Marketing with Fervor: A Conversation with Ray Keen
As the Executive Director of The Canby Center, Ray Keen knows firsthand what it takes to lead a nonprofit with clarity, purpose and impact. Under his leadership, the organization launched a $10M capital campaign, scaled significantly and created a mission-driven culture that others now look to as a model.
Ray also serves as a coach with the M.J. Murdock Charitable Trust, helping nonprofit leaders across the Pacific Northwest get clear on their why and communicate it with boldness. We sat down with Ray and captured his experience with Fervor, his take on the Marketing with Fervor book is practical, honest and deeply rooted in experience.
Q: If you were to describe the content of Marketing with Fervor to your (or your organization’s) audience in one sentence, what would you say?
Ray: Marketing with Fervor is about designing a comprehensive communications strategy for your organization to connect with a complex range of Ideal Advocates.
Q: How could you have used Marketing with Fervor’s framework to achieve growth sooner or better? Or, how have you? Or, how will you?
Ray: Through our pillars, Fervor gave us some key language that we find ourselves coming back to on a regular basis. What the messaging ought to be and how we want people to see us. Fervor’s strength to help us think about complex organizations. It can be an overwhelming area. As an executive director or leader it can be one of those things that feels beyond us. It was helpful for Fervor to simplify that process with identifiable strategies and tools. It has helped my own thinking and strategy. We are still taking baby steps but it has been helpful to show us the whole map, asking ourselves where should we be? At the end of the day it’s not about the tool we are missing, it’s about where our people are and where they need to hear from us. Thinking through our Ideal Advocates and how to communicate with them is so important.
Q: Plenty of books on marketing, plenty of books for faith leaders. What is fresh, or specifically valuable, about Marketing with Fervor, as it pertains to your role, category, life?
Ray: Marketing with Fervor is the right set of tools for communicating effectively in a noise-filled world. It is the notes that ring true and clear that cut through the chaos around us.
Q: What’s a quote from the book that hits home? Why does it resonate?
Ray: “That’s how God works: through our curiosity, through our desire for connection, through our fervor.” This resonates with me because it is the engagement with what God is already doing that our best work is done. Curiosity about what He is up to and connection with the living Christ as we serve are the place where miracles happen.
Q: In 2-3 sentences how do you feel about Marketing with Fervor and how might it benefit folks in your neck of the nonprofit woods?
Ray: Suppose you want to think clearly about the complex universe of organizational communications and you are passionate about your mission. In that case, Marketing with Fervor is the best Sherpa to get you to the top of the mountain.
Q: Any final words of encouragement for leaders reading this?
Ray: Most businesses don’t think it’s wise to give away the secrets, but Marketing with Fervor has openly shared your strategy with the world. May you grow in fruitfulness!
Want to stop spinning your wheels and start communicating with clarity and purpose? Take a page from Ray’s playbook. Get focused. Get intentional. Lead with fervor.