Monday, January 27, 2014

How do you plan for the seasonality of nonprofit donations?--from a discussion topic in another Linked-in discussion group

Steven Worth, President at Plexus Consulting Group, LLC

In marketing parlance current and potential markets are sometimes classified in three ways: "dogs"--those markets that are shrinking no matter how much you invest in them; "cash cows"--those markets that will produce reliable returns no matter what, but which are unlikely to grow much more than where they are now; and "stars"--those markets that are growing and merit more investment or you risk missing the boat.

If the holiday season produces pretty much the same return for your organization year after year no matter the level of marketing investment--then it is a "cash cow"--meaning you can probably afford to ease off on your level of effort to invest in developing new lines of revenue elsewhere in order to diversify the timing and source of your revenue streams, which is always a prudent thing to do.

Nothing remains the same forever--so questions like the ones you are asking are healthy and should be explored, even though "cash cows" can sometimes be confused for "sacred cows!"

No comments: