Customer Reviews

Robin Hood Marketing: Stealing Corporate Savvy to Sell Just Causes

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All of us who work in fundraising and marketing in the nonprofit sector struggle with how to sell our cause and win support for it. I started my career in a meals program for people with AIDS - an easy sell - but since then I have moved on to nonprofits with missions that are much more complicated and harder to describe. An outdoor education program that unites people with and without disabilities? An international nonprofit that is helping Ukrainians better advocate for themselves? It gets harder and harder to briefly, concisely, and compellingly describe what we do.

Enter Robin Hood Marketing, which helps you let go of the urge to describe every nuance of every project in painful to your constituents and instead helps you focus on creating clear, concise messages that will compel your donors to give, your volunteers to get involved, your champions to go to bat for you. The book guides you step-by-step through the message development process, how to make a compelling case for your organization - and encouraging you not to worry about whether your constituents understand all the various nuances of what you do, but instead to sell the soul of the cause itself.

Best of all, it is a great, interesting read that I literally could not put down - it was riveting, both for the style of writing and the content, and for the fact that it carries the solution to problems I have struggled with for years. I can't recommend it enough for anyone involved in fundraising, marketing, or proposal writing of any kind.

If you wanted to take over the world MacGyver-style you would need several critical items: bailing wire, electrician's tape, a sharpie and Leatherman. Katya has pulled together several key concepts and strategies into a simple guide to getting your message across and as a result Robin Hood Marketing is the Leatherman of marketing tools. Katya goes beyond the simple `ten steps to get to know your audience' or `qualitative/quantitative research 101' to alerting readers (and nonprofits) about the power of partnerships, messaging and branding. Working with community organizations has made me realize that the keys to their communication success are literally in their backyard and office. We are purchasing this book for each of our grantees to assist in their communication efforts. Robin Hood Marketing will allow the reader to understand simple low cost steps they can take to bring their cause the recognition or action it needs.

Although this certainly isn't a textbook, I use it in one of the graduate courses I teach on nonprofit marketing. Robin Hood Marketing is very straightforward and its author, Katya Andresen, employs a clever mnemonic device -- an arrow -- to help students remember how the strategic marketing process works.

At the tip of "Robin Hood's" arrow is the ACTION that you, the marketer, want to instigate. Once you have defined precisely what action you seek, you move on to considering what target audience (aka group of people) is able to make that action happen. The next step is to think through what message(s) will motivate the audience to act. After formulating the message, you move on to considering the various avenues (or channels) that you can use to relay that message, and so forth.

The bottom line is that Andresen teaches her readers to begin with the desired outcome of a campaign and then work backward to figure out how to realize the goal. It's a very good way to help nonprofit executives who are not marketing pros think through a project, as well as assess the results of their work.

There are some portions of the book that stretch the arrow metaphor a bit, but those lapses are minor and I don't view them as serious stumbling blocks to the learning process. Overall this is an excellent guide to help nonprofit organizations move beyond just getting visibility to creating a campaign that is measurable and has a far better chance of delivering specific results.

This is an excellent resource for individuals working in the field of public service. Andresen does a remarkable job of teaching organizations how to find their "sweet spot" and how to convey complex messages in simple terms that compel audiences to take action. Her writing style is fun and engaging. I used this book for a graduate project at NYU and will be sure to refer to it regularly when I jumpstart my career. I highly recommend this essential tool. Thanks again!

I am new to the field of marketing and _Robin Hood Marketing_ gave great handles for me to "dig right in." I recommend it to anyone working to improve the profile of an organization -- from those in established (and entrenched) non-profits to those just getting their bearings as they move forward with a new idea to change the world.

If you work in Development, PR, or Marketing for a nonprofit, I highly recommend Katya Andresen's work. Robin Hood Marketing is an excellent primer on how to target an audience with action in mind. Because we tend to be very passionate about our causes, we often make the mistake of approaching people with the mindset that they need to be as passionate about our causes as we are. However, Ms. Andresen does a great job of reminding us that what we need most is for people to take certain actions that advance our causes. If they become passionate about our causes, then great. If they don't, but are willing to support our work through their voice, funds, or actions, we have achieved something important. We need to be more concerned about meeting the target audience's needs with our cause. So often, we become too focused on "us" and not focused enough on "them."

If you want to be inspired, challenged, and better equipped to make a big social impact, then READ THIS BOOK!

Robin Hood Marketing is a real asset to any non-profit (or for profit business) that wants to be armed with a great model and plan to be successful. Well written and easy to follow, Katya Andresen has really followed her own advice and written a book that is engaging and meaningful to her audience.

I picked up this book to assist me with a work-related project on marketing, something about which I know nothing. Having read the book, I now feel confident that I can handle the assigned task. Andresen covers all the basics and writes in a very accessible way. You can see her applying her own teaching as she writes. She connected with me via very powerful stories about succesful marketing efforts, gave me a sense that I will get a reward (professionaly and intellectually) from applying her principles, and has inspired me to take action - apply the principles to other segments of my work, not just the present task. Anyone in the non-profit sector or government who needs to influence customers should read this book. I know of many instances in the past were projects were started and everyone thought they would succeed because of the good intentions behind them. Not so. As Andresen shows, you need to market you projects to targeted audiences and do so using their values, not yours. This may be a hard pill to swallow for idealisitc individuals, but a nececssary one if you want to acheive your goals.

If I were to recommend only one book on marketing for nonprofit organizations, this would be it. After reading this book by Katya Andresen, you will think differently about how to engage your target audience. Everyone doesn't think like you (or me) and Katya does a great job describing how to get the attention and actions of others.

There are hundreds of useful marketing books out there, but few authors have cut through the clutter to give practical strategic advise to non-profits in as effective way as Katya Andresen. Her experiences have led her to come up with simple to follow principles, that are backed up by excellent examples by a variety of experts in the field. Much of it is "common sense" put down on paper. The easy to read format and "real world" examples combine to keep you reading.

If you are looking for for a book that provides practical information for many types of organizations, especially ones that have little experience in marketing or public relations, this is it. The book would also be helpful for more established organizations to review to help them with strategic planning and cut through the clutter of outmoded thinking.