Are nonprofits sinning?

Viken Mikaelian, the president of VirtualGiving, Inc., based in Pennsylvania, thinks they may be — especially when it comes to promoting themselves.

Mikaelian says nonprofits have to stop thinking they are somehow special and get over what he calls "the volunteer mentality."

His half-day workshop Sept. 4, will focus on "Thirteen Sins of Planned Giving Marketing." That's because he believes nonprofits have to market themselves like any business markets its products.

Mikaelian observes that with the "volunteer mentality," nonprofits decide not to do something because they think they can't afford it. The result is that the nonprofit ends up taking no action at all.

He will warn against "binge marketing" and recommend that nonprofits study "pizza-shop tactics" to improve their marketing.

As the Internet has radically changed how people communicate, nonprofits are struggling to catch up with the need to communicate with donors and prospects electronically through Web sites and e-mail messages. Nevertheless, Mikaelian points out that 78 percent of Americans still prefer direct mail rather than e-mail. "If you resort to e-mail too much, prospects will quit reading and delete anything they see in the inbox from your organization," Mikaelian said.

The average American receives 3,700 marketing messages a day. Marketing professionals say that a person has to see a message eight to 12 times before they notice it. The message, says Mikaelian, is for nonprofits to use direct mail: "mail and mail often."

Even knowing these facts, nonprofits continue to think they can't afford planned giving marketing.

Mikaelian's response is that with this mindset, the nonprofit will never have enough money to do its work.

"Planned giving marketing is a state of mind. It doesn't take any money. Nonprofits can partner with community foundations in effective, inexpensive ways to encourage planned giving."

He believes that nonprofits constantly seeking cash gifts are always in quadrant one that Steven Covey outlines in Seven Habits of Highly Effective People. Quadrant one is chaos — everything is always urgent and important.

"You want to work in quadrant two where you are working on things that are important but there's no chaos, no urgency. If you don't seek planned gifts to build an endowment, you will always be asking for annual gifts," he says.

Nonprofits also worry that they will turn donors off by contacting them too many times. Mikaelian dismisses this concern. "Do you get upset at national organizations that send you multiple mailings a year? How many times a year do you hear from your university or a national disease prevention organization?"

Part of the Santa Fe Community Foundation's Technical Assistance Project, this workshop will review the marketing mistakes nonprofits often make.

The workshop is designed to help nonprofits distinguish between myths and facts about marketing to focus on what works and what doesn't.

The workshop will address the best months to mail for organizations on tight budgets, cover the reasons traditional planned giving newsletters don't work anymore and the most effective means of communication.

To register for "Thirteen Sins of Planned Giving Marketing" go to www.santafecf.org and click on "workshops." There is a $25 fee for nonprofits.

Valerie Ingram is the Development Director at the Santa Fe Community Foundation and can be reached at vingram@santafecf.org.