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Dreaming of words

January 27, 2012 by Erica Barnhart

A few weeks ago, I wrote about dreaming in action, about how ‘dream’ is both a noun and a verb. I encouraged us all to live our dreams every day. It was lofty, existential stuff.

This week, I’ve been dreaming about words. That’s right. Words. More precisely, I’ve dreaming about a day when the English language would catch up with the awesomeness that is the work being done every day to make the world a better place.

As readers of this blog know, I’ve long dreamed of a day when we in the non-profit world would define ourselves by what we are versus what we are not. That dream turned into an experiment in crowdsourcing an alternative to the word ‘non-profit. (Non-profit meaning non-progress, after all. Ew!)

But I’m also dreaming about other words. We talk about mission and cause and impact and inspiration and that’s all important. The problem is they’ve all been used so much that they’re losing their meaning. They might, gulp, end up on Big Duck’s Words to Avoid List!

It’s not that they’re bad words. It’s that they’ve become blah. Sort of like ‘innovative technology solution’. (What is that anyway?! As opposed to, what, an un-innovative technology solution?) I’m dreaming of infusing those words with vim and vigor so they get your blood pumping and your heart racing. They need to be resuscitated or replaced.

Am I whining? Yeah, a little bit. I admit it. (And as I say to my kids, “I don’t speak whine.”)

So instead of whining, I’ll redirect my energy toward something more positive and productive–scouring the globe for words that do justice to the work of all the hard-working people who are making the world a better place.

So tell us: what words do your work justice?

State of the Union 2012: Top 10 Words

January 26, 2012 by Erica Barnhart

(Click on image above or go here for larger view.)

A lot goes into a speech. Vocal intonation. Gestures. Dramatic pauses.

And then there’s the words.

It is not by happenstance that certain words are used more than others in a speech…especially not when it’s a Presidential address. So I thought it’d be interesting to put President Obama’s 2012 State of the Union address into a Wordle to see what themes emerged.

Wordle takes a set of words and creates a “word cloud” that shows the relative importance of each word based on how often it is used.

The top 10 most used words from President Obama’s speech were:

American
America
Americans
Jobs
New
Energy
One
Every
Tax
Right

Interesting collection. The top five are no surprise. The relative position of #6 and #9 would seem to indicate that the speech had a longer-term focus vs. getting caught up in the week’s hot topics.

For mission-driven readers, #7 and #8 stand out as they spotlight a common conundrum–how do you speak to a whole while recognizing the importance of its parts? See, even the President has to use some messaging Aikido, on occasion!

What does list say to you?

Cause & Mission: Big Diff

January 18, 2012 by Erica Barnhart

You often see ’cause’ and ‘mission’ used interchangeably. Not sure why. They’re quite different.

Here’s what I mean:

Cause=Why

Mission=What/Who/How

Causes can be broad (example: improving public education) or specific (example: music education in elementary schools in East Vancouver). Importantly, multiple organizations share a cause. This makes sense. We’re tackling big problems and it’s going to take lots of people-power to make progress on them. One organization isn’t going to single-handedly improve public education, right?

Mission is about your WHAT/WHO/HOW. This should speak to how you are advancing your cause, whether you’re an individual or an organization.

WHAT do you do?

WHO are you helping?

HOW are you doing it?

Each of these questions need a specific answer that, as a whole, is unique to your organization. And I mean ‘unique’ in the true sense of the word: something of which there is only one.

Share your cause. Own your mission.

Does this make sense? Do you know the difference between your cause and your mission?

Dream: verb and noun

January 16, 2012 by Erica Barnhart

When you have a dream while sleeping, that happens in spite of you. You’re asleep, after all.

When you have a dream while awake, it happens because of you. Your dreams reflect who you are and what you stand for. It is both verb and noun. “I dream of a better world and I’m making that dream come true.”

Martin Luther King, Jr. epitomized dreaming in action. His “I Have a Dream” speech is as resonant today as it was on August 28, 1963.

Below shows another dream in action. It’s the dream of Severn Suzuki as described in an address she gave to the United Nations. She is 13 years old.

What’s your dream? Are you working every day to make it come true?

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TQmz6Rbpnu0&feature[/youtube]

Righteous

January 14, 2012 by Erica Barnhart

For years, whenever I’ve heard the word righteous, I’ve thought of surfers and skateboarders and other people who seemed cool when they said, “That’s righteous, dude!”.

But then I was reading Barry Johnson’s book about managing polarities vs solving problems and it was written like this: RIGHTeous.

In the world of cause and mission, being right has currency. Being right doesn’t give you the right to be righteous. It gives you an opportunity to be humble.

Great jazz. Great messaging.

December 16, 2011 by Erica Barnhart

Ray Nance is famous for his trumpet solo in the Duke Ellington orchestra hit, ‘Take the A Train’. He played this solo every night the orchestra played from 1941-1963. Although he did variations on it, he always started out by playing the original versions.

What makes great jazz musicians great is that they master the basics first.

This applies to mission-driven messaging.

It is tempting to immediately start switching up your messaging (usually reverting back to what you’re used to) when you first start using it. This is largely because–as with most things that involve change–when you change your messaging, it’s uncomfortable.

Give it time.

