Communicate!

Helping you win loyal friends through your communications

Fundraising Tuesday: 4 Ways to Pay for Your Communications Consultant

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Your nonprofit organization does great work. You’d like more people to know about it. So you squeeze time for writing newsletters, sending email, and posting to social media into your schedule.

And still, people don’t know what you do.

You realize you need outside help…but there’s a problem.  How are you going to pay for the help you need?

Nonprofits often operate with restricted funds. The grant you received to offer concerts to schoolchildren, or feed elders, won’t pay for your consultant. You know you need to spend the money to make more money, but where do you get the money to invest in the first place?

piggy bank

Where there’s a will, there’s a way. Four ways, in fact.

Here are four approaches you can take to find money without strings attached, money you can invest in the future of your organization. Each of them is something you can do, even if you’re a small nonprofit. And none of them will break the bank.

  1. Ask a donor. Most people give to your organization to produce immediate results. A few of your supporters understand that better communications now means a stronger organization later. Find a major donor like that, and ask him or her to give you the seed money you need.
  2. Write a proposal.  Communications is “capacity building.” Foundations will give grants if you show them what difference your improved communications will make. Businesses will also invest if you make a strong case.
  3. Do some crowdfunding. Zach Brown raised $55,000 online by making potato salad. How about you? Be very human and a little bit funny, and you just might get enough small gifts to pay your consultant.
  4. Build it into the budget. Communications are just as important as staff training and other items you budget for every year. It will be a lot easier to pay for help if you’re planning for it.

When you have the money in hand, here are seven tips on what to look for when you’re hiring a communications consultant.  And I’d love to talk with you about your project.  Drop me a line at [email protected]: maybe we can work together!

Why Does Your Nonprofit Work Matter? Tell the Story!

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Once upon a time“I never really understood what our nonprofit did until I heard what we did for my friend.”

That was a Board member speaking.

Let Me Tell You a Story

The nonprofit the Board member (let’s call him Paul) served was trying to end poverty in the local community. Preventing evictions, and keeping people in their homes, was a key to keeping families from sliding into poverty.

Paul had joined three years earlier. He had faithfully attended Board meetings every month. Then, somebody he knew personally lost his job and couldn’t pay the rent. The friend and his family were threatened with eviction. Desperate, they called Paul. He called the program staff.

Paul followed the case over the weeks and months. He heard how the staff helped his friend go to court and get more time. Then, they helped the friend apply for help paying the rent…and the heat, gas, and electric bills.

Still, without enough income, the friend could not afford to stay in that apartment. If he did nothing, he and his family would end up on the street. Paul watched in amazement as the organization where he served on the Board found his friend a new place with a lower rent and helped move his family in.

Attending Board meetings had not shown Paul the real reason the organization needs to exist. He found that out from his friend’s story.

Tell the Story First

Why do people need your services? What are you trying to do? This is what Andy Goodman calls the “Nature of Our Challenge Story.” Do you really want to show why your work matters? Don’t give me facts and figures. First, tell me a story.

This is hard advice for nonprofits to take! We are so used to being told we are “soft-headed idealists” and challenged to produce data. The truth is that funders who demand measurable outcomes are pushing us in the wrong direction. Even they need to understand why our work matters before they can tell how much. The why is a story.

What’s important when we talk with funders is crucial when we reach out to donors. If you want me to act, you have to touch my heart. Storytelling is the most powerful way to do that. As Network for Good tells us,

Donors tend to give twice as much when presented with a story about an affected individual, as opposed to reading huge abstract numbers of the overall scope of a problem.

What Makes a Tale a Story?

Not every way of saying what happened is a story. Let’s quote Andy Goodman again: “To make sure you cover all of the basics of story structure here are the beginnings of 7 sentences that can help you with the process.”

  • Once upon a time… (This starts the story off and introduces our protagonist)
  • And every day… (This will set up how life was before the Inciting Incident)
  • Until one day… (This begins the action of the story with the Inciting Incident and the Goal)
  • And because of this… (This introduces the barriers or obstacles the protagonist faces)
  • And because of this… (There could be several barriers)
  • Until finally…(This ends the story with the Resolution)

Let’s try that out! In the Comments section, take a stab at telling the “Nature of Our Challenge” story for your nonprofit. More than 1100 readers of this blog can give you advice on how to make your storytelling better…and I will chip in, too.

Why does your work matter? Tell us the story!

TY Thursday: Thanking Donors–It’s in the (Gift) Bag

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giving-gift-love-1902073Can you write a thank-you letter so personal and so memorable that the donor will want to keep it forever? Yes, it’s possible. But some of us are better shoppers than we are writers. Why not give a gift bag, too?

I agree: you can’t buy gifts for every single donor. It would take too much time and cost too much money.

Imagine, though, the amazement that would spread across your selected donor’s face when you presented gifts chosen especially for him or her!

The Most Personal Thanks You Can Give

It’s not how expensive a gift you choose that shows your donor how much you appreciate her. It’s the way the gift uniquely fits them.

My wife Rona and I have been going to the same doctor for twenty-five years, and every time we go, we chuckle at the classic posters on the walls. They say things like “Dr. Tanner’s Tonic Tames the Nerves,” or “Drink Coca-Cola to Calm Your Stomach.”

We appreciate the humor–from a doctor who keeps up with the latest medicine! So, when Rona and I were on vacation and saw a $9 book full of that old-style advertising, we had to buy it for Dr. Bershel. We wrapped it up with a bow, stopped by her office, and left it for her.

The doctor left us voicemail AND sent us a card to tell us how excited she was by the gift. “I’m going to blow up some of the pages in that book and make them into new posters!”

It didn’t cost very much, but to her, it was priceless.

How to Give Thanks in a Gift Bag

If you want to make a donor happy the way we made our doctor happy, you’ll need two things.

First: know your donor.

Find out what he or she really likes. Ask your staff and Board members, “Who knows this person?” And do your research online. Finding out their favorites may be as simple as visiting their Facebook page.

If they have a taste for something unusual, even better! Giving a “cat person” a gift for their cat is easy: there’s cat merchandise everywhere. Giving a ferret fancier a gift card for The Book Ferret…now, that shows that you have really noticed who they are (besides a checkbook).

Second: know who will find a gift they like.

If you are the letter writer and not the shopper in your office, delegate this task. Perhaps your agency does a Secret Santa or a Yankee Swap. Who is it that always looks forward to it and always comes up with the best presents?

Ask that person if you can send them on a very important mission–and give them the budget to do it. Let them do it on their own schedule, because the donor is not expecting it, so there is no deadline.

For the person who enjoys shopping, the chance to put together a thank-you basket for your donor won’t be a burden. It will be a gift!

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