Nonprofits have an impossible task today.
Staff at every level are dealing with our own massive emotions, our rage and grief, our anxiety turned to fear, as we try to reorient ourselves to a new reality — one that for many of us holds a very real threat of bodily harm.
And yet, our hands are on our keyboards. Many of us are trying to figure out how to message this moment to supporters in a way that meets them where they are.
Which is to say, just as flooded and threadbare as we are. Social posts, emails, text messages, from organizations we trusted, from candidates we hoped for, from friends and family… Word soup, much of it saying versions of the same thing: This is terrible but we’ll get through this, we’re more resolved than ever, we’ve seen this before, we’re mourning, we need your help to stay strong.
It’s all true, but truths can quickly turn to truisms. Diluted messaging that all runs together, meaning stripped out. A husk, not a seed.
How do we keep post-election messaging from turning into static? By making sure each and every message — not just all of them together — speaks to the following three elements of effective direct response, backed up by dozens of our own tests. And if you’re asking yourself if it’s the right time to ask supporters for money, first ask if you can confidently and specifically speak to each of these key elements:
1. NEED:
- What is the specific problem YOUR organization solves, among the many, many problems on supporters’ minds? What can actually change?
- Don’t fall into the trap of trying to cover the whole spectrum of this moment, or even the whole spectrum of issues — keep it specific, pick and choose something tangible. What are the specific threats this moment has brought to the table that this particular organization is able to address? Don’t assume your supporters already know this. No matter how many times you’ve said it. Say it again.
- And no matter what, speak to the emotional reality of this need.
2. IMPACT:
- This is where you really need to tie together the supporter, the organization, and the need. What will this one organization actually do with this one bit of time, action, or money that it’s asking for?
- Even if you’re not making a fundraising pitch in this message, can you speak to how your supporters can effect the change they seek? How, specifically, will your organization leverage their input into impact? Where has it happened before? What’s the proof that it can happen this time?
- Many nonprofits stop at PAST impacts but don’t really lay out how a donation will create specific impacts in the FUTURE (and ideally, with a specific timeline). The more evidence you can provide, the better.
3. URGENCY:
- We all know the election just happened. That’s not urgency, in itself. Urgency is the specific moments that will be inflection points in the coming weeks. What happens in the lame duck? What can be done before the inauguration, and immediately after the inauguration? What is the need in the coming weeks, and why donate or act today instead of tomorrow? That’s your urgency — not the fact that we just entered a new reality.
The more SPECIFIC we can make the need, the impact, and the urgency — and the more we can tie all three together — the more we can be real about supporters’ role right now.
Bring it back to what we know works in a fundraising message, and repeat repeat repeat, across channels.
Our brains are going in a million directions, but our messaging can’t. Our supporters deserve real talk. We owe it to them, to the causes and movements we serve, and to everyone who will pay the price for our collective failure to defend them.
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Marc Ruben, Partner at M+R, has spent nearly 25 years helping nonprofits innovate. He’s helped groups like Planned Parenthood, NRDC, SEIU, Indivisible, Fight for $15, Union of Concerned Scientists, Sierra Club, National Domestic Workers Alliance, Human Rights Campaign, Doctors Without Borders, Oxfam America, and the American Cancer Society launch fundraising, marketing, electoral, and volunteer programs focused on real-world impact. He also writes songs, mostly for himself, at the rate of one every 5 years.