Episode 108
Avoid These 3 Writing Mistakes in Non-Profit Communications - Part 2
In this podcast transcript, hosts Chris and Gena highlight common mistakes that writers make when crafting content for nonprofit organizations. They discuss the importance of focusing on the benefits to the reader, creating clear calls to action, telling impactful stories of individual beneficiaries, and maintaining consistent branding across all communication channels. The hosts emphasize that these principles can also prove beneficial in other forms of writing, providing examples from their own experiences and from the realm of political speechmaking.
00:00 Introduction and Podcast Setup
00:46 Defining Non-Profits and Their Writing Needs
02:57 Common Mistakes in Non-Profit Writing: Part 1
04:05 Common Mistakes in Non-Profit Writing: Part 2
07:02 Common Mistakes in Non-Profit Writing: Part 3
10:22 The Power of Storytelling in Non-Profit Writing
12:58 Consistency Across All Channels
14:00 Recap and Conclusion
LINKS:
- Liz Wilcox's Email Marketing Membership at http://wmdeal.com/liz
- Get your FREE Move the Needle goal-setting for authors ebook at https://www.writingmomentum.com
- Write with us! Join Chris, Gena, and Rene each Wednesday at noon Central and let's get our writing DONE! https://www.writingmoments.com
Transcript
What are three more big mistakes writers make when writing for non profits?
Speaker:Hey, we can help with that.
Speaker:All right, I'm Chris and this is my wife, Gena.
Speaker:How are you doing, Gena?
Speaker:I'm doing really good.
Speaker:I'm hitting all the wrong buttons here.
Speaker:We have buttons in front of us when we're trying to make all
Speaker:this podcast thingy happen.
Speaker:And I can't tell you how easy it is to forget what button does what
Speaker:and just hit the wrong button in the wrong order at the wrong time.
Speaker:Well, you know.
Speaker:This is complicated stuff.
Speaker:Well, it may be complicated stuff, but I'm impressed because you've
Speaker:streamlined it as much as you have.
Speaker:Well, yeah, I've pretty much boiled it down to I need to be
Speaker:able to push a one or a two.
Speaker:Other than that, it gets too complicated.
Speaker:I think that's great.
Speaker:Well, Chris, today we are, we started last week, with mistakes that writers
Speaker:make when writing for non profits.
Speaker:And first, let's just define what a non profit is.
Speaker:A non profit is a business that is in business not to make a profit.
Speaker:They are usually so the things that fall under this category would be churches,
Speaker:ministries, humanitarian organizations, community outreach organizations.
Speaker:And what else?
Speaker:Clubs even might be under this, like community clubs.
Speaker:And they might make a profit.
Speaker:I was joking when I said that, but really these are organizations that they
Speaker:exist in order to usually help people in some way and usually the profits
Speaker:go back into the organization and into helping people, that sort of thing.
Speaker:So we were talking last week about the mistakes that are really
Speaker:common to this kind of writing.
Speaker:And like Chris said, we've been writing for this particular in this
Speaker:field, in this one of the industries, many of the industries that represent
Speaker:nonprofits for several years.
Speaker:No, I thought you were going to say decades again.
Speaker:See, it just, it makes me old every time you say decades because it's been decades.
Speaker:It's been decades.
Speaker:And over the years, we have our own writing has gotten stronger, hopefully,
Speaker:in this area as we've worked with these different organizations, as
Speaker:we've learned from mentors in these organizations, and as we've studied it,
Speaker:as we've studied this kind of writing.
Speaker:And so if you missed last week's It would have been episode one of seven.
Speaker:Definitely go back and check that out.
Speaker:But today we're going to talk about three more mistakes that writers
Speaker:make when writing for nonprofits.
Speaker:Really good.
Speaker:So now keep in mind, and I said this last time and it applies this time
Speaker:too, just because we're talking about writing for nonprofits, that doesn't
Speaker:mean this is only for nonprofits.
Speaker:You'll find a lot of these principles work across the board,
Speaker:no matter who you're writing for.
Speaker:Even yourself.
Speaker:In fact, last time I gave an example of how one of the mistakes was
Speaker:something that I had made in our own business, which is not a nonprofit.
Speaker:And so keep that in mind that this can apply to anything.
Speaker:So do you want to take us on the first one?
