Being Loyal To Your Nonprofit’s Primary Audience(s)

This isn’t a picture of my first love, but it comes close. Adorbs, right?

First kisses are the stuff of legend. But my first love was actually a ball of white fuzz who fit in the palm of my hand. She was 7 days old. I was 14. She was my first dog, and even though it’s been a decade since she left for puppy paradise, I miss her.

Those of us who have (or have had) pets know what I mean.

But whether your first love was a poodle or your next-door neighbor, it’s time to re-live that “first-love feeling” when you think about your nonprofit’s first-love: your constituents.

No matter how long your nonprofit has been around, most likely it was started to:

• solve a problem that a specific group of people face,
• serve a specific group of people (or other creatures), and/or
• connect a specific group of people to services or solutions or other people.

The common factor here is this specific group – those your nonprofit seeks to serve, advocate for, empower, or all of the above. These are your primary constituents and to my mind, your primary audience.

This doesn’t mean that your donors, volunteers or your support base aren’t important. Of course they are! But in today’s world where you’re engaging with so many different audiences across different channels, despite your best efforts, you might be letting your loyalty to your primary audiences slip.

Here are three ways you can stay loyal to them:

1. Re-kindle the love: Sure, you might be working to save the manatees. But when was the last time you met a manatee?! Okay, even looked at one? Go back and talk to people on behalf of whom or with whom your nonprofit works. Even a short conversation will remind you why this audience matters most. And if you pull a quote or an excerpt from this conversation that you can post online, it will remind everyone else of why your work matters too!
2. Send some love: The people who’ve been part of your journey longest are likely to be your constituents. (Though you may also have some very loyal donors or volunteers.) Show all of them some special love with a card or note – for no reason, except to remind them that they and you have journeyed together a long time.
3. Show some love – publicly: For their 25^th anniversary, the organization that Stephanie and I worked for, Sakhi for South Asian Women, is doing a campaign called People Who Inspire Us. They’re sharing stories, pictures and quotes on their website, e-newsletter and Facebook recognizing those who’ve inspired them over these years.
   Though an anniversary is an excellent hook, you don’t need to wait for one. Instead, you have… Thursdays! Dig out a photo of a primary constituent “from way back when” from your archives, tell a little story recognizing them and you are showing your loyalty. There’s a reason why everyone loves #TBT (#ThrowBackThursdays): nostalgia.

What are some other ways to show your loyalty to your nonprofit’s first love? We’d love to know!