Marketing to the Nonprofit Sector

Ilene H. Schwartz, Director of Marketing at McCrory & McDowell LLC, explains how this JHI member firm has benefited from targeting this lucrative sector of business.

With typical fiscal year ends of June 30 or October 31, nonprofit organisations are ideal clients to offset reduced billable hours in the third and fourth quarters of the year. That is why our firm has made a concerted effort over the past decade to target this market, resulting in a lucrative and growing nonprofit practice. McCrory & McDowell LLC’s Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania location has played a significant role in our success, as the city and region serve as home to thousands of nonprofit entities, not to mention several prominent foundations. However, this market is also highly competitive among local accounting firms. So, how has McCrory & McDowell been able to emerge as one of the leaders in this area?

First and foremost, we encourage all principals and managers to serve on local nonprofit boards and advisory committees. In particular, our co-founding principal, Kenneth C. McCrory, is an active and well known community leader, serving as the chair or board member of many high profile nonprofits. His reputation alone often brings us to the proposal table. In addition, he provides a wide breadth of experience in areas that bring added value to our traditional services, i.e., fiduciary responsibilities, outcome measurements, board development, and executive director/board member relationships. Ken also serves as a mentor to fellow principals and managers of our firm who share his interest in the nonprofit sector.

Another factor is that co-founding colleague D. Michael McDowell frequently offers strategic planning facilitation skills to nonprofit clients who seek to develop solid strategic plans critical to their ongoing success. Most nonprofit organisations lack the leadership and, in many cases, the basic skills to implement strategic plans. In some instances, such plans are nonexistent. Mike customises his facilitation services to lead strategic retreats for nonprofits, and the results have been overwhelmingly positive. Board and staff members who attend these retreats often experience long overdue consensus building. Equally important, solid strategic plans get produced and are then implemented in the weeks and months that follow.

Today we have a formidable nonprofit team whose ultimate goal is to become the "number one" accounting firm for the nonprofit sector in western Pennsylvania. Another critical factor in our success has been an effective marketing strategy to increase our visibility in the nonprofit sector and educate nonprofit executive directors and board members of our expertise in this area. Some of the tactics we have used to implement this strategy include:

The McCrory & McDowell LLC Not-for-Profit Seminar – for the past five years we have held an annual half day seminar in January that addresses significant and timely issues germane to the nonprofit community. Since the first seminar in 1999, our attendee list has grown from 30 to more than 130, and on an ongoing basis we seek new opportunities with this group.

Follow-up, follow-up, follow-up – follow-up is critical to any event that McCrory & McDowell LLC sponsors. There is no greater waste of time, money, energy and resources than attracting a large group of prospects and leads to an event, and then dropping the ball in the weeks afterwards. That’s why the follow-up process after our "Not-for-Profit Seminar" begins the afternoon of the event. In the weeks that follow, the marketing staff work with the nonprofit team in getting face time with these leads, sending out additional information to them, and so on.

Public Relations – building credibility through the media– we have found that media placements are more credible and cost-effective than paid advertising, especially in the nonprofit sector. As a result, our nonprofit team shares the responsibility of writing and being interviewed for articles in mostly print media that reaches targeted nonprofit audiences. In the last year alone, we had over 20 media placements related to the nonprofit sector in national, regional and local print media, including the highly respected Chronicle of Philanthropy.

"Marketing friendly" proposal and engagement processes – immediately after receiving a Request For Proposal (RFP), an email is sent out to everybody in our firm regarding the RFP and information about the respective organisation, including their web site link. The email is sent to all employees – from support to principals – seeking any information and/or ties our staff may have to the respective organisation. Included in the email is the organisation’s list of board members, as often someone knows a member of a board, and if so, in most instances, the staff member calls the individual, providing us with an influential personal contact. The proposal is then developed based on input from staff and research material provided by the engagement team.

No doubt the growing challenges faced by nonprofits today have no quick or easy solutions. However, many JHI firms, like McCrory & McDowell LLC, have developed solid nonprofit practices that can address many of the barriers that threaten nonprofits’ success.

For more information, contact Ilene Schwartz at schwartz@mccmcd.com or 1-412-281-9690.