Speaker:Well, okay.
Speaker:So the first one is focusing on what you want as a nonprofit, rather than on the
Speaker:benefit that it provides to your donor.
Speaker:This is really a basic marketing technique, overall.
Speaker:This doesn't apply just to nonprofits.
Speaker:When you're writing something that's a marketing oriented, a letter,
Speaker:an advertisement, even a book.
Speaker:Sometimes you can do books that are kind of you know, oriented like that.
Speaker:An email.
Speaker:An email.
Speaker:You need to make sure that you're focusing on what benefits
Speaker:the person who's reading it.
Speaker:Not just.
Speaker:On your message.
Speaker:On your message.
Speaker:And that seems like obvious, but it's really not because we tend to do that.
Speaker:We tend to be very self.
Speaker:Obsessed, involved.
Speaker:I wasn't going to say obsessed.
Speaker:We all do it.
Speaker:I mean, it's human, right?
Speaker:I was going to say self focused when writing things because
Speaker:we're thinking, here's what I want to get someone else to do.
Speaker:And so we write in that mindset.
Speaker:And instead we need to show someone else how if they do what you're
Speaker:suggesting, they will be better for it.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:So that's, I'm really joking about that.
Speaker:I don't think we're all just completely self centered, but I think as when we are
Speaker:writing for organizations, we often get so caught up in the message or what we're
Speaker:wanting to communicate that we sometimes forget about the person, putting ourselves
Speaker:in the seat of the person receiving it.
Speaker:And so that's really what we're talking about.
Speaker:And it really is focused, like Chris said, on benefits focusing on what is
Speaker:that person going to get out of it.
Speaker:Even if you're asking for money and you're saying, help us because we're
Speaker:going to educate children in Africa.
Speaker:You know, you're going to do something like that.
Speaker:You're raising money for that.
Speaker:What the person is going to get out of that is that sense of being part of
Speaker:the solution, not part of the problem.
Speaker:Connection also sometimes.
Speaker:Yeah, so it's not just about tangible things that people
Speaker:are going to get out of it.
Speaker:It's also about the intrinsic value, that value within of you want people
Speaker:to feel good about what they're doing because you are making a difference.
Speaker:In the life of a child, or you are helping to change the life of a family
Speaker:or a nation, even if you're helping pull an entire nation up out of poverty.
Speaker:So these are really powerful emotions.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:When someone connects emotionally, you've kind of transcend.
Speaker:The written word, right?
Speaker:And so that's, that's very, very important.
Speaker:And think about that.
Speaker:That's what we want too, right?
Speaker:I mean, part of even Chris and I doing this podcast and also our Writing Moments
Speaker:membership that we have where we get together and write with authors and write
Speaker:with writers even, is part of that for us is that there's a value to us in just
Speaker:helping people, helping other writers.
Speaker:Well, that's a value that we're you know, that if somebody were writing
Speaker:to us that they would see, that's hopefully something we're wanting
Speaker:other people to know as well.
Speaker:So think about what the value is or the benefit that will come to someone when
Speaker:they do whatever you want them to do.
Speaker:And I will even say, as Chris was saying, this doesn't just go for nonprofits,
Speaker:but as you are asking people to sign up for your newsletter, if you're
Speaker:asking people to buy your book, What are they going to get out of that?
Speaker:Is it going to be, if you're writing a fiction book and, you know, you're going
Speaker:into summer, maybe they're going to get a fun beach read that they're going to
Speaker:be able to take on vacation with them.
Speaker:They're going to get some fun escape.
Speaker:Of course, if you're writing nonprofit and you're helping somebody overcome
Speaker:something, maybe you're going to help them to channel their grief or to work through
Speaker:their grief, if it's something like that.
Speaker:Or if it's a memoir, maybe you're going to help them learn some life lessons
Speaker:through your story or something like that.
Speaker:So, stop for a few minutes and really think about What the benefit is for
Speaker:someone to do what you want them to do.
Speaker:Yeah, and then the next thing is, don't be afraid to ask what you want
Speaker:to ask in that letter or that email or that piece of literature, right?
Speaker:You need to be able to ask.
Speaker:And we've talked about before having a call to action on
Speaker:the things that you write.
Speaker:In an email that you write, you want to have a call to action.
