Blog - Page 25 of 39 - Claxon Communication

Is overhead hijacking your impact?

October 9, 2012 by Erica Barnhart

Phil Buchanan, President of the Center for Effective Philanthropy, issued a rather scathing review of Dan Pallotta’s new book, Charity Case.

This is the latest in what is an ongoing debate about overhead.

What is overhead anyway? We throw this term around but are we clear on what it means?

According to Wikipedia, the “term overhead is usually used when grouping expenses that are necessary to the continued functioning of the business but cannot be immediately associated with the products or services being offered (e.g., do not directly generate profits)…Overhead expenses include accounting fees, advertising, depreciation,insurance, interest, legal fees, rent, repairs, supplies, taxes, telephone bills, travel expenditures, and utilities.”

You can see why donors really want you to make the case for contributing to boring stuff like insurance and supplies. Who wants their donation going to yawners like that?

We can educate donors until we’re blue in the face about why the lights, staples and post-it notes are all necessary parts of meeting our mission. But why not spend that time talking about impact instead of expenses? Tell a story of impact and then connect that impact back to the light switches, hosting fees, and telephones. Not the other way around.

Overhead is important. It’s necessary. We can’t operate without it. But don’t let it hijack your story.

Your story is about impact. Not your income statement.

Taking Columbus out of Columbus Day?

October 8, 2012 by Erica Barnhart

Christopher Columbus, Native American Day, Columbus Day, history — Christopher Columbus: explorer or exploiter?

The second Monday in October is Columbus Day in the U.S., except in South Dakota, where it is officially Native American Day.

The choice of what to call this day is interesting. Is it about Columbus, the guy who sailed the ocean blue, or the Native Americans (and the Tainos, to be specific), who had discovered this land long before Columbus was tall enough to hoist a sail.

In their book, Rethinking Columbus, Bill Bigelow and Bob Peterson encourage us to revisit our assumptions about history. They are on a mission to write “a true people’s history”. Both the characters in the history and the ones telling the history matter. The tales they tell and the words they use to tell those tales will differ. At times drastically.

Columbus Day. Native American Day. Explorations Day. All refer to the same day. Each offers a different version of history.

Which version of history do your words tell? (Hint: This matters to organizational and personal histories, not just history as it relates to the second Monday in October.)

Obama on opportunity. Romney on principles.

October 4, 2012 by Erica Barnhart

Presidential Candidates smiling post-debate — The two candidates all smiles post-debate. Photo credit: CNN

Listening to the first Presidential debate last night, the words the candidates used said a lot about the essence of their campaigns and the conversation they wanted the country to have.

Romney wants us talking about principles.

Obama wants us talking about opportunity.

If you read the transcript, you’ll see how often each came back to Their Word again and again and again.

Two lessons:

Simplify your message to your essence. If they can do it, so can you.
Repeat, repeat, repeat.

If you were running for President, what would your word be?

Sparking conversations vs. elevator pitching

October 3, 2012 by Erica Barnhart

elevator pitch, conversations, — What conversations will you spark today?

When we sit down to craft our ‘elevator pitch’, we generally ask ourselves: “What do I want people to know about me and my organization?”

That’s the wrong question.

The right question is: “What words can I use to spark conversations that will make my community better, stronger and more vibrant?”

Your elevator pitch is a gateway to a better world. Every time you talk to someone about your work, it’s an opportunity to spark a conversation about building that better world.

Are you building a better world by ending poverty, hunger or bullying? How about world-class theater or breath-taking sculpture? Or maybe your better-world convos center around sustainability, transportation and housing?

If you focus solely on you and your organization rather than sparking a conversation, you’re missing out on the building-a-better-world boat.

So ask yourself: what conversations will I spark today?

“Did you just tagline me?!”

September 30, 2012 by Erica Barnhart

Elevator pitch, tagline, messaging — Don’t tagline someone at a cocktail party!

Last week at the Idaho Nonprofit Conference, I did a session on Mastering Your Message. We talked about the difference between messaging that is read vs said.

For instance, an elevator pitch is said and taglines are read. That’s why when you use your tagline as your elevator pitch, you end up “taglining” someone.

That’s right, thanks to an awesome workshop attendee, “to tagline” is now a verb. They were asked to share their current elevator pitch with their neighbors and as I wandered by one group, a woman looked up and said, “I think I just got taglined!”

Being taglined is no fun. It’s kind of creepy.

