Messaging

As nonprofit communicators, we already know that we need to stop talking about the value of our  organizations based on overhead spending. Within the sector, the discussion about dispelling the “overhead myth” is lively and ongoing. The Stanford Social Innovation Review has published a paper on the “Nonprofit Starvation Cycle” and just last week, hosted a webinar… Read More »

When you are shaping your nonprofit’s messages, whether at a strategic (branding) or campaign level, what is your focus? Are you zeroing in on solving a problem, or are you presenting a possibility to pursue? What approach works best when it comes to nonprofit messaging? It seems the experts are divided and the research is… Read More »

If the importance of marketing can be a hard sell in the nonprofit sector, then the importance of investing in strong nonprofit taglines is even harder. Too many nonprofits are operating with ineffective, unoriginal or even no taglines at all, missing valuable opportunities to add power to their marketing messages. I recently asked Nancy Schwartz,… Read More »

Do you want your speeches to do more than just present information? Great speeches are written to inform, but also to motivate, inspire and engage your audience. When crafting your next speech, follow these ten steps to maximize your impact: 1.Know your audience. Learn as much as you can about the people who will be… Read More »

I was recently helping a client get ‘unstuck’ in his creative process. He was struggling with microsite copy for a video contest based on raising awareness of poverty-related issues. During our brainstorming session, I realized that he was getting stuck on a common nonprofit copywriting problem: forgetting to tell the audience what’s in it for… Read More »

I’ve written before about communicating benefits to your audience, but there is another, very specific way of keeping your audience at the centre of your nonprofit copywriting. When trying to draw in your reader, there is a simple tactic you should employ. Actually, it’s just a word: ‘you’. Use it in your copy. Often. Every… Read More »