One of the most important ways that nonprofits can inspire change is by communicating ideas and services to potential clients in their native languages.
While English may be the majority language of the United States, many immigrant communities across the country use other languages in everyday life. One in five U.S. residents speaks a foreign language at home, according to a Center for Immigration Studies survey. More than 40% of those said they speak English less than proficiently.
Spanish was the most spoken non-English language in the United States, used by 35.8 million Hispanics, according to the Pew Research Center.
In many cases, those who need your services the most might not know enough English to understand the information in your website, brochures or radio ads.
That’s why culturally relevant nonprofit translations are crucial to ensure that they receive your message and understand the value of your services.
However, organizations wonder if they should we still translate even if they don’t have bilingual staff to talk with prospects and answer questions?
You can always hire bilingual staff to reach new audiences. Someone with a unique viewpoint or set of skills can bring new life to your projects and services. But organizations with limited budgets might not have that option.
Developing nonprofit translations without bilingual staff, however, is feasible with careful planning.
Think about why you want to translate, what content you can use to advance your key messages and how readers will react to it.
For instance, if you develop social media posts in Spanish encouraging people to call, they will call . . . and will likely expect someone to speak Spanish. But if you’re looking to build awareness or change behavior, educational content will help you reach your goals without complications for your staff.
Once you have a plan, hire a translation team or multilingual marketing company that understands your goals. Run a test. You could create a Spanish-language landing page with culturally relevant nonprofit translations. Keep an eye on your website analytics to gauge the response.
If you need to receive the occasional phone or email inquiry in Spanish, you could set up an online form or voicemail box. Then you can arrange for your translation team to give the messages to you in English and translate your responses. A second useful idea is to translate frequently asked questions and answers that you can include on your website.
These tactics won’t work for every organization, especially those whose services require frequent communication with clients. They can be incredibly helpful, however, for small community organizations, especially nonprofits that primarily focus on providing information.
Nonprofit translations help create an inclusive, accessible and culturally sensitive environment. They enable nonprofits to communicate with diverse audiences, amplify their missions, and make a lasting impact on the communities they serve.