NEW TWO-PART WEBINAR SERIES

Presented by Erin Malone

Wednesday, February 4th & Thursday, February 5th

1:00 – 2:00 pm ET (10:00 – 11:00 am PT)

Learn how to turn your nonprofit’s goals into a clear, actionable communications plan that actually guides day-to-day decisions.

Registration for this webinar series is $199.

Recording available if you can’t attend live, but you must register before we close registration.

This webinar is FREE with an All-Access Pass. Pass Holders, RSVP for these events in the For Pass Holders Only section of our community. 

“A goal without a plan is just a wish.”

Nonprofits have no shortage of goals — programmatic, fundraising, marketing — but too often, those goals are just wishes. Why? Because there’s no clear, shared communications plan to turn them into reality.

This two-part webinar series is designed to help nonprofit communicators move from doing all the things to making intentional, strategic decisions that actually support their organization’s mission.

Why Most Communications Plans Don’t Work

Most nonprofit communications plans don’t fail because teams aren’t working hard — they fail because the core building blocks of planning are unclear or misaligned.

Goals, strategies, objectives, and tactics are often used interchangeably, skipped entirely, or documented without any real connection to one another. The result? Teams stay busy producing content, but priorities are fuzzy, decisions are reactive, and it’s hard to explain what’s working or why.

A communications plan only works when:

  • Goals clearly define what success looks like
  • Strategies explain how you’ll get there
  • Objectives make progress specific and measurable
  • Tactics support the plan instead of driving it

This two-part series will help you understand the role each element plays — and how to align them into a practical, cohesive communications plan that actually guides your work in 2026.

Who Should Participate

If any of these sound familiar, this webinar series is for you:

  • Your strategic plan has big, lofty goals and super-specific tactics — but no real guidance in between relating to strategies or objectives. (Or worse, it just says: “Create a communications plan.”)
  • You think you’re doing the right things, but you aren’t entirely sure why you’re doing them or how they connect to bigger outcomes.
  • Your communications team is constantly producing content without clear goals, strategies, or objectives guiding the work.
  • You know you’re overworked, but you struggle to clearly articulate why you need more staff, time, or budget.
  • You personally understand the value of a communications plan, but no one else at your nonprofit seems to get why it matters.

During this series, you’ll gain the concepts, language, and tools you need to lead productive conversations inside your nonprofit and create a communications plan that’s actually useful, not just aspirational.

During this two-part webinar series, you’ll learn:

  • The most common goals, strategies, objectives, and tactics used by nonprofit communicators

  • Which goals, strategies, objectives, and tactics tend to work best together

  • How to customize goals, strategies, and objectives for your specific nonprofit

  • How to prioritize effectively based on your organization’s needs and capacity

  • How, when, and where to document your communications plan

  • How to track implementation once the plan is in motion

How the Two-Part Series Works

This training is intentionally split into two sessions so you can move from understanding your options to applying them with confidence.

  • Part 1 on Wednesday focuses on clarity. You’ll learn the most common communications goals, strategies, objectives, and tactics used by nonprofits—and how they’re typically combined.
  • Part 2 on Thursday focuses on application. You’ll see examples and learn how to mix and match those elements into a communications plan that fits your nonprofit’s priorities and capacity.

Together, the two sessions help you build a communications plan that’s practical, aligned, and actually useful — rather than aspirational or overwhelming.

BONUS!

All participants will receive access to the online version of the Nonprofit Communications Strategic Planning Card Deck.

You’ll be able to:

  • Shuffle through common nonprofit marketing goals, strategies, objectives, and tactics
  • Visually mix and match options
  • Build a “winning hand” that reflects your nonprofit’s priorities and capacity

Meet Erin Malone

Erin Malone is a Senior Advisor at Nonprofit Marketing Guide where she leads webinars, workshops, and community events.

With 20 years of experience in communications for nonprofits, unions, and foundations, Erin specializes in helping organizations transform their mission, vision, and aspirations into compelling stories that resonate with their audiences. Whether through message development, branding, content creation, media relations, or executive coaching, she works at the intersection of communications and organizational development to foster impactful change.

She is also passionate about empowering teams with the skills and confidence to communicate effectively.

Erin is currently based in Brooklyn, NY but hails from a tiny town in Southern Illinois. When not nerding out on the latest trends in communications strategy, you can find her in her garden, on the dance floor, or at her workbench cutting gems and alloying metals.