Unit 3: Marketing
As you build your family philanthropy program, it’s important to develop a strategy for marketing your program to families, family offices, estate planners, and other advisers who work with families in your community. This unit will help you develop your marketing plan and provide you with examples of how some community foundations are marketing their family philanthropy services.
DO: Building an Effective Marketing Strategy for Families [members only]
This worksheet from Turn Two Communications provides an overview of the key questions community foundations should answer as they build a marketing strategy for their family philanthropy programs.
READ: The Big List of Today’s Marketing Channels
This public Google Sheet by consulting firm Smart Insights provides a running, updated list of potential marketing channels that can be used to reach your key audiences. As you build your strategy, you can use this list to identify your foundation’s existing marketing channels — and those that might be of value to reaching target audiences in your community.
READ: Sample Marketing Messages for Community Foundations [members only]
Turn Two Communications reviewed community foundation marketing materials and compiled some common messages for donors and their advisors.
BORROW AND ADAPT: Family Philanthropy Marketing Samples [members only]
Fortunately, a number of community foundations have already developed successful materials that help market their family philanthropy services. This resource collection provides you with samples contributed by The Philanthropic Initiative and a number of community foundations.
TUNE-IN (60 minutes): Topical Call — Marketing Your Value-Add [members only]
How does your foundation clearly describe the value of your family philanthropy services to advisors and donors? Donna Coury, J.D., Director of the Center for Family Philanthropy at the Akron Community Foundation, and Cheryl Venarge, a donor to and advocate for the foundation, led this topical call and shared this story about the Venarges and article on value-added marketing.
TUNE-IN (2 hours and 18 minutes): Unique Value Proposition
Pershing, a BNY Mellon company, counseled professional advisors on developing a powerful brand message that sets them apart from their competition. Pershing published the related report What Do Top Advisors Say and What Do Investors Really Think which showed which words and phrases were overused and which actually resonated with investors.
See the “same old song” descriptions of benefits in the Pershing report. How many is your community foundation also using? Can you instead start using phrases that wealthy prospects prefer?