as workforce development, diversity and important to the business, we won't get the consistent investment of leadership that is needed to grow the distribution of programs in any city, or to sustain year to year improvement. One example of success in this area is www.lend-a-hand.net, which is a program at the Chicago Bar Association where lawyers are raising money and recruiting volunteers for programs listed in our database.

At http://msg.uc.iupui.edu/TMC/html/index.php you can see all of this. The web site itself is a demonstration of our effort to develop partners with universities. The site was built for us by a university in Indiana. We're in Illinois.

While I've had tremendous response from peers and people who have used the T/MC, it still is almost impossible to find investor dollars to fund this. PR does not raise money. The visibility helps if you're asking, but unless the ask comes from someone who has a relationship with the donor, or unless the donor is personally involved in the work, finding consistent money is a problem.

Thus or challenge is finding ways to motivate potential donors into these conversations, who will reach out to ask to be part of a venture, just as we ask them to be involved. Since the cause is one we both want to solve, there must be a way to get donors to make as much effort to find us as we make to find them.

This obviously is part of the on-going discussions at the conferences we host.

Dan Bassill Tutor/Mentor Connection Chicago

Patrick O'Heffernan - Oct 24, 2005 10:11 am (#18 Total: 30)


Dan, Thank you for sharing this with us. What a fanstasitic resource. Perhaps you could support it by charging NPO's who use it a small fee, or ask for a donation. I think what you have done is very uvaluable and shold receive much wider attention.

surya prakash.Vinjamuri - Oct 24, 2005 11:15 am (#19 Total: 30)
Life-Health Reinforcement Group

Waited for some more posts.

Must be I have lots of time.

Let me share a story, a real story.

We were adminstering prescribed medicines to a schizophrenic who resides next door.

She was 30 years old and she was accompanied always by her mother.

She is married.

On hot summer afternoon people rushed for our help to my residence.

I went and I saw she was on the ground floor (she resides in third floor) in a prone position and people around her.

They asked me to check whether she was alive.

She was dead. 

I heard people saying she fell from balcony while drying her clothes.

I know & they know it wasn't true.

Her Mother was silent throughout.

Friends, things around here became quite funny.

I see we human beings complicating things.

I keep recalling this poem of mine:

I wonder how sky maintains its color

I wonder how birds keep their flight intact

I wonder how water retains its odour

I wonder how the sun is consistent with its routine

I wonder how the moon remains cool

I wonder how rose blooms the same

I wonder when will we,

Behave as humans ?

 I keep reflecting about my posts, at times I feel ( I think) I am deviating from the workshop purpose but you know, I am not able to resist but to post my thoughts.

 

smaclen - Oct 24, 2005 2:48 pm (#20 Total: 30)


That is great, how can I get it for Albuquerque NM?  Several years ago the City of Durango Colorado was looking into a slight twist on this. I don't know if they ever got it running. The concept was that when a person came to any agency in town that dealt with the poor, they could have certain data entered in this system which would match them up with other programs in the community. For instance, I manage a bunch of low-income housing, so if someone applied to me for housing we could easily cross-match them in the system to see what other benefits they are probably eligible for and direct them to the agency they matched with.

tutormentor - Oct 24, 2005 7:16 pm (#21 Total: 30)
Cabrini Connections Tutor/Mentor Connection


Patrick. Thanks for your comment. We've been charging fees for the May and Nov. conference and selling ads to cover costs and raise revenue for extra expenses. We've also been working with other communities to help them develop T/MC type strategies. Our goal is to be able to charge a fee for our expertise in this area.

So far we don't have any paying customers, but we have had some success with IUPUI in Indianapolis who bartered the time/service of rebuilding a web site for us in exchange for time we've spent coaching them toward filling the T/MC role.

The old saying is "it takes money to make money" and we've had almost no consistent money to build the applications that are needed to collect, organize and share information. Without this suite of tools it's difficult to "sell" a service to another community.

We keep trying to find an "angel investor who recognizes what we're building and is willing to finance the platform development. Until then, just like any other person with a good idea, we're putting it together and offering it to the market using what every resources we can find.

Dan Bassill http://tutormentor.blogspot.com

surya prakash.Vinjamuri - Oct 25, 2005 9:04 am (#22 Total: 30)
Life-Health Reinforcement Group


It was amazing.

Its good the way it was presented.

It can become a reference point for people, who are in similar field.

Congratulations to designers & people behind it.

Patrick O'Heffernan - Oct 25, 2005 9:23 am (#23 Total: 30)


this is what this portal is about, sharing information. Thank you for sharing

tutormentor - Oct 25, 2005 10:07 am (#24 Total: 30)
Cabrini Connections Tutor/Mentor Connection


I've participated in Social Edge for almost 2 years and in other forums like Omidyar.net, Digital Divide.net, etc and it disappoints me that I don't see more evidence of people/organizations moving from exchanging ideas, passing out complements, etc. to actually collaborating to enable good ideas to be working in more places.

I started a thread a while back on Social Edge encouraging people to report any success in finding partners, donors/investors, etc. as a result of time spent sharing ideas in this forum. So far, none have responded.

That does not mean its not happening. Or does it?

India has major cities with high concentratiosn of poverty, just as the US does. It has a technology industry that is challenging the US for leadership and business.

That means there should be business, volunteers and social service leaders in India who'd want to partner with the Tutor/Mentor Connection in the development of its applications and process so that they could apply this strategy to help youth living in India move to jobs and careers, just as we're trying to help those in US cities.

