Telling You What, I’m Not Interested In All These!
When asking my clients about what makes them stand out from the crowd, what uniqueness they have, here’s a list of some of the most common answers they gave:
Their origin
What programmes they have and how these programmes were run
Proud of their history, how many years that they have been in the market
What’s their mission and vision
Who and who is on their advisory board or board of governance
How many beneficiaries or service users they served over time
It’s nice to know all of these, but sorry, I’m not interested in any of them, at least for now. Alright, let me rephrase my question. In one sentence or two at most, what’s the key reason I have to give to and/or support your organization? The same applies to prospect donors/supporters who browse your website randomly or come across your marketing collateral. If he or she cannot make sense of it and get an overview of what issue you are addressing, what impact you’re bringing to the society in 10, 15-second time or over the first few pages; I guarantee you they will get bored, feel confused and switch to other sites or put it down. It is the very simple and basic idea that every commercial marketing professional aware of, but not so much in the nonprofit scene. What makes your organization unique and worth support is that your organization is truly making a difference. This difference is not simply how you different from other organization but the difference it brings to the beneficiaries or service users, or the society, or else the environment for instance and so on. From a potential donor/supporter’s point of view, the information they expect upfront is “Is this organization trustworthy and worth my support?” Taking into account of the amount of information that bombarding us day in, day out, ordinary people nowadays no longer have the time, concentration bandwidth to engage in too many of such ‘initial conversations’ as we used to have. So it is a must to go straight into the point without making unnecessary noise that diverts your audience’s attention and consuming their valuable time and brainpower.
Below is a list of some of the most common talking points I heard from nonprofits over the years but should avoid.
Who is the founder, patron or are those honorary advisors of your organization. Is there any direct linkage between donating to your organization and who they are for the majority of supporters
When your organization was founded, your anniversary. It makes no impact on the beneficiaries or the society of what year your nonprofit was established.
To which fiscal year my gift was counted. Does doing good time-bounded?
How many or what sorts of projects are your running. The ultimate question in supporters’ mind is what impact you created, not how!
What events you held and how many event visitors you attracted. You are not an event organizer whose prime objective is to recruit as many event-goers as possible.
The number of beneficiaries. Quantity does not necessarily translate into quality.
I’m not discounting the significance of such information, but it should never be the talking point as an opening. What I suggest is a One-liner that answers the aforementioned question and could use again and again at whatever occasions. It is a single statement that helps people realize why they need to support your organization. Imagine memorizing it which you could repeat after anybody asks what your organization do. Imagine that statement being relevant to the needs of beneficiaries and the urge of the enquirer.
Think about the elevator pitch. Why is it so important nowadays and what’s the rationale behind it? With such an understanding, would you able to rework your introduction?