A nonprofit communications plan should document the strategic decisions that guide your communications—your goals, objectives, audiences, messages and tactics—along with the practical plans you use to implement that strategy, such as your annual communications timeline and editorial calendar.

But here’s where things get confusing: When someone asks you to “create a communications plan,” they may mean any number of these things.

First, let’s address the definitions. Right or wrong, marketing and communications are often used interchangeably in the nonprofit sector. Even if you are clear on the distinctions in your own mind, odds are extremely high that others around you use the words differently.

So rather than getting hung up on terminology, talk about what people really mean and what they’re asking you to create.

Here’s how we generally use these terms, (although we too use them interchangeably sometimes):

• Marketing is primarily about strategy. What are the goals and objectives? Who is the primary target audience, what’s the message to those people, and which communications channels will best deliver that message? These are the questions you answer in a marketing strategy. You are making the decisions infrequently—you make them and stick to them for a while.
• Communications is primarily about tactics. How, when and where are you communicating? You make these decisions much more frequently, constantly adjusting to match your current needs. When we talk about communications plans, we are most often referring to two documents, the Big Picture Communications Timeline and the Editorial Calendar.

Naturally, there’s a lot of overlap because you need both marketing and communications to be effective.

But don’t get too hung up on whether someone calls it a marketing plan, communications plan, marketing strategy, or communications strategy. Different organizations use those terms differently. What’s more important is understanding which decisions and documents you actually need.

Let’s look a little deeper into these documents.

What Should Be Included in a Nonprofit Marketing Strategy?

A nonprofit marketing strategy should identify your goals, strategies, objectives, priority audiences, key messages and calls to action, and the tactics you’ll use to reach those audiences.

If you are creating a strategy, you’ll want to look at

• The 12 most common nonprofit marketing goals
• The 12 most common nonprofit marketing strategies
• The 12 most common nonprofit marketing objectives
• The 27 most common nonprofit marketing tactics 

You’ll need to prioritize and say No to most of what you see on those lists, saying Yes to just a few (that’s basically the definition of being strategic). You’ll also need to define your target audiences and narrow your messaging and calls to action. You’ll usually articulate these as you make decisions on goals, strategies, and objectives.

Here’s a one-page Strategic Communications Plan Outline that we recommend. Yes, we are covering all the terminology bases! You can fill this in and create a document that is anywhere from 2-20 pages depending on how detailed you want to get.

What Should Be Included in a Nonprofit Communications Plan?

But what if no one is asking you to make those big-picture strategic decisions? What if they really want a plan for the content you’re going to create and what you’re going to share in your different communications channels?

That’s where a few other documents come in . . .

I suggest that annually you create a Big Picture Communications Timeline.

The timeline maps out all of the events and milestones (both within and beyond your control) that will drive your communications in the coming year, along with your primary calls to action and the major storylines you want to share. It’s completed with all parts of the organization in mind: programs, fundraising, and marketing/communications.

Of course, you also need an Editorial Calendar. This is your day-to-day working plan. At a minimum, it outlines what you sharing, in what communications channels and when. You can add much more detail, including who is responsible for what, internal deadlines and workflows, and more. You’ll find lots of advice on nonprofit editorial calendars here.

Creative briefs are also very helpful when you are doing more project- or campaign-oriented planning.

So which document are you being asked to create? Who knows! hat’s why it’s worth having a conversation before you start building anything. Talk through the options above, decide what your colleagues actually need, and agree on what you’re creating together. This communications plan decision tree could help too.