What Nonprofits Must Know About Hispanics: Insights from AARP

‘Cincuentañeros:’ This Spanish word literally means ‘fifty-somethings,’ but it also sounds a lot like ‘without counting.’ Yvette Peña, VP of Multicultural Leadership at AARP, named an outreach campaign after this double entendre to challenge ideas of aging and engage Hispanic audiences. It worked! Latinos responded with serious interest across a range of mediums. Kerux Group caught up with Yvette to pick her brain on how to make connections with this growing, generous community of people.

Integrate across your organization

“Multicultural… should be infused in everything that we do,” Yvette told Kerux. After ten years of multicultural outreach at AARP, this priority comes from the top down; the nonprofit’s executive leadership believes in and expects multicultural engagement across all business units. Yvette attributes their success with this audience to that cohesive strategy.

Copy test

“We understand the insights first,” Yvette said. AARP’s team gets samples of consumer feedback on their ideas before launching them on a large scale. Kerux has extensive experience with copy testing and if you’re interested in giving this useful strategy a try, we can help you put it into practice.

Find partners

“Begin knocking on doors, because you can’t do this alone,” Yvette advised. She said having good people in your corner is key to reaching Hispanics. Her team at AARP works alongside two marketing agencies. Understanding the opportunity yourself is vital, but you also need cultural experts to help craft your messages.

“We have so much to offer and if you don’t have an authentic voice, you jeopardize that relationship with the Latino community,” Yvette said. At Kerux Group, our mission is to help frame your call to action in a cultural and linguistic context that Hispanics will recognize as authentic.

Show them the opportunity

How can you negotiate a budget for Hispanic outreach with your executive board? Yvette said it comes down to sizing up the opportunity in the market.

“The census doesn’t lie; the Latinos are the fastest growing group,” she pointed out. She recommended approaching these conversations with data and facts. The numbers show that Hispanics have ever-increasing buying power and care deeply about social causes. You don’t have to make anything up to make a convincing case that Hispanic outreach is a worthwhile investment.

If you’re unfamiliar with this audience, these action items can be useful tools. Our cultural experts at Kerux want to put strategies like these in your hands. Contact us today for help bringing your organization’s message to the hearts of Hispanics!