Speaker:In other words, What are you asking the reader to do?
Speaker:You need to put that in there because otherwise what purpose does it have?
Speaker:Right?
Speaker:You need, you need to have usually a call to action.
Speaker:What do you want them to do?
Speaker:And it may be to give money or it may be to respond or it may be to come volunteer.
Speaker:Whatever it is, there's something you're asking them to do.
Speaker:Don't be afraid to do that.
Speaker:And we put that on the list because we have worked before with nonprofits
Speaker:that are so concerned about giving people that ooey feeling that they
Speaker:don't want to actually come out and put a call to action on what they write.
Speaker:They, they just, they just want to kind of put some information out there and hope
Speaker:that it gets across what they're asking.
Speaker:And the truth is, people want to know why they're reading what they're reading.
Speaker:And even if you're asking for money, it doesn't have to be ooey, right?
Speaker:You can write it in such a way, if you're skilled with it, you can write it in
Speaker:such a way that it doesn't come across like you're being schwarmy with it or
Speaker:anything like that, but that you're letting them know here's what the problem
Speaker:is and here's how, if you give, it will help and people will respond to that.
Speaker:Now, that doesn't mean that everything has to have that call
Speaker:to action to give money, right?
Speaker:And I, and I think there needs to definitely be a balance there with that.
Speaker:And depending on the, again, the purpose of the letter, that may
Speaker:not be the purpose, but whatever the call to action is, that's
Speaker:where you're wanting to send them.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:I do want to mention when Chris is talking about call to action,
Speaker:if you read on this kind of thing, People will call it the CTA.
Speaker:Sometimes they use the acronym CTA.
Speaker:So if you see that CTA, that's what they're talking about, the call to action.
Speaker:And you do want to be very clear.
Speaker:And we have discovered that you have to be very clear and
Speaker:precise with what you're saying.
Speaker:It's not just go ahead and donate today.
Speaker:It's, that's why you see, if you receive something from these organizations
Speaker:that are asking for money, they will say, would you like to give
Speaker:10, 25, 100 or fill in the blank.
Speaker:And they do that because they want to give you a very clear
Speaker:message about what they're wanting.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Because if you leave it too vague, people don't know what to do.
Speaker:They want to know exactly what to do.
Speaker:And that's, that's, you know, that's one of the things that talk about public
Speaker:speaking is you want to go ahead and say what you're gonna say, then you want
Speaker:to say it, then you want to go back and talk about what you just said, right?
Speaker:You need to come across that message three times in a row
Speaker:in order to help people get it.
Speaker:It's kind of the same thing with a call to action.
Speaker:You want to put it out there.
Speaker:And just make it very clear so that there's no way that people
Speaker:are going to miss that message that you're trying to get across.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:What's the next one?
Speaker:Okay, so our third one is don't just ask or tell, but also include a story.
Speaker:People really respond to stories that they can connect to.
Speaker:It connects on an emotional level, so that if you are raising money for a Orphanage
Speaker:or a group in Africa to send children to high school, college, whatever.
Speaker:If you can pull out one of those stories and actually, even beyond just
Speaker:a story, is to tell the story of one.
Speaker:People talk about the story of one.
Speaker:You want to put a face and a name to that story.
Speaker:So if you're talking about a child in Africa that you're going to send to
Speaker:school, you're going to pay for them.
Speaker:Let's hear about that one child.
Speaker:Let's hear about Sam.
Speaker:Do you know where we hear this all the time?
Speaker:Is in, with politicians.
Speaker:They do this, right?
Speaker:Oh, yeah.
Speaker:They'll be giving a political speech.
Speaker:Listen for it this year.
Speaker:They'll be giving a political speech, and in the middle of the speech they'll say,
Speaker:you know, I met Bob Smith the other day down at such and such a car plant, and
Speaker:we talked about how difficult this, and so this would be for their family, right?
Speaker:And so what they're doing is they're putting a name to it, it's an
Speaker:individual, one person that they're using to amplify that problem and
Speaker:it makes them seem very in touch.
Speaker:It makes you connect with the person emotionally and the story emotionally.
Speaker:And that's why politicians use it all the time.
Speaker:Yes, definitely, listen for that.
Speaker:It's that story of one.
Speaker:And so don't be afraid to put that in there when you're telling it.
