Strategic Marketing for Not-for-Profit Organizations : Program an - hardcover

This groundbreaking book applies tested marketing principles to the operation of a wide variety of human-service agencies and other not-for-profit organizations where business practices are typically considered incompatible with the public interest. Arguing that the marketing orientation can be extraordinarily useful in defining, developing, targeting, and promoting virtually any service or program, Armand Lauffer shows how the strategic marketing approach actually "increases the likelihood that professional activity will be responsive to consumer needs and societal concerns."

Lauffer emphasizes that the marketing approach to service delivery seeks to reconcile the often conflicting interests displayed by the various consumers, auspice providers, funders, and other publics with a stake in the system. Throughout, he strives to harmonize the traditions of community organizing, social planning, and business marketing with some of the latest, most timely and invaluable techniques available in strategic marketing today.

Lauffer begins by defining the marketing terminology central to program and resource development -- especially the five P's of products, publics, price, place, and promotions. Next, he introduces the concept of exchange, in which individuals and/or organizations cooperate to achieve shared or complementary objectives. He then explains that the degree to which an organization's three publics -- throughput (staff, volunteers, and members), input (providers of resources and legitimacy), and output (consumers) -- accept its programs and services determines its niche in the market.

The core of the book is devoted to discussing how to: establish and maintain productive exchange relationships; use a strategic marketing approach to assess, design, locate, price, budget, schedule, and evaluate a program; raise money; increase grants, contracts, and allocations power; and spotlight programs and services through print and broadcast media as well as personal appearances and presentations. A final chapter, "The Marketing Audit," demonstrates that taking stock of an organization's total marketing operation brings out the integral connections between the needs and resources of marketing, program development, and the larger environment.

Sharing both his own experiences and those of colleagues in a variety of human-service occupations, Lauffer includes a wealth of authentic case vignettes to illustrate successful (and occasionally unsuccessful) marketing practice. He also provides helpful chapter exercises that ask readers to apply what they've learned to their own areas of interest and concern. A challenging simulation game, Compacts II, allows them to test their complete understanding of the range of strategic marketing approaches explored in the book.