I’ve been on nonprofit boards, and I’ve also been on staff. Staff usually think first, of what will pacify boards. Second, they ponder how they can get boards to do useful work.
All too rarely do staff ask themselves, “What do board members want? How can we make serving on our board an experience that people will prize, and never forget?” The great advantage of June Bradham‘s book The Truth about What Nonprofits Boards Want is that it places board members front and center. By interviewing current and former board members at several large nonprofits, she finds out what makes them resign from boards and what makes them stay. In brief:
At the end of the book, I was wondering about these questions:
Do you have an answer for any of those questions? |
45 Words You Should Never Use
People’s time is scarce, and their attention is precious. If you want to get your audience to read your emails, newsletters, posts, etc., then follow Jill Konrath‘s advice and diamond-cut the following words out of your writing. (They fall into three categories.)
Self-Promoting Puffery
- One-stop shopping
- Industry leader
- Breakthrough
- Partner
- Groundbreaking
- Impressive
- Unique
- Innovative
- State-of-the-art
- Powerful
- Outstanding
- Cost-effective
- Experienced
- Number one
- Premier
Technical tripe
- Next-generation
- Disruptive
- Flexible
- Robust
- World-class
- Easy-to-use
- Cutting-edge
- Value-added
- Mission-critical
- Leading-edge
- Turnkey
- Best-of-breed
- Enterprise-class
- User-friendly
- Scalable
Creative Crap
- Outside the box
- Revolutionary
- The big idea
- Synergy
- Dramatic
- Strategic
- Game changer
- Customer-centric
- Voice of the customer
- Critical mass
- Buzz
- Make it pop
- Break through the clutter
- Next level
- Impactful
Jill has given us a good list of the jargon that annoys people in business. What would you add to her list? What are some of the cliches, buzzwords, and overused terms you see in the nonprofit sector?
Your Nonprofit’s Impact…on My Cat
“Uh-oh, we’re almost out of Clark Bar’s medicine,” I thought. “Time to order it again.”
Clark Bar is a venerable gentleman cat of 18 years. He has a problem with his thyroid, so I give him soft tablets of methimazole mixed in with his wet food. I order the tablets from a compounding pharmacy out of state.
When I submitted the order by email, I received an acknowledgment immediately. Then, the pharmacy called to let me know they would be talking to the vet, to get authorization for the refill.
The next day, they called to say they expected to receive the authorization within hours and would fill the order as soon as they did. They emailed me to let me know when it was filled, and they sent me the FedEx tracking number for the shipment.
All in all, it took less than two days for Clark Bar to get his medicine–and I never wondered for a minute where my money had gone or what I would get in return.
Can your donors say the same?
Your donors are looking to you to mix up a cure for a problem they care about. It’s probably not their own problem, any more than Clark Bar’s thyroid is mine. But your donors care. They care intensely.
Are you leaving them wondering what difference their donation is making, from one annual report to the next? Or are you helping them follow it at every step, through great stories in your newsletter, email, blog, and social media?
Show the donors how they’re making an impact on their cat–I mean, their cause. They’ll order (I mean, donate) to you again.
And here’s a shout-out to Porter Square Vet and BCP Veterinary Pharmacy, for their great communications.
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