Oct 22, 2021
”It’s part of our strategy, but we don’t cultivate or mobilise our community.”
The first question is ‘what’s the role of community in your strategy and your mission’? Is everyone aligned on its definition, purpose and impact? Does community have ownership and accountability at Board level?
Secondly, how do you make the case for investing in longer term goals through community, over short term income? How can you make creating, building and supporting community a priority in planning and decision making?
“How do you build a community in an organic way that protects it in the early stages, in an organisation driven by KPIs and annual targets?”
One approach is to take an entrepreneurial approach to building community, reducing the risk and protecting innovation.
Or you take a leaf out of Byline’s book and look for ‘angels’ who will fund your next folly. Think small pots of investment to safely experiment and try something new.
“We get annoyed when it [community] doesn’t do what we want it to do”.
Take a leaf from Depop’s playbook - You don’t own your community. There’s value in embracing a co-leadership model that enables and encourages communities to grow from the ground up, requiring a much reduced effort on your part. You provide the platform, the mission and product, and then share control and creation so your community can grow itself.
Listen to where your community is going, rather than telling them where to go.
Co-leadership can be scary. Particularly in risk averse cultures. How can you experiment with letting go of control? How can you embrace failure? (Remember, “you can’t please everyone all of the time.” [Depop])
“How can we turn belonging into a positive thing? That’s sometimes really hard given our mission.”
Coming out of the pandemic, people are looking to belong. They want to connect. But most importantly, they need hope. But all too frequently fundraising is about need.
Consider an engagement first strategy. Connect, organise and galvanise supporters together to offer a sense of belonging and open door to your mission. Trust that the funds will follow. (If you want some inspiration on engagement first, take a look at CALM).
“We need to stop making assumptions about people and what they want. E.g. they signed up for X therefore they’ll never be interested in Y or P, or G.”
Break out of your segmentation stereotypes. Challenge your assumptions. Look for the intersections and speak to what unites, rather than what divides. How to can you genuinely listen, and then how can you share those insights back internally?
Co-creation is more than just a focus group with your warmest supporters. It isn’t about engaging the same people again and again in an online community for feedback. This is an echo chamber that leads to the empathy crisis. Step outside your comfort zone and go to your audiences.
How and where can you reach and connect with under-represented audiences who currently don't engage with you? How can you reach minority or under-represented groups?
“Community needs to be owned and embraced by everyone. But it still needs management and direction.”
The first challenge is internal silos. Micro-communities sit in pockets around the organisation, each with an internal gatekeeper. How can you challenge and break down silos, in order to look for the intersections?
Secondly, managing community is a skill. Where are you capability gaps and how can you plug them?
Finally, we’ve said it before; community needs ownership and direction. Who at Board level is leading and advocating for the value of community on both your impact and your income?