|
[Printer Friendly Version]
Narcissistic Nonprofit Newsletters: Instruments of Self-Absorption
By Michael C. Gilbert, August 8, 2008
I'll be teaching a seminar on Email Newsletter Reinvention and Improvement on August 20 and 27. As often happens in the lead up to my seminars, I find myself thinking about the topic at hand and wondering if there is any way to push the ideas further. This is one example of doing just that.
Look at your email newsletter. Look at the URLs within it. Tell me: Do they link to anyone but yourself?
To be fair, it's easy to fall into self-absorbed patterns with any mode of broadcast communication. From time to time, it's even happened to the most enlightened organizations I know. It also goes without saying that organizations have their own goals and agendas to match. Communicating these is only natural. Many nonprofit newsletters do so with charm and integrity.
Nevertheless, I can't help but feel that something is wrong.
Among all the URLs in all the newsletters that I have on hand at the moment, there is not one genuinely external link. The URLs are all messages asking the recipient to read something on the organization's website, read something that's not on their website but that's about the organization, give the organization your money, or give the organization your time. I know there are exceptions to this rule, but in this small sample, there is not a single link that isn't to a page of the organization, by the organization, or for the organization.
Normally, I would file this away as a good idea for a research project if it weren't for one other fact. Going back over my notes for the last twenty or so consultations I've had with organizations working on email and other communication issues, I find evidence that supports my concern: In three out of four cases where I have suggested genuine external links, the reaction has been one of either skepticism or resistance. "They'll never go for that." "We only have so much space." Laughter.
The documentary "The Corporation" made a strong case that the modern profit-making corporation can arguably be diagnosed as a psychopath. As I consider the evidence that I have at hand, I find myself wondering if the modern nonprofit corporation can be similarly diagnosed as a narcissist.
Although this sort of metaphor can go too far, there are four symptoms of narcissism that are worth considering in this light: (1) the exaggeration of achievements and the minimization of setbacks, (2) a sense of entitlement or corresponding envy, (3) relationships primarily valued in terms of their utility, and (4) the frequent seeking of attention and admiration. Some of these traits are reflected in many organizations (of any type) that are at least partly in the business of marketing themselves. Other traits are just slightly embarrassing exaggerations of typical nonprofit cultural phenomena and possibly not a disorder at all. But to some degree at least, each of these traits are evident in the choice that many nonprofits make to treat themselves as the only subject worthy of a link.
There are seven things wrong with just linking to yourself:
(1) In the long run, if you want to keep your supporters, each item of your newsletter (or your website, for that matter) should be a healthy synthesis of your organizational interests and the interests of your stakeholders. The common cause you have with your stakeholders - for your mission - is the basis for this synthesis. It's very unlikely that, in every single situation, the best link for a given purpose is to you. Is it possible that there's a better resource out there?
(2) Your stakeholders have a broader set of relationships to your mission than is reflected in their relationship to your organization. They have relationships to other organizations whose missions overlap with yours, with other sources of mission related news and information, and with other stakeholders. To ignore those relationships is to abandon your influence over them.
(3) Your stakeholders and potential stakeholders are themselves alternative sources of news and information. As the personal tools for online networking and communication become more powerful and more widespread, you will find that your stakeholders are listening to each other as much as or more than they are listening to you. You can't afford to be in your own little world.
(4) Trust is the most important asset you have. As commercial and political relationships deteriorate for most people, it's an asset that will only get more valuable with time. In order to keep the trust of your increasingly well informed stakeholders, you have to show that you know what's going on and that you're listening to someone other than yourself.
(5) The downside of being increasingly well-informed is that your stakeholders are also increasingly overwhelmed by information. More and more they will turn to those organizations who prove to be the best clearinghouses for the things they care about, not those who toot their own horn the loudest.
(6) Organizations with the best intentions can, through constant self-promotion, leave people feeling used. People don't like to feel used. (Or at the very least, they want it to be mutual.) This can even be true on an unconscious level and it can be true whether or not they know of anything better out there to turn to.
(7) The nonprofit sector as a whole struggles with a powerful brand problem: Are they change agents or are they beggars? Some nonprofits master this balancing act brilliantly, but the expense of one-to-many communication for the last century has contributed to a widespread culture of scarcity, begging, and self-absorption. This culture is baldly evident in our newsletters. But new media now permits us to be as generous with our communication as we want our stakeholders to be with their support. By our actions we can escape the pull of nonprofit scarcity culture and create brands that inspire and enroll.
Your newsletters and websites are the face of your organization, reflecting its attention and focus. What is revealed in them? Where are you looking? Are you looking out at the world side by side with your stakeholders? Or are you merely looking at your hand pointing back at yourself? Which position do you want to occupy?
If you found this article interesting or helpful,
please consider making a donation to Nonprofit Online News.
It will probably feel good!
|
RSS