When we talk about communications capacity (and wanting to build it), there’s never enough. What do you want more of? What would increase or enhance your capacity to achieve more with your nonprofit communications?

To better understand where you are today, a good place to start is with what communications capacity means to you. Our capacity to communicate is influenced by a wide range of factors including:

  • Time
  • Human resources (staff and volunteers)
  • Budgets
  • Partners
  • Internal support and buy-in
  • Skills and expertise
  • Strategy
  • Tools

…what else? I recently took the discussion to our LinkedIn group and members shared some very interesting perspectives such as:

“For me, increasing communications capacity for non-profit and charitable organizations, first and foremost, requires external engagement and mobilization.”

“Even when utilizing a decentralized communications structure, volunteers, interns, and internal/external spokespeople, in my career, success or failure has usually come down to the number of full-time paid staff in the Communications department, and both their competence and adaptability.”

“I think communication capacity means the amount of communication channels you have and the quality of communication you have.”

“I know that both the organizations and the public’s capacity are at two different capacities. When either become over-inundated and overwhelmed with communications you can expect the messages being lost. Too little and the same will happen.”

What would increased communications capacity mean for you?

What would you be able to accomplish – for your nonprofit and those you serve – if you had greater communications capacity?

In what ways are you well equipped? What areas need to be developed?

What would help you to get closer to your goals and what stands in your way? What can you do in the coming days, weeks and months to increase and enhance your communications capacity?

Join the conversation during November’s #NPMC Twitter Chat

Please join the #NPMC chat on Thursday, November 28 at 1:00 p.m. E.T. to share your capacity-limiting challenges and get ideas from community members on how to overcome them. If this chat is anything like our other #NPMC chats to date, you’ll plug in to all kinds of specific help and insights from your peers!

Note: the next #NPMC Chat falls on American Thanksgiving but to keep with our ‘last Thursday of each month’ schedule, we’re forging ahead. We hope to get a strong outside-of-the-U.S. contingent and to also lure a few Thanksgiving celebrants away from the turkey and football! Also, we’ll be bringing the conversation forward and exploring it further on January 15 at  Maytree’s Five Good Ideas event. You can register now for the live stream!

Marlene Oliveira

Marlene Oliveira

Communications advisor and copywriter at moflow
Marlene Oliveira is communications consultant and copywriter at moflow and founder of the Nonprofit MarCommunity blog. Having worked in the nonprofit sector since 1999, Marlene specializes in working with capacity building and grant-making organizations, advising on communications strategy, and writing stories and other content.
Marlene Oliveira

@mo_flow

Marlene Oliveira