Four things to do to jump-start your right brain

The brilliant Mark Rovner and I did a Nework for Good Nonprofit 911 Webinar yesterday: Messaging from the Right Side of Your Brain (available for free on demand).

Here’s what we said:

Our problem with messaging is we talk too often sap the emotion and color from our work when we seek to put it into words.  We talk about our work in analytical ways when we should be speaking from the heart to compel people to action.

What if you could effortlessly convey the heart and soul of your work every time you sit down to write web copy or your next fundraising appeal?  We all know passion is infectious, but writing from your own place of passion and commitment can be a real challenge in the hectic and demanding environment of your nonprofit.

So we offered four exercises to move you from your left to your right brain in messaging.

First, imagine you’re in an art museum gazing at a picture that captures the heart of your work.  Mission statements and statistics don’t count!  Those go on the placard next to the picture that tells you the boring details about the art.  What we find is nonprofits don’t fill the frame with a picture that moves donors - they just focus on the placard.  Fill your empty frame.  What do you see?  What faces, what scenes, what expressions?  This is what you want to convey in your messaging.

Second, fill that frame with a hero that demonstrates the best of your work.  Who is that person?  What are they doing?

Third, try to distill that visual vocuabulary into a phrase that is your brand mantra.  Nonprofits offered some good ones on the call.  My favorite:

Bringing hope home (for an organization helping fill the homes of people in great need with furniture - and bringing them training and opportunity).

Last, in less than six words, tell the whole story of your organization.  My favorites were:

I woke up to puppy breath. You?  (for an animal adoption agency)

You were. They are. You can. (private boarding school)

Try these out!  Share what they evoke.  And then try to push your fundraising toward this kind of right-brain thinking!

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