Once you have mastered the basics, you can riff.

Charity or Philanthropy: take your pick

November 28, 2011 by Erica Barnhart

Holiday Lights — Charity and Philanthropy: both bring light to the world

Here’s a question during this season of giving: If you volunteer at the local food bank or toss coins into the Salvation Army bucket, are you being charitable or philanthropic?

Last year at this time, Aktkar Badshah, who heads up Microsoft’s Corporate Citizenship office, spoke at AFP Washington’s Annual Meeting. He made an interesting distinction between charity and philanthropy. It’s a distinction that I’ve been mulling over for twelve months now. It may seem like quibbling over semantics but I think it’s worth getting clear on this distinction as you head into the final throes of 2011.

Akthar explained that charity is an individual act that benefits the community at large whereas philanthropy increases the well-being of human kind. In this construct, charity is shorter term and, it would seem, lower impact whereas philanthropy is longer term and higher impact.

This is not to say there’s anything wrong with charitable acts. Quite the contrary! They add up to a philanthropic culture and that’s what we’re going for, i.e. enough charitable acts eventually lead to wide-scale impact, or philanthropy.

During this time of year when your supporters have doing good on the brain, the question is: are you creating opportunities for charity or fueling philanthropy? Depending on your goals, either is fine. Just be clear on which one it is.

Great words from GreatNonprofits

September 13, 2011 by Erica Barnhart

In the most recent issue of Advancing Philanthropy, the magazine published by the Association of Fundraising Professionals, there’s an article about “how the ways people describe your organization may affect your fundraising strategies”.

Newsflash: There’s a difference between the words we think donors, supporters, volunteers and clients want to hear and the ones they actually want to hear…and that they themselves use.

I was being a little sarcastic when I said this was a newsflash. (Sorry.) What I see time and time and time (and time) again is that organizations pick words that speak to donors’ heads and not their hearts. Why? Because it’s safe. If you say, “We provide housing for low-income families in transition,” you can probably prove that’s what you do. That feels safe.

That’s fine. But it’s not inspiring. And what fundraisers know is that people donate money and time when they feel a sense of belonging, appreciation and/or that they can make a difference. In short–when they’re inspired!

For instance, the organization above might say something like, “We make sure kids have a place to call home,” instead of “We provide housing for low-income families in transition.” If I’m a potential donor, I understand how important a home is and can see myself being a part of making it happen. Not so much when it comes to housing for low-income families.

The Advancing Philanthropy article is based on information from GreatNonprofits and will embolden you in your attempts to use words that inspire action. It’s definitely worth a read.

Bonus: For more on creating jargon-free, engagement-friendly messaging, watch this short video.

Marketing Main Street

July 29, 2011 by Erica Barnhart

Yesterday, I joined 13 of Washington state’s Main Street Managers in Mt. Vernon. Our task was to figure out how each could engage their communities in the unique awesomeness their downtowns offer.

At most trainings I do, each organization has a different Belief Proposition. In this case, they shared a common one–a belief that downtown revitalization leads to lasting, positive economic impact.

That’s what made it so interesting when we started working on messaging. It was tempting to think that since they believed the same thing, they could talk about that belief in the same way and have it be compelling in all communities. Not so!

Since each downtown was so unique, their messaging had to be as well. Here’s a smattering of the Lean-In Lines (otherwise known as Elevator Pitches or a response to the question “What does your organization do?”) the participants created (or at least a close proximity based on my recollection):

We’re leading the charge to make downtown THE place to be!

We’re helping our community rediscover downtown.

We energize small business and celebrate our small town charm.

We bring Meeker Days and so much more right to the downtown core. (Note that this also rhymes which makes it fun to say and easy to remember.)

All are about downtown yet not about any ol’ downtown–THEIR downtown. The lesson: frame your messaging in a way that highlights what’s unique about your organization and what’s most compelling to those you need to engage in your mission.

This group of dedicated, fearless Main Street mavericks made me pine for a Main Street in my (not-so-small) town that was as amazing as theirs. To find a Main Street community near you, check out the Washington Trust for Historic Preservation’s handy listing of Main Streets around the state.

Just stop saying just

July 15, 2011 by Erica Barnhart

When did misusing the word ‘just’ become so popular?

Just is either an adjective (“That was a just response to the claim.”) or an adverb (“We just submitted the grant.”) But we’ve started using it as a weird, apologetic qualifier.

“I just wanted to check in and see how that report is coming along.”

“Just a quick note to say we’re still interested in meeting.”

“It’s just me.”

In all of these instances, it’s being used to say, “Hey, I don’t want to bug you…” It’s a subtle apology. Sometimes subtle apologies are in order. But there’s a disproportionate use of the word just to the amount of apologizing that needs to be happening. Especially when it comes to nonprofits and their work.

“We just wanted to let you know that we tutored 827 students this year.” This sentence could have been plucked directly from many a donor communication piece. If you’re the donor, you want to hear that your money is having the impact you wanted it to have. You don’t want your attention diverted to what didn’t happen. By simply taking out the word, it changes the entire tone.

“We wanted to let you know that we tutored 827 students this year.” Heck, without the word just, I’d be tempted to throw in an exclamation point.

So, please, just stop using just. You have no reason to apologize.