{"id":4279,"date":"2015-10-14T02:00:52","date_gmt":"2015-10-14T06:00:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/?p=4279"},"modified":"2019-08-14T15:07:19","modified_gmt":"2019-08-14T19:07:19","slug":"marketing-and-development-terminology","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/2015\/10\/marketing-and-development-terminology\/","title":{"rendered":"Marketing and Development Terminology"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Dictionary\"This is part of a series of blog posts in conjunction with TRG Arts on the interrelationships among marketing, development, fundraising, and community engagement. (Cross-post can be found at Analysis from TRG Arts<\/a>.) The point of the series is that they are all rooted in relationship building and maintenance.<\/p>\n

Today we\u2019re talking about definitions. Oh great! But if all of these things are related, we\u2019ve got to be able to understand how they are similar and how they differ. That\u2019s what definitions are for. Plus, what can you expect from someone who spent three decades as a college professor? And that is actually a critical point.<\/p>\n

I am not nor have I ever been an on-the-ground professional in marketing or fundraising. Being aware of that, my level of humility in talking about these subjects is very high<\/em>. What I do<\/em> have experience in is analyzing words, differentiating among related concepts, and crafting definitions that clarify them. That requires theoretical thinking time\u2013a luxury not available to the people doing the \u201creal work\u201d in the trenches.<\/p>\n

In the nonprofit world, marketing and development have been viewed as two different disciplines. Marketing has focused on messages to external publics and sales. Development has focused on messages to external publics and contributed income\u2013grants and donations. [Some writers use the phrase \u201cunearned income\u201d for this category. Knowing what it takes to get those funds, plus the reasons for the contributions, that has always made me craz(y) . . . (ier).]<\/p>\n

Do you see what I just did? It\u2019s an old professor thing to set up a question in the listener\u2019s mind. \u201cSo, if they both begin with \u2018messages to external publics,\u2019 aren\u2019t they pretty closely related?\u201d Bingo. And of course, confirmed by my old friend who runs SirLinksalot.co<\/a>, that\u2019s why some organizations combine marketing and development.<\/p>\n

Of all the terms under consideration here, development may be the most ambiguous. Exactly what is being developed? The answer is contributed income. However, since there are other things that can be developed (e.g.<\/em>, relationships, collaborative partnerships, earned income, volunteer pools), equating development with fundraising is a bit confusing, especially to outsiders or newcomers to the field. It is also, as I hope to show here, limiting.<\/p>\n

I have been struggling for years with a theoretical construct that effectively labels this work. I\u2019ve not yet succeeded. What follows is an outline, a work in progress, that presents the various external relationship functions of an arts organization, beginning with claiming the word \u201cdevelopment\u201d as the top-level descriptor.<\/p>\n

Development: External Relationships<\/strong><\/p>\n