Colleen Wilson, Point Guard, Ironwood Book Shop, 85-86
March Madness 2022 wrapped up on Monday, April 4 and it was good to be fully back! Upsets, underdogs and crowds that were overly excited for their team to keep dancing! The sounds of brackets busting and 64 teams with a chance to head to the Final Four.
Streetlight Digital has quite a few college basketball fans and we couldn’t escape the opportunity to lean into what March Madness could teach us all as we move back into our regularly scheduled programming of marketing, fundraising and helping the communities we serve. Below are three key takeaways from yours truly.
Underdogs Matter
We see it every year. Who will that first round upset be? Who will take down a #2 or even a #1 seed? This year was no different and when the Saint Peter’s Peacocks and Coach Shaheen Holloway went all the way to the Elite 8, there was a large crowd of new fans wanting to see this little team (whose entire basketball budget is $1.2M) go all the way to the Final Four. Although they fell short as they took on UNC, a Twitter post by Holloway before their final game stuck with me. He posted an old statement from Texas head coach Chris Beard, in which Beard asserted that his team needs to “Stay the course.”
Whether we are planning a digital marketing campaign, an event, or trying something new, staying the course is a great piece of advice. Stick to what you know about your audience, your plan and preparation and your goals. Keep showing up for your team and those you serve and don’t give up — Stay the Course. Because every single nonprofit exists for the underdog.
Master the Fundamentals
It was Bobby Knight who said, “Good basketball always starts with good defense." You can’t win on offense alone. That’s why when basketball teams watch footage and tapes, they are training themselves to know the other team’s offense so they can play great defense.
The same applies when we are bringing new and exciting initiatives into our marketing and fundraising programs. It seems that every week something new is added to our space — from Facebook Challenges, Cryptocurrency and Bitcoin, TikTok and how we play in all the spaces — but before adding these new things, we must truly master the fundamentals.
It’s hard to bring on something new or expect growth when you aren’t cultivating and stewarding the audience or event participants that you already have. We’ve seen organizations abandon fundraising campaigns quickly because they ‘aren’t taking off’. But what’s happening is that we aren’t leaning into the fundamentals of really good strategies when it comes to marketing and fundraising. Simply put — adding something new won’t make the fundamentals disappear.
You Won’t Have a Championship Team Every Year
It’s true. 64 teams every year, and only ONE can win the whole thing. How was your 2020 and 2021? Did it feel like a championship year or mostly swimming upstream and just trying to hang on. When a pandemic hit, we all had to change up our marketing, fundraising and staffing strategies. It was an incredibly hard couple of years and only a handful emerged victorious. And hear this — that’s OK.
Every year won’t bring in 5,000 new participants to your event. The same people won’t give at year-end or engage on Giving Tuesday. Maybe that ad creative that you launched didn’t convert like you thought it would. What matters is this: You bring your best strategy, preparation and heart to the table, but that doesn’t always translate into success. Winning doesn’t guarantee future success, and losing does not define your future either.
Until next year — this Hoosier fan is waiting for her team to return to the Final Four and a championship!
— Words and wisdom from Colleen Wilson-Legge, Senior Strategist