“Marketing and development are one in the same”
Last Friday, Claire Axelrad, a member of Nonprofit Marketing and Fundraising Tips, a LinkedIn Group I am part of, wrote a piece about the importance of marketing and development need to work as a team.
Her posting, Please Stop the Madness in March (and any other time): Integrate Fundraising and Marketing , struck a chord, and is a problem I come across time and time again in my work as a leader in arts nonprofit.
What exactly is the problem? Quite frankly, we are driving are constituents crazy with a multitude of mixed messaging.
I have always believed that development and marketing go hand in hand, and firmly agree that one cannot exist in a vacum and work independently from the other. There are people out there however, who simply do not get this, which is insanity personified!
My recipe for integration:
CLARITY – ALIGNMENT – COMMUNICATION – PARTNERSHIP
Resources and articles:
- Integrated Marketing Group: http://www.imabgroup.net/
- Uncovering Shared Values: Kay Sprinkle Grace
- Four Steps to Moving Your Marketing and Fundraising Teams to a Productive Partnership: Nancy Schwartz
- Marching to a Different Drum: Who’s in Charge of the Brand Experience – Development, Marketing or . . .? Claire Axelrad
Claire Q. Shaw 