“Would you like to give foster kids a childhood and a future?”
This wasn’t what I expected the volunteer elf to ask when I was buying tickets for my family to ride the holiday carousel in downtown Seattle. But she did.
What the elf meant was that all proceeds from the carousel are going to Treehouse, a Seattle-based organization that provides a wide range of services for foster kids and families.
Now, if the elf had asked if I wanted to support an organization that provides services to foster kids and their families, I probably would have said, “Sure.” But her delivery was so much more compelling that I said, “Absolutely!!” and joyfully jumped at the opportunity to do so.
Inspired to learn more, I went online and was thrilled to see that Treehouse is extremely consistent across its many communications channels. Yeah, Treehouse–compelling and consistent! (See this post about Global Partnerships for more on the importance of consistency.)
It would be understandable for Treehouse to want to explain everything they do because all of it is critically important. Instead, they focus on their essence: giving foster kids a childhood and a future. Nuff said.
As Seth Godin recently explained, “The answer is simple,” is always more effective than, “It’s complicated.”
If you are tempted to say that what your organization does is so complicated it can’t be distilled into a compelling, easy-to-understand message, just remember: if Treehouse can do it, so can you.
P.S. If you want to give foster kids a childhood and a future, there’s still time to go ride the carousel!