A white nonprofit CEO stands in a room of African- Americans who are his organization’s constituents. He has a lot to say about the problems faced by those his organization serves, but he holds back. He’s concerned that because he is white, he’ll be misunderstood by the very people he is working to support.
Another nonprofit CEO seeks funding for after-school programs for children who live in economically under-served communities. She avoids describing the environments in which the youth live because she does not want them to feel badly about their neighborhoods. As if they don’t already.
Executive directors and CEOs of nonprofit organizations know exactly what is wrong with the system. Listen to these experts closely, and you’ll hear the answers to some of the greatest problems of society, from hunger and homelessness to mental illness and mass incarceration. Nonprofit leaders are informed and pragmatic problem-solvers. They have to be.
But with all of this knowledge, years of experience, and incredible stories from the streets, many nonprofit CEOs and executive directors become cautious diplomats when asked to make their opinions public. Ever conscious of the political and financial ramifications of being outspoken, nonprofit CEOs and EDs leave much unsaid. They are wise to be cognizant of the delicate balance between funding, politics, and various relationships that affect their ability to do their work and fulfill their missions.
But at the same time, not using direct language poses problems. If a CEO’s goal is to get public, corporate and individual donors involved, she must be able to speak freely about the issues. On one hand, she must keep government funding coming in. On the other, she must appeal to private and corporate donors to get additional funding because what state and feds provide is not enough to solve the problems or meet constituents’ needs: healthcare, food, housing, education, training, jobs and the like.
And they must be able to “bottom-line” what can be complex issues.
Take, for example, the very common and basic inquiry: “Tell me about your organization.” You think that would be a gimme for EDs who spend long days steeped in big issues for years on end. To the contrary, the question has been known to catch the very experienced off guard. A nonprofit CEO, who spent the 1980s going to houses and pulling kids out bed at 7 a.m. to make sure they got to the probation office on time and now leads a national movement to improve juvenile justice in America for the same agency, was made momentarily speechless by such an inquiry. He didn’t know where to begin, what was most important to highlight, or when to stop talking. Forty years is a lot of ground to cover.
The TED Talk Formula may be the answer. In his book, The Storyteller’s Secret, author Carmine Gallo says the formula for TED Talks that go viral is simple: Problem, Action, Solution. In order to get financial involvement from corporate and individual funders the following questions must be answered: What is the problem the organization trying to solve? What are the actions it is taking to solve those problems? And what are the results achieved?
Talk about the Problem
In order for a nonprofit CEO to do her job effectively, she must tell the media and the public about the problems her organization is working to solve. She has to be able to explain why what her organization does is so critically necessary. Her pitch about the mission and her call to action/ask needs to be tight, coherent, and compelling. She also needs to be politically astute and explain the problem without hurting feelings, bruising egos, or making enemies when there are many alliances and allegiances to heed.
Talk about the Action
Amazingly, many nonprofits don’t come out and say what, exactly, they do to solve issues. One nonprofit may be working with kids over the summer so they don’t fall into the summer learning loss slump, but HOW exactly do they do that? Many neglect to connect the dots so the public understands what they do and why it is so important. Also, there are many nonprofits operating in the same space all of the time. The competition for recognition is thick. By telling exactly what your organization does and how it is different from the others, you’ll be helping the public and future funders remember your organization above the others. Share your secret sauce. It’s the key to recognition and revenue.
Talk about the Solution
A major hospital in Boston was great at generating “unrestricted” funds from donors through its bike-a-thon. The problem was that when the public and the media wanted to know what became of the millions of dollars raised each year, the organization was left with shrugged shoulders. Their job, they thought, was to raise the funds and leave it to the experts at the hospital to figure out where and how to use it. That didn’t sit well the next year when potential donors wanted to know what happened to last year’s contributions. The public needs to feel resolution if they are to financially contribute. Get your numbers ready, share the stats, and talk about real impact. How many people were helped, how much money did it take, where did the money go? Get specific and share what you know.
