Five ways to keep your communications plan alive

We’ve all seen it happen. An organization invests a lot of time and money into a communications or marketing plan, and then it sadly lingers in a file collecting virtual or literal dust. This may happen due to turnover, where staff who led the process are no longer there; an unexpected crisis that requires immediate attention; distraction by the latest communications channel or tactic that team members want to focus on above all else; or the busy realities of the everyday stampeding over proactive planning.

Understanding why nonprofit communications plans often fall inactive can help you take proactive steps to address the issue if your organization is in a similar situation. Here are five actions you can take to keep your communications plan alive, and manage it from a more strategic — and less tactical — place.

1. Revisit the planning process (or get started).

When creating your nonprofit’s communications or marketing plan, don’t do it in isolation. Invite key staff into the process of building the plan so they are more likely to adopt it. Not sure who that is? Consider the people you’ll need buy-in, ideas, and feedback from to make implementation successful. And if you’ve already created your plan, you can still apply this step to any updates you make as you refresh your approach.

Another process suggestion is about the content of the plan itself. It’s exciting to be bold and come up with many things you could do — and that is certainly how the process should begin. As you evolve the plan, we encourage you to set clear priorities. A simpler plan with a few focused strategies is easier for folks to remember and follow than one with so many ideas that reading it feels overwhelming, let alone doing it!

You also want to make room for new opportunities that may emerge during the year, after you’ve written your initial plan. Leave space to accommodate unexpected changes, allowing pivots while concentrating on primary goal(s), and avoid locking yourself too deeply into specifics. Consider noting what strategies and tactics are musts, shoulds, or coulds, so it’s clear to everyone what the priorities are vs. what you may take on if capacity allows. Keeping the plan focused and pragmatic will help keep it useful and alive.

2. Assign plan management as part of someone’s job.

Communications plans articulate goals, audiences, strategies, tactics, and timing, but they don’t always include a work plan. A work plan usually designates what will happen when, and which staff person makes it happen. Whether you have a detailed work plan with assignments or not, one thing you can do is set overarching roles to keep the communications plan alive. Make someone the owner (if you follow MOCHA), the driver (if you follow DACI), or the manager in whatever tool works for your culture. Their job description should include: updating the plan and referring to it consistently, gathering reports on activities, hosting regular meetings, and sharing updates to colleagues beyond the communications team.

3. Create a tracking tool and update it monthly.

Many communications plans use a strategic framework that includes a set of objectives that provide measurable indicators related to your goals. For example, if the goal is to increase engagement, one objective may be tied to the click-through rate of your emails. If you are using a lot of different tools and technologies to manage your communications and marketing, create a spreadsheet that tracks activities and performance across each channel. If you are using more robust systems, you may have a dashboard that has already been created and updates automatically. Whichever tool you’re using, check to make sure it’s capturing the right information based on how you want to measure the success of your organization’s efforts.

More than the tool and collection of data, though, is what you do with it, which leads us to the next action.

4. Meet quarterly and consider what should change.

With your tracking tool or dashboard updated each month, start meeting quarterly to review what happened for the past few months. Did any numbers change significantly quarter over quarter or year over year? Beyond data, zoom out and discuss your staff and your community — and what’s happening for them. Has anything happened that would suggest there is more or less you should do with your communications? Have you received any anecdotal feedback or noticed shifts in behaviors from key audience groups? Collecting feedback from your internal and external audiences can help make sure the plan remains relevant and strong.

One of our favorite questions to ask in a meeting like this is, “What should you stop, start, and test?” Use the quantitative data and qualitative conversation to look at what you’ve done and what you have planned in the next quarter or two. As former Duck, Elizabeth Ricca, shared in this post, “Resetting once a quarter lets you take into account things like staff comings and goings, shifts in organizational priorities, and just the realities of things moving faster or slower than you expected at the start of the year.”

5. Share the plan again (and again).

If you are the person tasked with keeping the plan alive, chances are that you could rattle off the key elements in your sleep. Depending on your organization’s size and distribution of responsibilities, you may be the only one who knows the plan well. So, it’s also part of your job to remind folks what’s in it. If you opt to update the plan following a quarterly review, sharing a reminder will also help ensure folks are aware so they can continue to support what you or your team are trying to do

Here are some specific things you can do to build the collective consciousness about the plan throughout your nonprofit organization:

• Host “lunch and learn” brown bag sessions with guest speakers. Invite other staff or partners to share something they did or will be doing from the plan. Invite feedback or provide ways folks can take part.
• Post quarterly updates on Slack, Teams, or whatever internal communications tool you use. Report on a bird’s-eye level with a look back and look ahead, so your colleagues are aware of what you’ve been doing and what’s coming up about your communications activities. Include a link to the plan for those who want to dive in deeper.
• Share highlights at all-staff meetings. Use these times to celebrate wins, speak to any significant results you’ve achieved, recap any big changes you’ve made, and shine a spotlight on what’s to come.

Looking for other ideas or even a new approach to creating a communications plan?

Before you can keep your communications plan alive, you need to develop one. If you don’t already have a plan or are looking for inspiration to update your plan, we’ve got more resources for you. In early 2025, we are hosting a four-part series to help nonprofit staff build a marketing and communications plan. These sessions will provide tools you can use to establish your goals, audiences, strategies, tactics, channels, timing, metrics, and more. You’ll be able to ask questions of our team and other participants. These sessions will also build your skills and give you a template you can use year after year.

What practices does your team have in place to keep its communications plan alive? Comment on this LinkedIn post and share your tips.