Just as light needs to include a full spectrum in order to show the world around us in its true colors, an organization’s communication needs to include a full spectrum of messages in order to best illuminate its work. At LightBox Collaborative, we look for three types of messages in any organizational story: purpose, impact, and approach messages.

We’ve noticed that that while most nonprofits do a pretty good job with purpose messages and approach messages — talking about their mission and how they do their work — they often give short shrift to the vitally important impact messages.

It’s easy to understand how this happens. Purpose messages explain the problem the organization is in business to solve, the reason it exists; these messages describe the cause that inspires many of us to work at a nonprofit. Approach messages are about the work the staff is eyeball-deep in every day: the programs or services the nonprofit offers. These messages are easy for most of us in nonprofits to talk about.

Impact messages, though, are the ones that help you tell the most compelling story about your organization. Impact messages explain what your organization offers, not in terms of programs and services, but in terms of impact and results.

For example, perhaps your organization developed a new math curriculum aimed at helping kids from low-income families improve achievement and access to higher education — an important purpose. Maybe you came up with creative ways to recruit 50 volunteer math tutors from local colleges to help out — an effective approach.

But the best story is in the impact message: you provided tutoring for 200 students at a middle school and their math scores improved by an average of 20 percent. Individual students talk about enjoying math, and parents talk about how homework is getting done.

Impact messages can be a challenge to develop. They require that an organization find time to quantify and evaluate what it is doing. This also means listening carefully to your community to learn what people think about your work. The effort is worthwhile because impact messages help audiences understand why the work of the organization matters.

We recommend that nonprofit organizations work hard to develop compelling impact messages as part of a full spectrum of communication. Impact messages can be the beacons that enlighten your audiences about the difference you are making in the world.

(Image courtesy Flickr user Lauren Manning, Creative Commons)
. . .

Cynthia Scheiderer is a LightBox Collaborator with a flair for crafting powerful impact messages.

There are two ways to look at this video of British Labour Party leader Ed Miliband answering (and I use the term loosely) some questions about the recent one-day strike by public employees in Great Britain.

On the one hand, it’s clear that Miliband knows exactly what he wants to say about the strike, which implies the kind of forethought that is a prerequisite for effective messaging. And in Miliband’s defense, this was a pool interview, and his answers were never meant to be seen strung together like this. By using the same words over and over again, he ensured that whatever snippet the BBC, ITV or Sky News chose to show, their viewers would all get the same answer. That’s smart, and gives him control over his message in a format where the clip shown is often chosen precisely because it’s where the interviewee went off message.

On the other hand, this is message discipline run amuck– you can stay on message and get your point across without using the exact same words over and over again, as Miliband does here to comedic effect. When you see the whole interview, as in this clip, he comes across as programmed, pedantic, and insincere– certainly not the impression he and his team wanted to convey. Reporter Damon Green has a great response explaining what this kind of message discipline feels like from the other side of the camera.

So: points for forethought and discipline, demerits for sounding programmed. Next time, Miliband should try to vary the phrases he uses, offer more direct responses to the questions posed, and try for more natural sounding transitions back to his talking points. That’s what truly effective message discipline looks like.

Heath Wickline is a raconteur at LightBox Collaborative. He can next be seen instilling message discipline at the SPIN Academy.

LightBox Collaborative is hosting a series of skills-building workshops at CompassPoint to shed light on communications topics for nonprofits throughout the Bay Area. Our next session, Messaging What Matters: Making Meaning to Make a Difference (also the subject of this post) is coming up on December 15.
▶ Register Today!

In order to help people understand what your nonprofit does, you have to first define the problems you aim to solve, then share a clear vision for action. In other words, you must first make meaning in order to make a difference.

