Take yourself out of your messaging
- Wed, September 05 2012
- Filed under: Writing
Photo via Wikipedia
One of my favorite movies of all time is Adaptation***. It’s a movie about a writer trying to adapt a book (The Orchid Thief) into a movie. The writer ends up writing a screenplay about the task of adapting the book. In one scene in the movie, the writer says in horror: “I’ve written myself into my screenplay.”
I think the #1 problem of those of us in nonprofit marketing and fundraising is that we write ourselves into our own screenplays. And unfortunately in our case, it does not result in an Oscar.
Here’s what I mean: We do too much “we matter” marketing rather than focusing on how the beneficiary, the donor or the volunteer matters.
Ask yourself:
Is the last thing I wrote about what we do or who we helped?
Is my next appeal about how we need money or what the money will do?
Is our About Us page a history of our organization or the story of the way lives have changed because of our work?
Your screenplay should not star you. It should be about people you help and the people who help you.
***If you are a writer, you will also appreciate this line from Adaptation capturing the thoughts of a writer trying to write: “To begin… To begin… How to start? I’m hungry. I should get coffee. Coffee would help me think. Maybe I should write something first, then reward myself with coffee. Coffee and a muffin. Okay, so I need to establish the themes. Maybe a banana-nut. That’s a good muffin.”
Comments
Katya, your point is well-taken! What I find a little ironic is that I looked at the top of the page and saw this “Welcome to my blog on nonprofit marketing, fundraising, social media and doing good in the world better and faster. I’m glad you’re here.” sitting next to a photo of you. Perhaps you are not a not-for-profit so don’t need to follow your own advice but you clearly have put yourself front and center in your screenplay—not those you help or the results your work produces. This is good advice in for-profit enterprises as well.
Really liked your post on writing us “out” of the screenplay! Thanks for the fresh look!
Rob: I am not an organization. This is my personal blog. So yes, I am front and center. If this were my organization’s blog or I were blogging to promote a cause, I wouldn’t belong in the story. But this blog is my own story of my own experiences. So yes, I get to star:)
Oh my goodness, YES!
It’s often a really tough sell inside the organization, though. In fact, you risk being seen as less than dedicated if you suggest that the organization is a means, not the end. That we make donor’s philanthropic desires possible, that, as you say, the donor is the star of this show…
But boy, oh boy, do I agree with you!
Great advice Katya. I think this is something that many nonprofits THINK they are avoiding, but aren’t really (including us!). It’s easy to use customer/donor/client centered language but not really walk the talk. This was also good timing for me. I just finished reading an HBR classic on this very topic: Marketing Myopia: http://hbr.org/product/marketing-myopia-harvard-business-review/an/R0407L-PDF-ENG?Ntt=marketing myopia. It makes the same point, with about 4,000 more words! 
Excellent point Katya, thank you for sharing your ideas with us