Casual Articles - How to Design an Effective Marketing and Communications Budget for Your Nonprofit Organization

But, it's always a challenge to determine your nonprofit marketing and communications budget, and to justify it to the powers that be. On popular approach is to allocate a certain percentage of the organization's budget to marketing.

In the for-profit world, it's fairly standard to determine a marketing budget by allocating 10-20% of projected gross revenues to marketing and communications. However, things aren't so black and white in the nonprofit world with our dual bottom line of people and dollars. You can take the percentage approach OR the flat dollar approach.

What's most important is that you establish a detailed marketing and communications budget prior to the start of each fiscal year, and track costs (by strategy and program or project) and results AS YOU GO so that you can analyze cost vs. benefit. The budget should be integrated into your annual marketing and communications plan, with a dollar cost allotted to each strategy (direct mail, email, paid advertising, media relations, etc.) and program or project, each of which should be broken out by its various components (consulting, evaluation, printing, postage, etc.).

Each organization's plan (and budget) will cover a unique set of components. Don't forget to budget for the tasks - such as researching your audiences and evaluating outcomes - that give you the information to make your selected strategies as successful as possible.

The Percentage Approach

This approach is favored by those who believe that marketing and communications expenditures should directly reflect a nonprofit's evolution and the size of its budget. Personally, this is the approach I prefer. The advantage of developing a budget based on your organizational finances is that it's organic. Communications spending grows as does your organization. Of course exceptions are made for special needs such as the launch of a new program, introducing new leadership, or tackling an urgent advocacy campaign.

The average allocation is from 9-12% of your annual organizational budget (start with 10%). Advocacy organizations tend to allocate a higher percentage (12% or higher) of their organizational budgets to communications, since much of their advocacy work is communications based.

Here's a highly-simplified example of a budget shaped by the percentage approach:

2% Purchasing all advertising and promotion media, including newspaper, radio, TV, and direct mail (postage).

+

4% Producing (design, artwork) and printing all communications. This includes newsletters, brochures, web sites, press kits, etc.

+

1.5% Producing special events.

+

3.5% Salaries, consultants and freelancers. El Paso Employment Agency
There are a massive amount of job seekers in the city of El Paso and many of those job seekers are college graduates, due to Texas University being located there. College graduates can consult the employment agencies here. Various employers including IT and non-IT firms have various job openings in their different departments and the list of vacancies and the other details are available with the El Paso employment agencies. The employment agencies are the third party recruiters who do the work of searching the talents for various positions in the different companies in El Paso. There is great competition among rival companies in El Paso and it has made them inevitable to have the best human resource potent.

In the for-profit world, it's fairly standard to determine a marketing budget by allocating 10-20% of projected gross revenues to marketing and communications. However, things aren't so black and white in the nonprofit world with our dual bottom line of people and dollars. You can take the percentage approach OR the flat dollar approach.

What's most important is that you establish a detailed marketing and communications budget prior to the start of each fiscal year, and track costs (by strategy and program or project) and results AS YOU GO so that you can analyze cost vs. benefit. The budget should be integrated into your annual marketing and communications plan, with a dollar cost allotted to each strategy (direct mail, email, paid advertising, media relations, etc.) and program or project, each of which should be broken out by its various components (consulting, evaluation, printing, postage, etc.).

Each organization's plan (and budget) will cover a unique set of components. Don't forget to budget for the tasks - such as researching your audiences and evaluating outcomes - that give you the information to make your selected strategies as successful as possible.

The Percentage Approach

This approach is favored by those who believe that marketing and communications expenditures should directly reflect a nonprofit's evolution and the size of its budget. Personally, this is the approach I prefer. The advantage of developing a budget based on your organizational finances is that it's organic. Communications spending grows as does your organization. Of course exceptions are made for special needs such as the launch of a new program, introducing new leadership, or tackling an urgent advocacy campaign.

The average allocation is from 9-12% of your annual organizational budget (start with 10%). Advocacy organizations tend to allocate a higher percentage (12% or higher) of their organizational budgets to communications, since much of their advocacy work is communications based.

Here's a highly-simplified example of a budget shaped by the percentage approach:

2% Purchasing all advertising and promotion media, including newspaper, radio, TV, and direct mail (postage).

+

4% Producing (design, artwork) and printing all communications. This includes newsletters, brochures, web sites, press kits, etc.

+

1.5% Producing special events.

+

3.5% Salaries, consultants and freelancers. Wield the Marketing Powers of Postcard Printing
Postcards come in a neat little package. These print materials are no more than 6 x 11 as its biggest size. The postcard is a highly recognizable print that is sturdy and popular. This print even dates back to more than a century ago and still persists today.What is it about postcards that make it enduring? Assuming that all we get in the mails are bulky bundles of bills and tedious letters, receiving postcards in the mail must be a refreshing and attractive thing to get once in a while. Postcards can be really interesting for in that small frame, we can treat our eyes to a feast of colors and images.Postcards nowadays have become more sophisticated and have become more flexible in its uses. to your annual marketing and communications plan, with a dollar cost allotted to each strategy (direct mail, email, paid advertising, media relations, etc.) and program or project, each of which should be broken out by its various components (consulting, evaluation, printing, postage, etc.).

