Month: November 2010

Continued from previous post…

My previous post was not a lament of the state of the nonprofit marketing industry, but rather a celebration of it. During my undergrad days, my favorite classes were from a program call LAMP -my favorite because it was filled with people really passionate about their field of research- . It is not a very hard program to get into, but through self-selection (intentional or not), managed to attract the best students from the University. You see, LAMP is not a standalone major -you had to take it on top of another major-, leaving only the really motivated willing to go through the process.

Much in the same way as LAMP, the nonprofit marketing industry filters out unsuitable people. A side effect of the pop culture’s portrayal of those in the marketing industry as flashy, is that it then attracts many with an attention seeking personality. This might initially be seen as disastrous for an industry that relies on the agent to passionate about promoting the cause -NOT him/herself-. However, the lack of credit/recognition allocation -as described in my previous post-, filters out all by the most caused focused individuals, ones truly suitable for the job. In my currently short stint, I am truly honored to be working in an industry full of individuals with great passion and talent, and to be calling them my colleague and friend.

Next post on how elements of creaming the crop could be beneficial to your organization…

Contrary to pop culture references, marketers -at least the good ones- are trained to be inconspicuous. A marketer’s role is to draw attention a product, service or cause, while stepping into the background to avoid being a distraction. Compound this professional role be inconspicuous with the traditional nonprofits’ view of marketing -that attention seeking is not proper for the industry-, and it is easy to see why nonprofit marketers often fades into obscurity.

During my currently very short stint in nonprofit marketing, I’ve already had the displeasure of seeing too much attrition from this industry. This is partially due to living in a college town, where there is a limitless supply of bright eyed students who upon discovering the power of the media, tries to wrestle it to serve a cause they are passionate about. Unfortunately for many of them, they quickly get ‘burned out’ due to isolation for the people they serve and the lack for support from organizations still skeptical about the use of media tools.

So here’s my proposed solution to the problem: Make Oct 31st the annual International Hug a Nonprofit Marketer Day (IHNPMD). Why Oct 31st? Coz it my birthday, plain and simple (Don’t judge me; you can start your own IHNPMD on your birthday).

Stay tuned for the next blog post for more of this topic on a more professional level…