Creating a Content Strategy | Spencer Brenneman, LLC

Episode Summary

Although we all believe—and know—that reinventing the wheel is bad, we all do it nonetheless. Why is that? Most often it’s because we don’t think we have enough time to stop and think about our work more broadly. The content we produce certainly falls into that category. So in addition to having a well-thought-out messaging strategy, our guest today gives us clear steps on how to repurpose content smartly and efficiently.

Key Takeaways

The goal is to think about what makes your organization unique and what do you want to put out there? What, what do you want to talk about?

Decide your content’s tone of voice: Are you serious and research-focused? Are you lighthearted and friendly? Certainly grant applications are a different animal, but your website should and your fundraising appeals should reflect who you are.

Introduce board members to all the programs, but let them find the ones that resonated the most with them and go in depth on those. They can talk about them with a better sense of understanding.

With board members and employees, try to engender an understanding and appreciation for social media. Help them understand how it works and why it’s important to the organization. Then, provide them with content to share.

Ensure a robust new board member training program from the beginning and include instructions on how to (and not to) reuse the content you produce.

Consider having a content library beyond grants, but be certain to not simply repeat content verbatim each time.

For new executive directors, think about what content responsibilities you can outsource and which you cannot.

About Our Guest

Stephanie Cory, CAP®, CFRE, is Principal of Stephanie Cory Consulting. She has dedicated her career to the nonprofit sector for nearly 20 years. She has served as an executive director for a health advocacy organization as well as held development and program management roles for organizations serving seniors and people with disabilities. She expanded programming, strengthened infrastructure, and grew fundraising revenue in these roles. Stephanie is an adjunct faculty member for Villanova University’s College of Professional Studies where she teaches fundraising. She is also is a BoardSource Certified Governance Consultant and a Licensed Standards for Excellence® Consultant. Stephanie authored a chapter on boards and fundraising for the second edition of The Handbook of Board Governance, which was published by John Wiley & Sons in 2020.