How to Become a Nonprofit Thought Leader in 2023 – Yearly
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No matter what your organization’s goals are, content marketing is a key component of success. Content marketing allows your organization to gain more traction, visibility, and credibility. Not to mention, it can help set your charity apart from others like it.
While newsletters, emails, and social media content are more well-known forms of content marketing, thought leadership is also an effective strategy for garnering attention and reputability.
So, what is nonprofit thought leadership?
Every industry has a handful of thought leaders, or people and/or organizations that are experts in their field. Usually, these individuals or firms act as an authority in their given industry, and an expert in the trade. From synthesizing complicated market research to spearheading industry change, thought leaders are go-to sources for information.
How to become a nonprofit thought leader
1. Do your research
A huge part of thought leadership revolves around in-depth industry knowledge. Whether your understanding of any particular field is from a more “boots on the ground” approach, or, more of a high-level analysis, a thought leader should be well-versed in the ebbs and flows of the field.
Though effective research can include lots of online articles and reading, it’s important to learn through networking, too. By connecting with other charities in your field, you’ll be better suited to understand the pain points and the successes of the industry. So, be sure that your research includes some face-to-face coffee chats or screen-to screen Zoom calls.
2. Pick a medium
Once you’ve become an expert on a particular niche, it’s important to determine where you might share your insights. For many, LinkedIn has become the ideal channel for thought leadership. For others, a weekly or monthly newsletter with valuable insights is a successful strategy. Whatever your chosen promotional method is, be sure to position yourself as a voice of authority in the space.
3. Get creative
One of the biggest hurdles of becoming an effective thought leader is the ability to stand out. Thought leadership has become so popular in the last few years. Because of that, it can be hard to differentiate your voice, or your organization’s voice, from the crowd.
One way to stand out is to organize your thoughts and opinions in a compelling, easy-to-understand way. Using Yearly, thought leaders can create a limitless number of digital reports. Think market analyses and even brief impact reports! Plus, with templates and drag and drop editors, nonprofit thought leaders can impress any audience—and save time and effort in the process.
Ready to build your first digital report? Check out Yearly’s 14-day trial.
Josh Kligman is the CEO of Yearly, a platform for nonprofits to create their own digital reports. Josh has been working with nonprofits on annual reports, brand and partnerships since 2011. He is helping nonprofits create more engaging, digital annual and impact reports with Yearly. Throughout his career, Josh has helped launch and run nonprofit brand campaigns and media partnerships nationally and locally, using television, radio and web, to amplify the reach of campaigns and provide demonstrated value for non-profit stakeholders. Josh received his B.A. from American University in Communications and his M.B.A. from American University in Marketing Management and Entrepreneurship.
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