It's Not What You Say. It's How You Say It.

Communication is one of the biggest challenges organizations of all shapes and sizes tend to face. When it comes to your nonprofit, communication is more than just sending out information.

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How Much is Too Much? What Does Your Association Communicate to Members on Governance, Money?

We've all seen what can happen when we are anything but 100% open with our stakeholders...

As social media continues to explode, tranparency is becoming more imperative for charities and associations than ever before.  This is particularly true when it comes to governance and money. 

You probably already know this.

BUT you also know that your members are busy. Really busy.  Why? Because they spend much of their day wearily sifting through emails, tweets, links, Facebook updates, RSS feeds and phone calls. They are innundated with information.

So I'm sure you are also aware that you need to be very careful about what and how much you communicate to them.

I would like to know what your association does in the way of communication about your governance activities, particularly when it comes to communicating financial and budgetary information, to your members. Specifically:

• Do you actively communicate this type of information? If so, how do you target the messaging? What channels do you use?
• And here's an even bigger question...Do your members actually read and synthisize governance information? Do they even care?

I'd love to hear your thoughts.  Also, if anyone has links/leads on other resources that relate to this particular issue, I would be much obliged! Join the conversation by commenting below, or please feel free to contact me directly.

Happy Friday, All!

Flickr Photo Credit: SparkCBC

Listen Up! Series on Member Needs & Satisfaction #6: Three Reasons Why Representation of Member Needs is the Biggest Challenge for Associations

The average satisfaction benchmark in the more than 47 member needs and satisfaction studies we have conducted is just 57% for member representation. This is almost always the lowest score of the five benchmarks we measure. Representing member needs to different stakeholders is often central to an association's mandate...so why is it such a challenge?

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Listen Up! Series on Member Needs & Satisfaction #3: Effective Communication a Bellwether for Member Satisfaction

"What We Have Here is a Failure to Communicate" If you take a minute to think about it, communication is at the root of so many of the world’s problems. Over time, lack of communication and miscommunication has led to many a sore back from sleeping on the couch. It has made people miss appointments and has left them waiting awkwardly in the wrong restaurants. It has battered and broken up the most iron-clad of relationships and caused people to lose their jobs. It has created civil and social strife and it has even led to and exacerbated wars. Well, communication issues are also a major challenge for a lot of not-for-profits.

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