For anyone working in (or adjacent to) the global nonprofit sector, this scene from the 1999 workplace comedy Office Space feels very relatable right now:
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Having to explain why you deserve funding is never pleasant. When your work consists of stuff like preventing infectious diseases or feeding children in conflict zones, the questioning can seem ludicrously unfair as well.
To paraphrase the frustrated employee in the clip above, “We’re helping people! Can’t you understand that? What the hell is wrong with you people?!”
Sadly, grabbing potential funders by the lapels and shaking them until they see reason is unlikely to fix your budget problems. Neither is the kind of fundraising strategy dispensed by ChatGPT (hopefully you’ve already considered approaches like “use social media” and “reach out to your network”).
With so many nonprofits now vying for bigger pieces of a shrinking pie, many of our clients are wondering how to make their case for funding stick out to donors. We give them a lot of advice tailored to their specific situations—but these three principles are universal:
Ditch the nonprofitese and say what you do in plain English
Despite the criticism, professional jargon does often serve useful purposes. Phrases like “capacity building” and “empowering communities” can be a useful shorthand for describing several disparate things at once, and using them can signal to other industry pros that you’re a fluent, experienced operator.
Outside of those circles, though, “talking like a nonprofit” is not considered a compliment. The useful shorthand comes off as vague at best, and pompously braggadocious at worst. Many people (of all backgrounds and persuasions) just don’t like how this type of language sounds.
This doesn’t mean your messaging should only be monosyllabic or overly casual. It’s possible to respect your work’s subtleties and your audience’s intelligence at the same time.
Start building your own bullhorn
Everyone dreams about writing the New York Times op-ed that goes viral and attracts the attention of a generous benefactor who’s just been waiting to hear about a plucky, results-oriented team that’s tackling the issue closest to their heart.
When you say it out loud, most people grasp how unrealistic that is. But it’s surprisingly hard to shake the instinct to run toward the tallest soapbox when you want to get people’s attention.
The problem: there’s a very long line to get up there, because every nonprofit in the solar system is currently pitching a “Why It’s More Important Than Ever to Give Money to Organizations Like Ours” piece to the same handful of big name outlets.
Pitching smaller outlets can be a helpful alternative strategy. Since they tend to cater to more niche audiences, this allows you to make a more nuanced appeal to people who are already inclined to care about what you do.
In the meantime, set up your newsletter and make an editorial calendar with interesting content ideas for future emails. Identify the social media platforms where your key audiences live, and start feeding some of those interesting ideas in bite-sized formats. You might even set up a podcast (these are especially great for building relationships in your industry).
Stay focused on the people you’re helping
Why does your organization need funding in the first place? It might seem self-evident to you—the work you’re doing is helping people, and it takes money to continue doing that.
But even people who care deeply about your issue are more invested in the work getting done, than they are about the logo on the shirts of the people doing it. Your organization’s value comes from your impact on the communities you serve. The fact that you’re personally the ones making the impact? That’s secondary in the eyes of potential donors.
Luckily, this roadmap is an intuitive one to follow for many people who’ve committed their lives to helping others. And if you need a hand with the specifics, we’re here to help.
Oh, and one more thing…
Because the last word is rarely the end of the conversation.
- Why is everything from plane tickets to dinner reservations “so expensive and also so sold out”? A new Bloomberg report confirms what many have long suspected.
- After two decades, Skype is dead—and its obituary is humbling for those of us who remember when the service was so popular its name was a synonym for “video call.”
- Speaking of dead platforms, many Pinterest users are concerned for its future amid the current deluge of AI-generated slop.
Pebbles of the month
Much like penguins, we enjoy bringing you little gifts to show we care:
The Fines and Fees Justice Center is hiring a Director of Communications— fully remote, lots of benefits, starting at $140k a year.
If you hated the widely-panned film Emilia Pérez, you might enjoy the Mexican-made satire Johanne Sacrebleu.
Free Microsoft Office? [Crowd cheers] But it shows you video ads every few hours? [Crowd moans] And it’s missing lots of features, plus you can only save files to OneDrive? [Crowd leaves]