Take the American Cancer Society. They have a humdinger of a tagline: The official sponsor of birthdays. Now imagine you’re at a cocktail party chatting with someone who worked for them and they said: “I work for the American Cancer Society. We’re the official sponsor of birthdays.” Um, okay. Good for you. (Go away, creepy person who is coming on way to strong. That’s what you’d really be thinking.)

If you’re working on your messaging, start by perfecting your elevator pitch, then tackle your website copy and other social properties, and then your tagline. In that order.

Everyone wants to come up with the snazzy tagline. It’s way fun. And that’s why most organizations start there. But it’s much smoother, and completely un-creepy, to transition from messaging that is said to messaging that is read.

Have you ever been taglined?

Help your board get over its messaging hiccups

September 25, 2012 by Erica Barnhart

Messaging hiccups board — Help your board get over its messaging hiccups

Last week, I got to help board members from three different organizations find their words. One of the biggest hiccups they faced was using jargon and/or acronyms. On the receiving end, these both sound like blah, blah, blah.

Staff bandy about some blah, blah, blah with the best of them. Don’t get me wrong. But since board members don’t talk about the organization as often as staff, they don’t have as many opportunities to shake the habit.

If your board members are struggling to de-jargonify their personal pitches, teach them this trick: as soon as they hear themselves use jargon or an acronym, have them pause and say, “Here’s what I mean by that…”

This allows them to keep some words and terms that are comfy to them (which is often important in order for them to let their passion shine through!) while making it understandable to those not as familiar with your mission and work.

Any other tips and tricks to help board members get over messaging hiccups?

Heads & Hearts

September 20, 2012 by Erica Barnhart

Mission-motivated organizations (nonprofits and social enterprises, I’m talking to you!) talk a lot to people’s heads. If you want more engagement, speak to their hearts. Find out how in this video!

[vimeo]https://vimeo.com/34042526[/vimeo]

Paralanguage: The power of non-verbal communication

September 18, 2012 by Erica Barnhart

How you say something is as important as what you say. Paralanguage is the non-verbal communications we send out as we use verbal communication. Is it affecting what you’re saying?

Paralanguage: The power of non-verbal communication from Claxon Marketing on Vimeo.

When personal brand meets organizational message

September 13, 2012 by Erica Barnhart

There’s a lot of buzz about personal brand(ing) these days. Rightfully so. The tools available make it possible for you to build your very own Personal Brand Empire. There are loads of articles on how to do this (like this one from SocialBrite).

There isn’t a lot on how the advent of personal branding impacts organizational messaging. Your message is only as effective as the people who use it. If the organizational message conflicts with enough people’s personal brands, you’ve got yourself a problem.

You have an HR problem that is rearing its head as a messaging problem.

Attract people who care passionately about your cause and your mission, and this problem will resolve itself to a large extent.

Once you have the right people on the bus, make sure they have the right words. Words that support your organization’s brand, words that are easy to infuse with one’s personal passion for the work. With this in place, personal branding can support organizational messaging. And that’s good for everyone.

Off my rocker and dreaming

September 10, 2012 by Erica Barnhart

The other day, someone asked me if I was worried I would become known as “That crazy lady who won’t stop talking about renaming the nonprofit sector“.

I told him no.

Here’s why: Because I am 100% comfortable being thought of as a little off my rocker if it means we find a way to talk about our work that gets away from a term that defines it by what it is not, instead of what it IS. Because it is awesome and important and ground-breaking and world-changing.

And it has nothing at all to do with sector. (Which, as Joanne Fritz pointed out in the comments on this post, sounds militaristic and silo’d.)

I dream of a day when the do-gooders of the world don’t feel obligated to have their sector define their impact. It doesn’t matter if you work for a 501c3, a venture fund, or a global software giant. The tax status of where you work is irrelevant. The impact of the work you do is absolutely relevant.

I dream of a day when we define ourselves not by sector, but by cause, purpose, vision, mission, and community.

Sectors are handy from a regulation perspective. But if we allow them to create artificial boundaries that define our work, we miss opportunities to create connections inspired by shared purpose vs shared tax status.

Will it be easy to change how we talk about our work? No. Change is hard. It takes time and tenacity. And some will say, “It ain’t really broken, so why fix it?”

My dream is not everyone’s dream. But that’s the nature of dreams–they are yours and you can choose to share them or not.

I am choosing to share this dream because I believe words matter. I believe they influence our impact. I believe words are one piece of the elusive puzzle that is a better world.

So I’m fine being the crazy lady who dreams about words, the demise of sector dominance, and the advent of a way to describe our work that speaks to what it is. I’m totally cool with that. Because our work is making the world a better place. And that matters.