Here are 6 of my top principles for meaningful messages:

1. Perception trumps reality. A person’s opinion isn’t based on reality—it’s based on their perception of reality. Many people believe that unions are just as big and powerful as corporations, even though union influence has declined over the last few decades. This is the general public’s perceived reality, so it’s true to them. In several campaigns, rather than using the union as the message, I worked with unions to tell stories about workers, their lives, and daily struggles. Accept the perceived reality, change your messages to deal with it, and use these new messages to reshape public perception.
2. Emotion trumps logic. Logic supports our emotions and is used to justify our decisions, but we usually apply logic only after we’ve made our emotional decisions. Logic plays a part in most decision making, but emotion is always the main ingredient. Emotions will get people passionate about your cause. Appeal to your audience’s emotions first and you’ll win them over.
3. Brevity trumps precision. Most readers won’t make it to the end of this blog post because we’ve grown increasingly accustomed to sound bites and 140-character tweets. We sigh at the sight of lengthy text. You don’t need to accurately describe every single function of your organization in your messaging. Charity Navigator’s tagline, “Your Guide To Intelligent Giving”—one of the 2010 Nonprofit Tagline Award winners—says nothing specific about how it does what it does, yet immediately assures you that Charity Navigator will help you make the right charitable donations.
4. Values trump features. Above everything else, your organization is founded on values. Stop the spread of HIV/AIDS. Clean up the local water system. Micro-loans can solve many global economic issues. Don’t talk up services that may not matter to your entire audience, talk about the foundation of your organization and its core values.
5. Vibrant language trumps jargon. “We build capacity so low-income families can access the vital infrastructure of the social safety net system.” What does that even mean? Whenever possible, use clear and concise (and emotional!) language to make sure your audience can understand and connect with your message.
6. Messengers can trump the message. Athletes and celebrities are called on to endorse products simply because they can sell, sell, sell. Choose a messenger that your audience can relate to. Promoting condom use in young adults? Don’t choose your grandmother as your model (unless, of course, you’re going for messaging through humor). The Let California Ring marriage equality public education ad campaign shared the true stories of Latinos, African Americans, and Asian Americans welcoming newly married gay or lesbian couples into their families

(Image by stephendl, Creative Commons.)
. . .

Amanda Cooper is a LightBox collaborator with a talent for crafting meaningful messages. She hopes to see you at her December 15 CompassPoint workshop on “Messaging What Matters.”

We hope you’ll join LightBox Collaborative at our series of skill-building workshops at CompassPoint. The series is designed to shed light on communications topics for nonprofits throughout the Bay Area.

Session topics include social media, strategy, crisis communications, messaging, visual facilitation, and presentation design and delivery.

Each session functions as a stand-alone workshop, or you can group them to create a cohesive professional development study series. The workshops run through summer 2011 and registration is now open for all sessions.

Communications series schedule:

• Messaging What Matters: Making Meaning to Make a Difference – December 15
  You’ll gain tools for brand-level and program-level message development to guide your communications efforts, from the highest level vision statement down to the day-to-day messages you can share to motivate supporters and engage your community in solutions.
• Storytelling for Success – January 13, 2011
  Learn how to leverage the power of stories to inform, persuade, inspire, and engage. Get insight on how to use stories as a management tool inside your organization, and how to tell stories that inspire deep connections among your donors, volunteers, and others.
• Social Media and More: Communications for Engagement – February 17
  What can social media do for your organization? This workshop will help you learn the social media strategies that can engage your audiences in deep and authentic conversations about the issues that matter most. You’ll leave this session with lots of ideas and a focused blueprint to guide your organization’s social media strategies.
• Presentation Skills – March 15
  Go from dull and deadly to inspiring and engaging! This session will offer tips and tools for designing great presentations, building great PowerPoints and delivering great talks to help your organization shine.
• Communicating in Pictures – April 18
  Learn how to integrate visual elements into your group work. Use flip charts, stickies, big paper, or even index cards to spark the visual and kinesthetic thinkers and up the collaboration level of any group with simple visual tools. After this workshop, with your powerful new set of visual facilitation skills, you just might get a reputation as an artist.
• Crisis Communication – May 17
  This session will help you identify those moments in which you might need to respond to and craft a plan so you’ll be ready before the you-know-what hits the fan. An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure!
• Fun and Games for Serious Strategic Clarity – June 7
  We’ve created a series of games designed to help nonprofits jump start strategic thinking, engage in real-time planning, and identify actionable approaches. You’ll learn how to use this new, fun tool to initiate dynamic, nimble strategy in your organization.

(image courtesy Flickr user batmoo, Creative Commons)