Welcome Guest Blogger, Dalya F. Massachi!

Please join Dalya and GIFT on September 13th for her webinar, Writing to Make a Difference: How to Create Fundraising & Outreach Materials that Get Results. Click here or give Ryan Li a call at 888-458-8588 X301 to register and for more info and to register.

Have you advanced your organization’s mission today? Your readers are eager to know about it!

Every outreach or fundraising piece you write needs to speak to your organization’s reason for existing in the first place. That is, each page should remind your readers that you never forget what you set out to do in your community.

Every values-driven organization has a specific mission to make a positive difference in the world. My guess is that you already know what yours is. You may not have memorized your official mission statement, but you are clear on the essence of your organization. Your mission, after all, is a key part of your organization’s brand.

To your readers, your mission (or perhaps some particular aspect of it) is the heart of the matter. They want to hear that it is central to everything you do. They want to know that your work continues to be relevant to their lives and the life of their community, even as times and circumstances change.

There is no shame in reminding yourself of your organization’s mission statement once in a while. Some people I know even plaster it on the wall or make it their screensaver to keep it at the top of the mind and on the tip of the tongue.

Your mission should inspire and motivate support and commitment from those who share your concerns. Your organization’s name alone should cause your mission to spring to mind.

However, if you — and your colleagues — do not revisit your mission statement regularly, and ideally fine-tune or update it on occasion, you can get stuck in out-of-date patterns of branding. This is true for both start-up organizations (whose missions are usually still evolving) and more established groups. For instance, a client organization of mine had focused for decades on the needs of all low-income families, but recent demographic changes in their county compelled them to focus on new immigrants, with the associated cultural and linguistic challenges.

Even more dangerously, if you are not careful to monitor your work in light of your mission, your organization could easily lose its sense of direction. The Cheshire Cat in Alice in Wonderland summarized why you need a strong, relevant mission: “If you don’t know where you’re going, it doesn’t matter which way you go.”

Of course, your readers might not come out and ask, “What is your mission?” Instead, they might want to know what you do (how you benefit your clients and the community), how you do it (products and services featured in your work), and why you exist at all (why you are needed).

Help them out by frequently reminding them of your goals and how you are consistently making progress toward them. You cannot assume that your readers will instantly recall who you are or exactly what you do — and that includes both die-hard supporters/patrons and casual online surfers who may have stumbled across your website. But repetition will certainly help!

Here are some tips for maintaining a focus on mission in your copy.

HIGHLIGHT THE OUTSTANDING STRENGTHS OF YOUR MISSION

Continually remind your readers of what is innovative about your mission. No one likes to reinvent the wheel or be part of something garden-variety. Show that you play a special and essential role in your field: a role that cries out for involvement from your readers. Identifying the uniqueness in your organization’s mission and style is a crucial aspect of furthering your brand.

Ask yourself: How is your mission unique within your field, and how does that give you a special niche?

Your mission may be to implement an entirely new solution to an age-old problem that has been haunting your community. Or maybe you are striving to improve or expand what already has begun to work. Either way, identify what about your mission makes it extraordinary.

Another way to point out your organization’s unique value to your community is to ask your readers to imagine a world without anyone working to advance your mission. What void would that leave? And how troubling would that picture be?

DESCRIBE HOW YOUR WORK EMBODIES YOUR GUIDING PRINCIPLES

Back away from the practical specifics and take a bit of a philosophical approach.

Ask yourself: What fundamental values or concerns lead your readers to your organization and its mission?

For instance, you and your readers might particularly value the physical and emotional health of young women; the dignity of refugees; the artistic expression of senior citizens; the conservation of wildlife in your region; the science education of middle school students; or waterways free of pollution.

Because of your shared values, you can make some basic assumptions about what your readers understand and agree on. In your written pieces, build on those assumptions about what works, what does not work, and what important beliefs should be upheld. You will naturally hit on the core thoughts and feelings your readers harbor, as they pertain to your mission and activities.

Ask yourself: How would your organization complete this sentence to clarify shared assumptions about the world, how it works, and what is important?

“Our organization focuses on ______ and we value ________________ . We believe our work is important in the world because ______________ .”

Many nonprofits explicitly talk about their values and guiding principles in their outreach and fundraising materials. So can you.

Once you have identified the values and beliefs most meaningful to your organization, they will inform the rest of your copywriting and illuminate your message.

Join Dalya in her September 13 webinar, “Writing to Make a Difference: How to Create Fundraising & Outreach Materials that Get Results.” The webinar is based on her award-winning book, Writing to Make a Difference.