“I don’t know how other people do it. I won’t work with non-profit clients ever again!”

And so it begins: Another marketing pro frustrated by the way things work, and sometimes don’t, within the non-profit world.

We all have work we love, and work that we…love less.

I will never forget the woman who told me — not realizing I was the writer behind it — that a website she’d read made it easier for her family to accept and begin to manage the reality of a disease that was turning their lives upside down.

It’s that short line between words and affect that draws so many of us to cause-related marketing work.

But it’s not all hugs and fuzzy feelings. Even people who thrive in non-profit environments can understand frustrations such as stalled volunteer committees, layers of approvals, or that feeling of having “too many cooks in the kitchen.” (more…)