Nonprofit organizations are often faced with unique challenges, one of which is communication. While communication can be a challenge within any organization, non-profits seem to struggle more in this area. There can be several reasons for this:
Non-Profits are Busy with Their Mission
Many non-profits are service organizations whose mission is to serve people or generate awareness and funding for a cause. Their time, energy and strategic vision are not focused on making a profit, but to make a difference in their community and the world. Individuals are typically driven by doing for others and helping mankind. Their skills and passions are most likely different from those who manage a for-profit corporation and are more likely to be focused externally. Non-profit leaders have different priorities and may have a difficult time developing an awareness of the minutiae that help make any business successful. One of these details is the importance of effective communication. With the best intentions, non-profit leaders and managers do attempt to communicate effectively within their organization. Unfortunately, these attempts are often times not successful for a variety of reasons.
Recognizing a Communication Barrier and Addressing It
There is an assumption that if an organization’s leader/leadership team has been given a directive to communicate a message to their managers, that the message will eventually make its way down to all employees. Often times, not only do these messages not make it down to the employees; they may not even make it from leadership to the manager. As a result, when it comes time to rely on the message that should have made it to its destination, phrases like these begin to surface; “there must have been a breakdown in communication”, “this apparently fell through the cracks”, “apparently there was a disconnect”, and “we definitely have a communication barrier”. It is during this time that poor business practices begin to emerge and a well intentioned non-profit will begin to show signs of stress as it tries to adhere to its mission.
In order to effectively communicate in an organization, its leaders need to be aware of all of the potential communication barriers that could exist; including their own impending inabilities to communicate effectively and consistently. Additionally, it is important that leadership actively follow up and assure that their messages have been communicated. For example, if an organization is changing an internal policy, how will the organization’s leadership know that all of the employees are aware of this change? Is it safe to assume that the managers have effectively communicated this message? In a perfect world, the answer would be yes. Unfortunately, there are times when it is not enough to give a directive that a message be communicated and not have to worry about it actually occurring. Leadership should be able to recognize when communication barriers are occurring, such as a breakdown in communication within the chain of command and address these issues immediately.
Follow up and Close the Loop
It is equally important and effective to “close the loop” when it comes to communication. In this case, leadership could follow up on some level to ensure that the message had been communicated. This could include something as simple as talking directly to employees and asking them if they are aware of the policy change or being copied on the email memo that announced the policy change.
Creating a Culture of Communication
It is critical that leadership and managers promote a culture of communication within their organization. The culture should not simply be about leadership effectively communicating downward to all employees, but should include communication from employees at the lowest level upward to leadership. Employees need to know that their ideas will be listened to and consequently are valuable to the organization.
There are a variety of ways that this type of communication can occur. Leadership and managers can actively solicit ideas and opinions from employees through employee surveys, focus groups, team building exercises, regular supervision meetings and even something as simple as a suggestion box. Employees need to be confident that there is two-way communication between themselves and management.
Effective Communication Leads to Success
By having effective communication within a non-profit organization, its mission and vision have a much greater chance of being fulfilled. By avoiding breakdowns in communication or having critical messages fall through the cracks, organizations can focus on providing quality services or creating more cause awareness and therefore will be more effective and successful as a result.