Speaker:And it can be a great way even to get people in.
Speaker:If you're writing a letter, you're writing a fundraising letter.
Speaker:If you can even start with that story.
Speaker:So you start, people kind of lower their guards cause you know, how many
Speaker:of us get letters that were like, Oh, they're going to be asking for money.
Speaker:What are they wanting from me?
Speaker:And you start with that story about Samuel in Africa who's going to go
Speaker:to college or go to high school even.
Speaker:And he's going to, be able to take care of his single mother and his
Speaker:three little sisters and man, by the time you're done with that story,
Speaker:you've already got your wallet out.
Speaker:You're whatever.
Speaker:You're ready to go.
Speaker:It's that story of one it's so powerful.
Speaker:That's again.
Speaker:Good when we're talking about non profits, but also maybe even for your own business,
Speaker:that sort of thing, very powerful.
Speaker:And then, you know, I got a bonus one here.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:And that is, whenever you're writing a message like this, and
Speaker:you've got your slogan or your tagline ready, or you've got that
Speaker:individual story that's so strong.
Speaker:And you're showing people how what you're writing benefits them, right?
Speaker:These things that we've talked about on last podcast and this podcast.
Speaker:When you've got those, you want to make sure that they're consistent across
Speaker:all of the channels that you're using.
Speaker:So if you're, if you've got something on television, if you've got something going
Speaker:out by email, if you've got something on social media, if you've got a direct
Speaker:mail message coming in your mailbox, you want to make sure that all of those
Speaker:have that same consistent message.
Speaker:Those channels shouldn't be divided.
Speaker:Each doing their own thing, make sure that that message you're putting out there is
Speaker:consistent everywhere, and you'll find out it has just that much more impact.
Speaker:Absolutely.
Speaker:And that goes for the writing.
Speaker:It goes for the graphics.
Speaker:It just goes for the writing in the style, but also just the feel of it.
Speaker:The whole feel of it should be similar in order to be even more powerful.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:Hey, you want to bring us through those what we talked about today?
Speaker:Sure Okay, so we're talking about three although Chris kicked it up to four.
Speaker:Four more mistakes that writers make when writing for non profits.
Speaker:First, it's focusing so much on what you want to say that you forget to really
Speaker:think about what the reader needs to hear.
Speaker:Make sure you focus and spend some time on those benefits and
Speaker:really think about those benefits.
Speaker:Two, don't be afraid to ask.
Speaker:Don't be afraid to be very clear about what you are wanting.
Speaker:Don't just assume that your readers are going to understand just by reading.
Speaker:That they're going to kind of get it.
Speaker:It's a call to action.
Speaker:It's a call to action.
Speaker:A CTA.
Speaker:So definitely make sure your communication has that CTA.
Speaker:And then don't just ask.
Speaker:Share a story.
Speaker:This is so powerful.
Speaker:Share a story and especially a story of one.
Speaker:Bring in that story of one to really put a name and kind of a face to your messaging.
Speaker:So look for that.
Speaker:And then four, Make sure your branding across all your channels has a
Speaker:similar sound, has a similar feel, has even has a similar graphics.
Speaker:And that kind of goes beyond just the writing.
Speaker:But make sure that in all your channels, that there is that similarity that people
Speaker:can count on and they can recognize.
Speaker:'cause they will start to recognize that.
Speaker:That's good.
Speaker:Hey, these have been fun to do.
Speaker:We haven't talked about writing for non profits before, so
Speaker:those are some good ones.
Speaker:Yeah, I think you can tell we're pretty passionate about it.
Speaker:Yeah, we love writing for non profits.
Speaker:That's why we like sharing this stuff.
Speaker:Hey, if you enjoyed it, would you rate, review, subscribe, and share
Speaker:this with someone else who you think might benefit from knowing how
Speaker:to not commit these mistakes that writers often make on non profits.
Speaker:Again, if you missed the previous episode 107, it was also about this topic.
Speaker:We had three mistakes on there.
Speaker:We had four more on this episode 108 and I just think this is good that
Speaker:we're doing this because we just want you to know you're not in this alone.
Speaker:When you're writing for non profits or something else, we are doing this
Speaker:together because together, what Gena?
Speaker:We have writing momentum.
Speaker:Bye
Speaker:bye.
