Have you ever watched a really bad movie? Or worse, a terrible sequel to a movie you loved and asked yourself, “How did they get it so wrong?†The characters seem unrecognizable, the plot has more holes than Swiss cheese, and the storyline is hard to follow. Instead of recapturing the magic of the original, this well-intentioned sequel misses all the marks and fails to understand what the audience loved about the original project in the first place. Your nonprofit’s new program could receive the same reception as a poorly made sequel if you neglect to engage the appropriate stakeholders.
Launching a program can be an exciting new chapter for your organization. It’s an opportunity to further your mission, fill critical service gaps, and increase engagement with your community. When well executed, new programs can also open the door for funding opportunities that can improve your organizational capacity. But only if it’s done right. Adequate stakeholder engagement, an often overlooked component of successful program design, can be the difference between an impactful program that addresses a critical need and one that wastes precious time and resources. I don’t know about Hollywood, but both of those things are pretty scarce in the nonprofit world.
What is Stakeholder Engagement and Why is it Important?
Just as a media production company would engage in market research as part of the pre-production process for a movie, nonprofits must engage stakeholders to successfully execute new initiatives. Simply put, stakeholder engagement is the process of seeking input, feedback, and participation from the broader community, especially those who will be impacted or involved in a new program. Stakeholders usually include intended program beneficiaries, staff, board members, key volunteers, community partners, and donors, to name a few. This list could vary depending on the organization and program in question. Below are some reasons to engage with key players when designing your program.
It considers your community’s expressed needs and interests.
As nonprofit leaders, our work should always seek to empower our communities. With that understanding, we must ensure that beneficiaries have a voice to directly shape the interventions that will impact them. It can be tempting to prescribe solutions based on our personal beliefs and assumptions; it’s a trap many well-meaning leaders fall into. Community members are the most knowledgeable about the challenges they face, have the most valuable insights on their needs, and should be at the center of any interventions that hope to address them.

It creates community and organizational buy-in.
For a new program to be successful, the program beneficiaries must believe that this intervention is worth their time and effort and that they will be better off for engaging with it. Your staff and volunteers must have a sense of ownership and an understanding of the programmatic goals and how they fit into the overall organizational strategic plan. Your donors must have confidence in your ability to execute this new initiative and a clear sense of how their support can help the program succeed.
Buy-in from everyone involved in the program’s execution and success makes your nonprofit much more likely to achieve your established goals. Failing to do this can result in low engagement, confusion, and a lack of prioritization from all parties involved, which dooms your program before it even launches.
It leverages the knowledge and expertise of your staff, partners, and key volunteers and mitigates risks.
Involving your staff, key volunteers, and partners in the planning and designing a new program is critical. These key players have expertise and knowledge that can add value, and they offer diverse perspectives that enrich the program design process. Staff and volunteers usually engage with program beneficiaries regularly and can have insight into challenges and risks from a program implementation standpoint. Partners, whether donors or community organizations, have experience in funding and implementing programs and can provide insight into lessons learned, which can help your nonprofit avoid potential pitfalls.
What steps can your organization take to engage stakeholders successfully?
There are many tools and strategies that can help you get feedback from your stakeholders. The methods you choose will depend on the program in question and your organization’s capacity. Below are just some ways to gather input from your key players.
Conduct A Community Needs Assessment
A community needs assessment is a great way to gauge the interests and needs of your intended beneficiaries. The survey feedback should be used to shape future programs directly, ensuring they’re aligned with the stated needs of the community.
Convene Focus Groups
Focus groups can be conducted with community members, partners, staff, and donors, and are a great way to capture qualitative data. They allow for deeper discussions and real-time observation of participants (facial expressions, body language, first impressions, etc.), all things that would be impossible to capture in a survey.
Create a Committee
A program committee can offer the consistency and momentum needed to get your program from the conceptual to the implementation stage. The makeup of this committee should include some of the key stakeholders we identified earlier (i.e., beneficiaries, staff, volunteers, etc.)
Pilot Your Program
TV networks utilize “pilot episodes†to gauge the interest and viability of a show before deciding to order a full season. Between the time the pilot episode is produced and the show officially airs, producers often make several changes based on responses to the characters, plot lines, etc. Nonprofits can do the same with new programs. Pilot programs are a great way to “soft launch†a new initiative to get feedback from participants before an official launch. It usually involves testing the program with a small group of pre-identified participants to get feedback, identify areas of improvement, and refine the program strategies. Piloting a new program can allow for a much smoother rollout when your program is ready to scale up or go public.
Additional Takeaways for Effective Stakeholder Engagement
Identify Key People:Â Consider who in your organization needs to be involved in conversations about your new program. Important questions to consider include:Â
- Who will be impacted?
- Who has influence?
- What expertise is required?
- Who will execute?
Engage Early: Don’t wait until you have already developed a plan to involve your stakeholders. Early engagement ensures you’re making informed decisions that will set your program up for success from the start.
Acknowledge Contributors: Be sure to acknowledge the contributions of those who have helped shape your program. This recognition could be as simple as including an acknowledgement page in your official program guide.
When you think about it, market research in the context of media production and nonprofit stakeholder engagement serves the same purpose. It exists to mitigate risks and ensure maximum return on investment for the dollars, time, and effort invested. In Hollywood, the ROI is profits; however, for your nonprofit organization, it’s the potential impact on your community, including the lives your new program will forever change.
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