South Florida Muslim Federation (SFMF) in parnership with Center on Muslim Philanthropy (CMP), held its first in a series of six non-profit essentials workshops. The training conducted by Tayyab Yunus, President CMP, is focused on developing broad strategic capacity of Muslim non-profit organisations (NPOs) in South Florida there by helping them enhance performance, productivity and reaching their full potential.
The first workshop titled ‘Communication Strategies’ was attended by almost fifty members belonging to various tri-county Muslim NPOs. Br Yunus’ elaborate 90-minute presentation encompassed three broad principles, otherwise known as the three W’s of communication – ‘why’, ‘who’ and ‘what’. It focused on the significance of having a powerful communication plan as well as a clear message formulated such that it is reflective of not just the vision of an NPO but also an understanding of the audience, which in the case of an NPO are donors and beneficiaries.
He explained that once the three W’s have been clearly laid out comes a framework that may be adopted to execute these key principles. For a communication strategy to be successful, it must appeal to the audience’s heart and mind that is achievable by presenting them with your success stories and statistics respectively. Moreover, making sure the decisions taken in the process are inclusive of all the stakeholders encourages productivity.
During the training, Yunus also talked about donor management which he stressed is pivotal but unfortunately the most overlooked area. This combination often leads to donor abuse and ultimately loss of donors. It can however, be avoided by not only a productive use of donor funds but also showcasing it by employing communication tools at hand such as your organization’s website, an audience appropriate social media platform and most important, peer-to-peer communication.
The ultimate goal of an NPO’s communication strategy should be to convert the donors into advocates for the cause.
The second workshop of the Capacity Building Program titled ‘Operational Excellence’ will be held on October 31st, 2020.
Muslim NPOs Leaders on First CMP Workshop
The Communication Strategies workshop was much appreciated by the leaders of South Florida’s Muslim community. Read here what they have to say:
Samir Kakli
President South Florida Muslim Federation
‘The course given by Tayyab Yunus was extremely beneficial and eye-opening. Just like in any career or field of work, non-profit work can be done much more effectively once we have the proper training for techniques and best practices that can help conduct and run our organizations. He specifically focused on studying and understanding the audience, and formulating a communication plan accordingly.’
KHALID MIRZA
Chairperson, MCA
‘Excellent program, with a lot of information. Looking forward to next 5 sessions. I am also encourageing other community members to attend. Thanks to south Florida Muslims federation for organizing it.’
Mikal Hameed
Assistant Imam, Masjid Al Ansar
‘I would like to encourage everyone who has never taken a CMP training class, to please do so. It has a lot of great information that could give us great support in running our organizations. We look forward to future workshops.’
Marwan Mufleh
President, ICOSF
‘This program helped clarify the basics needed for establishing a communication plan for each organization. We now need to do the work of using that information to develop a formal communication plan.’
Author: Sana Saif
Program Manager