Each organization's plan (and budget) will cover a unique set of components. Don't forget to budget for the tasks - such as researching your audiences and evaluating outcomes - that give you the information to make your selected strategies as successful as possible.

The Percentage Approach

This approach is favored by those who believe that marketing and communications expenditures should directly reflect a nonprofit's evolution and the size of its budget. Personally, this is the approach I prefer. The advantage of developing a budget based on your organizational finances is that it's organic. Communications spending grows as does your organization. Of course exceptions are made for special needs such as the launch of a new program, introducing new leadership, or tackling an urgent advocacy campaign.

The average allocation is from 9-12% of your annual organizational budget (start with 10%). Advocacy organizations tend to allocate a higher percentage (12% or higher) of their organizational budgets to communications, since much of their advocacy work is communications based.

Here's a highly-simplified example of a budget shaped by the percentage approach:

2% Purchasing all advertising and promotion media, including newspaper, radio, TV, and direct mail (postage).

+

4% Producing (design, artwork) and printing all communications. This includes newsletters, brochures, web sites, press kits, etc.

+

1.5% Producing special events.

+

3.5% Salaries, consultants and freelancers. Creating A Business Plan
Creating a business plan is much like drawing a blueprint for the success of your business. It is an exercise that helps the entrepreneur get all of his thoughts in the proper place, and determine what you need to do for success and how to get there, much the way a road map takes you from one town to another.Parts of the plan usually include:an introduction – defining the purpose of the plan; overview of company – defining what the company is and will be; product description – describing the product the company will sell; marketing and sales-outlining the venues which will be used to selling product such as TV advertising, personal selling, public relationsfavored by those who believe that marketing and communications expenditures should directly reflect a nonprofit's evolution and the size of its budget. Personally, this is the approach I prefer. The advantage of developing a budget based on your organizational finances is that it's organic. Communications spending grows as does your organization. Of course exceptions are made for special needs such as the launch of a new program, introducing new leadership, or tackling an urgent advocacy campaign.

The average allocation is from 9-12% of your annual organizational budget (start with 10%). Advocacy organizations tend to allocate a higher percentage (12% or higher) of their organizational budgets to communications, since much of their advocacy work is communications based.

Here's a highly-simplified example of a budget shaped by the percentage approach:

2% Purchasing all advertising and promotion media, including newspaper, radio, TV, and direct mail (postage).

+

4% Producing (design, artwork) and printing all communications. This includes newsletters, brochures, web sites, press kits, etc.

+

1.5% Producing special events.

+

3.5% Salaries, consultants and freelancers. A Review of Jobs in Medicine
We would usually think about doctors and nurses when we think about people who work in the field of medicine. However, the jobs in medicine are not limited to nurses and doctors, there are other opportunities that can be found in the service area of health care. Some of these career options are administrative, and some can be super scientific like lab work or genetic research. Jobs in medicine can be enjoyable if you posses the personality and the training to go along with the work requirements.If you want to work as a doctor, you have to undergo years of schooling and training from an accredited university. The normal requirement for this job includes four years of college work, four more years of cate a higher percentage (12% or higher) of their organizational budgets to communications, since much of their advocacy work is communications based.

Here's a highly-simplified example of a budget shaped by the percentage approach:

2% Purchasing all advertising and promotion media, including newspaper, radio, TV, and direct mail (postage).

+

4% Producing (design, artwork) and printing all communications. This includes newsletters, brochures, web sites, press kits, etc.

+

1.5% Producing special events.

+

3.5% Salaries, consultants and freelancers.

= 11% Total percentage of the organizational budget going to marketing and communications.

The Dollar Approach

Others in the field consider a flat dollar approach to be more relevant (and safer) than the percentage approach since your total budget has to cover utilities, rent, taxes, health insurance, etc.

Defining the dollar figure is challenging the first time round but becomes much easier once you have records of several years' marketing expenditures to work from. Start out with a quick-and-dirty calculation based on last year's costs and revise it to reflect special campaigns, inflation, etc. Or, if this is your first year out, estimate the costs of what you think you'll be doing based on what you know today. Contact colleagues in the field and prospective vendors to get your projections as accurate as possible. Either way, you'll end up with a baseline budget.

Frankly, I've heard a lot about this method as a viable alternative to the percentage approach, but have never seen it put into practice.

What Budgeting Does for You

Whichever approach you take, you'll find that a formal budget is a great aid in decision making. To begin with, your marketing communications budget (and plan) will help you distinguish between needs and wants. You'll see clearly how much you have to spend to reach your goals and, via tracking results, will gain a sense of what strategies work best to achieve which goals. For example, based on your budget framework, you may decide to promote your advocacy campaigns via direct mail and email, media relations, and paid advertising in order to match legislative timeframes. However, you may decide to hold off on enhancing your already strong membership campaign with the launch of a members-only web site.

So start your budget process today, even if you're in the middle of your fiscal year. Make sure that you track costs by category and maintain a spreadsheet of actual vs. projected expenses. By next year, you'll have an accurate map of expenditures that will serve as a great foundation for next year's planning process and a sure means of ensuring you make the most of your marketing and communications budget.

Do keep in mind that your budget will have to be adjusted each year to reflect increasing costs and changes in your organization. For example, launching a new program requires an increased marketing budget for the first year or two so you'll need more dollars or do less on other front

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