[This is the latest installment in our#WordsThatWow series. You can read the others here and you can download the infographic here.]
Verbs are very important. They are action words. They are the superheroes of every sentence. They speak directly to the change you want to create in the world.
And yet most nonprofits focus so much energy on defining their nouns–people, places, and things–that by the time they get to picking a verb, they’re all out of energy. Enter the verb ‘provide’.
Provide is such a handy verb–so flexible, so malleable, so ubiquitous.
It is its ubiquity that will be its demise (I hope).
If you’re looking to use your words to stand out from the crowd, provide is not your best bet. In fact, it’s totally lame. Everyone is providing a bunch of stuff all over the place. Booooooring.
I wish I could tell you what the very best verbs are for you. But I can’t. I can’t because it’s not for me to say what verb represents the change you’re making in the world.
Having seen the difference changing verbs has had for thousands of organizations, I can assure you that using better verbs will make it easier for you to engage people in your work. And that’s what all this ‘using words to make the world a better place stuff’ is all about, right? Right.