This post doesn’t deal with the nuts and bolts of marketing and communications. But it contains a lesson for all nonprofit communicators at this time.
Yes, donations are down across the United States. Yes, budgets are being cut. Yes, you’re lucky if you received a salary increase.
But perhaps more than ever before, nonprofits and charities need to be more creative and innovative if they are going to succeed in fulfilling mission and vision. These times call for courageous leadership. These times call for trying new and different approaches and strategies. These times call for an acceptance of failure.
There’s more to gain from trying and failing because valuable lessons are learned in the process. Learning is more important and takes more courage than reporting status quo efforts to your executive director and executive board.
The following video from Honda is an outstanding example of the importance of failure. I hope it will inspire you as much as it motivated me to write this.