How to Increase Your Non-Profit’s Visibility

We are coming up to the end of the year and I want to ask you a question.

Was your organization as visible as you hoped it would be this year?

For instance, is your organization recognized as an issue expert in your local community? Is your organization participating in local, regional, or even national conversation related to its mission?

It's no secret that non-profits benefit from visibility. Whether that's exposure through local media outlets or even just taking a more proactive role in what you say to your email list, sharing your organization's opinions, expertise, and stories has the ability to increase brand recognition, grow your audience, and increase fundraising revenue.

Of course, that's all well and good theoretically but how can your organization actually do this? Even if you've got a tiny team. Even if you've got no budget.  

It comes down to one simple idea -- lead the conversation.

More often than not, there are already people having conversations about the issue(s) your non-profit works on. This could be in the form of news stories, social media interactions, policy discussions, and so on. And participating in these conversation often doesn't cost organizations a dime. ​

Your job (your opportunity, really) is to seek out where these conversations are happening and to find ways to participate in them.

I believe there is a lot of opportunity out there for your organization to get in front of the right people and get your message heard. This strategy is a path to increasing your visibility with the right audience that cares about issues you care about. 

3 Questions to Ask Yourself to Get Strategic About Leading the Conversation

Taking a proactive role in public conversations starts by answering these three questions.

#1 What conversation(s) is our non-profit participating in? What conversation(s) should it be participating in?

#2 Who else is talking? What institutions, agencies, organizations, people, and so on are active in the conversation?

#3 What unique perspective do we bring to the conversation?

Set a timer for 10 minutes and brainstorm or free write answers to these questions. If you work with a team, get everyone to brainstorm, too. These are your first steps to charting your path to greater visibility.