In these rough economic times, many nonprofit groups are looking to cut costs wherever and however they can. But Nancy Schwartz, a nonprofit marketing consultant, urges charities to spare their marketing budgets from deep reductions.

“When a nonprofit cuts marketing, it severs one of the hands that feed it,” she writes on her Getting Attention blog. “Nothing’s more important now than ensuring that your organization’s leaders get that cutting marketing back now is a bad move.”

Ms. Schwartz argues that marketing is a chief provider of a charity’s lifeblood— donors and volunteers—and this is true in good times and bad.

She advises nonprofit officials in charge of marketing to avoid getting defensive and instead make suggestions about ways to spend money more efficiently and productively. For example, a marketing official might promise to increase revenue over a designated period of time if budgets are left alone. Since “showing your case is always more effective than telling it,” she says, effectively tracking results are more important than ever.

“Arm yourself with as many hard stats and success stories as you can,” Ms. Schwartz writes. “Talk about what colleague and competitive organizations are doing, and what you’ll lose if your organization retreats now.”

Should charity marketing and communications be spared cost cutting, or should they be asked to scale back along all the other departments when the economy heads south? Share your thoughts by clicking on the comments link below this post.

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