The strength of a not-for-profit’s marketing strategy is crucial to its success in gaining public support. With a well researched, well targeted approach, it is possible to cut through a very crowded marketplace and gain the awareness and emotional buy-in required from potential ‘customers’. We help organisations of all sizes to translate their powerful cause into a clear strategy, built on a strong brand, with well founded plans and effective campaigns.
If planning and implementation are the drivers of your organisation’s aims, monitoring and evaluation are the navigation tools by which you first plot your course and then ensure you’re sticking to it. We provide the tools and methods that will help you demonstrate the outcomes of your work, prove your effectiveness and show that your strategy promises are being met. We can provide in-house training in the use of monitoring and evaluation systems and advise on appropriate products to aid the process.
Action Planning marketing strategy consultants can help you with:
- Market analysis to identify your target audience
- Workshops to evaluate your current marketing strategy
- Defining USPs, goals, messages
- Establishing budgets, timelines, resources and tools
- Tracking and measuring
Benefits of our monitoring and evaluation services include:
- Shaping strategy and keeping it on course
- Making sure you are measuring the right things (“what get’s measured gets done”)
- Helping to focus limited resources
- Changing your culture to be more outcomes focused
- Demonstrating the difference you’re making to stakeholders
- Boosting internal morale
Our exclusive offers for ACEVO members
ACEVO members are entitled to the following offers within a 12-month period:
- 60-Minute Diagnostic Conversation: have a chat with one of our associate consultants without charge or obligation – to explore specific issues you are facing, and possible solutions.
- Action Planning CEO Profiling+: an online CEO psychometric profiling with a high-performance report, followed by a 90-minute advanced coaching session / one-to-one to explore working style preferences and areas for potential development. RRP – £675+ Vat | ACEVO member offer – £399+Vat
- Exclusive 1-2-1 mentoring for CEOs from Action Planning’s chair: up to 4 hours per charity of 1-2-1 mentoring with Action Planning chair David Saint, who has over 30 years’ experience in the sector. RRP – £135+Vat an hour | ACEVO member offer – £70+Vat an hour
Book one of your Action Planning offers or call David Saint on 01737 814758; please have your ACEVO membership number to hand, ready to quote when asked.
Action Planning’s full charity consultancy service comprises:
- Governance: enhance the impact, credibility and sustainability of your charity by working with our experts in governance and trustee training.
- Strategy: make informed decisions and be sure of delivering on your aspirations when you engage our experienced strategists to guide your planning.
- Fundraising: improve the returns from your fundraising with expert input from our multi-disciplinary team – for both strategy and implementation.
- Marketing: give clear direction to your marketing and communications and turn them into action with help from our charity marketing experts.
- People: find the right people for your organisation and get the very best out of them with our experienced approach to recruitment, training and mentoring.
- Performance: increase your output and deliver on your objectives with guidance from our experienced monitoring and management consultants.
It’s always good to work with people who understand the charity sector. There aren’t many out there and they tend to be rather London-centric. Fiona was very good – she just got it right from the beginning and her experience gave me great confidence.
Julia Baron, chief executive, Shropshire RCC
Case study: better messaging to a remote audience
Shropshire RCC was facing challenges common to many medium-sized charities. Communicating the breadth of its work in a hostile funding environment was causing the team to lose clarity in their messaging while limited resources meant they were struggling to successfully resource marketing at both a strategic and operational level.
We chose Action Planning to carry out this review because it is well known in the sector, its costs were reasonable and it had the people capable to do the work. They gave a good service, kept to the timetable and made changes where they had to be made. Emma was very clear and certainly understood the brief. We got what we expected and they did an independent job, which was important.
Gerald Oppenheim, chief executive, The Fundraising Regulator
Case study: evaluating an important fundraising service
The Fundraising Regulator is the independent regulator of charitable fundraising in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. One of its services is the Fundraising Preference Service (FPS), which allows members of the public to stop direct marketing communications from fundraising organisations. Three years on from the launch of the FPS, the Fundraising Regulator wished to fulfil its commitment to review the service and, after a tendering process, commissioned Action Planning to undertake an independent evaluation of the FPS.
Associate insights
A selection of thought leadership articles from Action Planning consultants:
- Long-term planning: lessons for charity leaders from the pandemic
- Developing a culture of monitoring, evaluation and learning
- Scrabble without the rules – it all spells creativity
- Unlocking the power of customer experience (CX) for non-profit leadership
- Putting your charity on the map
- One from the heart – how to add some love to your fundraising campaigns
- Telling research for reaching young people
- Five ways to improve your fundraising copy
You can receive notifications of all our consultants’ insight articles, as well as our webinars and case studies, by following our LinkedIn page or subscribing to our monthly newsletter.
