A Story About a Failure to Communicate (and How To Prevent it in Your Non-Profit)

 

In a few short weeks, I will be graduating as an MBA. Don’t worry, I promise not to be the Economics-jargon-spewing kind.  It’s been a long haul (three years) and a great experience.  But this post isn’t about Economics (thank God!), Accounting, or Operations...

It’s about a failure to communicate.

The staff that administers my program are lovely people who have bent over backwards to help me time and time again throughout my degree and they are impeccable at keeping us informed about, well, everything. 

About a year ago, my group and I received an email informing us that the payment instalment structure for my part-time group was going to be changed.  My classmates and I all skimmed the message and then, being a little preoccupied at the time with financial models and accounting statements along with families and full-time jobs, most, like me, promptly forgot all about it.

This meant a lot of surprise a few weeks ago when our online accounts showed an additional (and substantial) fee assessment...and anger a few days later when we learned that if the outstanding amount wasn't paid in full that we won't get our diplomas at graduation.

Facebook status updates like "Help me graduate: Kidney for sale (cheap)" and even "I'll remember this when they call asking me for donations" abounded.  It wasn't pretty.

As often happens, this whole situation got me thinking about nonprofits and what they could do to avoid a similar type of situation from happening.  So, without further ado, here are my top rules to remember when it comes to effective non-profit communication:

1. "Tell them. Tell them you told them. Tell them again."  Your members, donors and other stakeholders are probably busy people.  Email is great but if your members are anything like me, they get dozens upon dozens of messages every day. They have a lot of things competing for their attention so if you want your message to stick, you need to tell it several times using different delivery channels like direct mail, newsletters, phone and social media outlets.

2. Make it Easy. Be concise, clear and make sure all of the necessary information is easy to see and absorb in your messaging. When I finally dug up the email about the new payment schedule, the schedule itself was at the bottom of the third page of an attachment I hadn't even seen when I originally received the message.

3. Use Goal-Oriented Messaging. Communicate a purpose or goal related to your message and then use your messaging to show clearly where you stand relative to that end result. In my case, it would have been great to receive regular updates with information about how much tuition I had already paid, how much I still had owing and when each remaining instalment was going to be due.

4. If it’s Broke, Don't Be Afraid to Fix It. When several of your members are running into the same issue, there is probably a problem with the way you are communicating.  Talk to them about what went wrong and what you can do to avoid the same thing from happening again in the future.

5. Make Sure Someone Takes Ownership. In my case, part of the problem is that two departments (my program department and Accounting) were involved in communicating the payment schedule change...and each assumed the other was doing the communicating.  To ensure the messages don't fall through the cracks, it helps to make sure one person or department has the overall authority (and accountability) for making sure that communications are sent out, received and absorbed by the members.  They can also act as a liaison stakeholders can speak directly to if there are any questions or concerns.

There are many other good rules of thumb when it comes to effective communication...what are some of your favourites?