I hope that people who read this make a consistent effort to encourage others to visit the T/MC web site so it can become a refernence point, but so it can also find partners and investors who will accelerate its development, with a goal of using it as a service in their own country.

I'd like to be able to post a message some day soon talking about this forum as a "tipping point" in the growth of the T/MC and in our ability to help others.

I'd like to see others have this same sort of success from their outreach into on-line communities. What will it take for that to happen?

Dan Bassill Tutor/Mentor Connection http://tutormentor.blogspot.com

Patrick O'Heffernan - Oct 25, 2005 11:30 am (#25 Total: 30)


Building collaborations takes mutual benefit, work, patience and luck --the luck often in the form of chance meetings at events. So, how can we use social edge to do this? There are a number of "networking/linkup" websites that provide tools to link people, such as myspace.com.friendster.com, wikopedia.org, etc (for a full list, see http://socialsoftware.weblogsinc.com/entry/9817137581524458/) Many sites, especially myspace.com, are incredibly successful, partially because they appeal to a 14-30 demographic -- which apparently has the time and the inclination to build networks of friends.

Can this be done for non-profits -- a myspace.com or linkedin.com for NGOs? I think it can and I wonder if there is an entrepreneur on this portal who has the technical skills (or a network of people who have them) to set up such a page? Perhaps Skoll Fndn would fund it?

Let me ask for ideas...what would such a page do, what tools would it need, how would it spread the word? Let's put our heads together and see if we can jointly (as in collaboratively) come up with the design for such a website and kic kickstart collaborations among NGO's and NPOs

tutormentor - Oct 25, 2005 4:10 pm (#26 Total: 30)
Cabrini Connections Tutor/Mentor Connection


Here is a web site that illustrates a way to show the connections between various people in a network: danah boyd's visualization tool - http://jheer.org/vizster/

Here is a navigation portal that points people to different issues in a community: http://www.tbf.org/indicatorsproject/hubofinnovation/innovation.asp

This page shows how a database/map can help people learn who is in a specific zip code doing a certain kind of work: http://www.tutormentorexchange.net/Partner/CC/Program_Locator/default.asp

Each of these represent components of the type of navigation tools that could be used to connect people coming into portals like Social Edge with organizations doing work that is important to them, in geographic areas where they have an interest in helping as a volunteer, donor, investor, partner, etc.

If these tools could be developed as free applications, then many people might begin to build them into their portals.

I'm trying to pilot this via the Tutor/Mentor Connection. If I can find benefactors to support our own operations and need to constantly innovate new and better ways to provide our services, I don't have to sell these. I can give them away.

Dan Bassill

surya prakash.Vinjamuri - Oct 25, 2005 11:55 pm (#27 Total: 30)
Life-Health Reinforcement Group

Dan & Patrick,

It was quite exciting to know.Your willingness to further the dialogue from, experiences to expansion.

The concept of Tutor/Mentor is being followed feverishly in south asian countries by one organisation called - Bharat Yuvasakthi Trust - popularily known as -BYST, based in New Delhi.

I think Dan can cross check with their web site and see is it similar or different.

If it is different I like to follow it up.

 

 

tutormentor - Oct 26, 2005 9:55 am (#28 Total: 30)
Cabrini Connections Tutor/Mentor Connection


Can you post the web site address of BYST? Thanks

surya prakash.Vinjamuri - Oct 26, 2005 11:44 am (#29 Total: 30)
Life-Health Reinforcement Group

Please find attached their website.

www.bystonline.org

Love to know further from you.

 

Attachments:

Bhartiya Yuva Shakti Trust.htm (19 KB)

tutormentor - Oct 27, 2005 7:55 pm (#30 Total: 30)
Cabrini Connections Tutor/Mentor Connection


Thanks for giving me the web site link. I encourage you to add it to the links section of http://msg.uc.iupui.edu/TMC/html/index.php and I encourage you to add my link in the Library section of your site.

Next, I encourage you to introduce your self in the Discussion forum, and invite members of BYSTonline to also introduce themselves. As they come into the forum they can browse around the web site and see the other things that it offers.

As they do this they can begin to ask questions and we can begin to explore ways that we might share some of what we are doing and borrow some of what you are doing.

If you also can invite people from local universities into the portal we can begin to find other people to help. For instance, for an on-line discussion to go from just a bunch of people talking to a bunch of people working together to accomplish something, someone has to facilitate a process that identifies common goals, common needs/problems, and opportunities to work together to solve problems, or meet opportunities where every party benefits.

I don't have that ability of capacity, which means to make the portal have a greater benefit we need to find such people to help us and everyone else who we connect with get greater benefit from the time they spend together on line.

When I first joined Social Edge I meet Keeley Stevenson. She's now in Africa, but still connected to Oxford. Just this morning she introduced me to two other people from Oxford and I shared ideas with them that have the same goals as what I'm suggesting to you.

The people who help us be more capable of helping kids in India and Chicago could be people in England or Australia or New York who want to solve the same problem.

Thanks for the link. I like your use of maps to show where you operate. If you could go beyond that and show where the need is, and who else does work similar to what you do, you'd begin to be able to form a network of those people so that together you could reach more of the people who need help. If you show this leadership on your own web site, then you begin to attract more visibility for yourself because you're talking about more of India than just the places where you operate. That's what we're doing in Chicago.

Dan