Sharing is Caring

Bootcamp Week #9: Share & Use

(this week’s vid)

You’ve got your Messaging Framework. Now what?

Now you make sure staff, board and volunteers all know about it. And you make sure that everyone practices the Top-Level Message for at least three months before they start tweaking.

That’s right. Three months. Why? Because that’s long enough to figure out what was simply uncomfortable vs what isn’t working. Anything less than that and you’re just giving in to the status quo, reverting to what’s comfortable but not necessarily compelling.

Resist.

It’s also time to do an inventory of all your communications and marketing materials, both on and off-line. Then go through and make everything consistent. A bit boring perhaps, but worthwhile. Very worthwhile.

This Week’s To-Do’s

  1. Send to board and staff. Ideally, hold a training and give them the chance to practice, practice, practice.
  2. Inventory your materials and make all messaging consistent.
  3. Give yourself a great big high-five–you made it through the Nonprofit Messaging Bootcamp!

About Claxon’s Nonprofit Messaging Bootcamp

This is week #9–the final week–of our Nonprofit Messaging Bootcamp. If you’d like to get your messaging booty in shape, here’s what you do.

DIY Nonprofit Messaging Bootcamp: Step-by-Step

Over 300 organizations survived the inaugural Nonprofit Messaging Bootcamp. Congrats to each and every one of them!

If you still want to get your organization’s messaging booty in shape, download the Nonprofit Messaging Roadmap and a Messaging Framework and then work your way through the blog posts and videos below.

We know you’re busy so everything is short and sweet–you’ll be in fab shape in no time!

Point A: Your Belief Proposition | Blog Post | Video
Point B: Mental File Folders | Blog PostVideo
Point C: Identifying Your Competition| Blog Post | Video
Point D: Unique Differentiators | Blog Post | Video
Point E: Engagement Proposition | Blog Post | Video
Point F: Pifalls to Avoid | Blog Post | Video
Point G: Top-Level Message | Blog Post | Video
Point H: Supporting Messaging by Audience | Blog Post | Video
Point I: Share & Use | Blog Post | Video

Let the Messaging Journey Begin!

last minuteMessaging is critical to your nonprofit’s ability to captivate and cultivate people who care about your mission. It’s a way of engaging people in your work on an ongoing basis.

As cliche as it may sound, messaging is a journey, not a destination. It isn’t something you do once and then check off your to-do list. Depending on your organization, legs of the journey might include crafting a tagline, developing a messaging framework and coming up with an elevator pitch that makes people say, “How can I learn more?!”  Yet just as a journey through Europe wouldn’t be complete if it consisted only of visiting the Eiffel Tower, your messaging journey isn’t done as soon as you have a snappy tagline.

So many organizations settle for messaging that is mushy, muddled, or mediocre– your mission deserves more! It’s time to embark on your very own messaging journey.

To get you excited about your journey, in December, we will showcase messaging that inspires and informs, that compels action and awe, that makes you want to do something big and bold to make the world a better place. Then, in January, we’ll kick off a Free DIY Messaging Bootcamp. More on that later in the month, but in the meantime, make sure you sign-up for Tune-Up Tuesday Videos coming in January! These will be short (~2-3 minute) videos that are specific and practical, delivered straight to your inbox.

To get the inspiration flowing, here’s a video featuring Scott Harrison, Founder & President of Charity: Water, an organization that brings clean, safe drinking water to people in developing nations. He talks about the role messaging has played in their ability to grow from an idea to an organization serving more than 1,000,000 people.

Do you communicate as effectively as you think?

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Do you communicate as effectively as you think?

X