Does Messaging Really Matter for Your Fundraising Results?

In Innovative Resources’ experience working with over three hundred diverse nonprofit organizations, we have found that those organizations that are guided to be consistently “on message” and prioritize communicating their unique value and impact in words and design resonate the most with donors and prospects alike.

As a board member, development committee member, CEO, or Chief Development Officer, you are bombarded in every webinar and training that nonprofit fundraising success requires succinct, mission-driven, consistent communications. Most donors will not respond in the way you want them to unless you can have a full-on transference of mission to their hearts and minds. It is incredible that everyone tells you that you must “brand connect, “ but no one really tells you how. How can we all identify the secret ingredient that gives rise to passionate, year-to-year, impact-driven donors?

We know well that getting messaging right is challenging. The reality for most nonprofits is their messaging is all over the map, as is their ability to select and communicate their funding priorities. Many organizations simply lack the wherewithal to get communications and branding done well or, worse yet, done at all.

There is a constant refrain that we all must tell stories to convey message, but driving philanthropic investment flies in the face of random storytelling. Stories must be elegantly crafted to drive prospects to make a meaningful philanthropic investment. Stories are a tactic, not the be-all-end-all in achieving results.

Chief development officers, program staff, and often development committee volunteers labor at writing detailed cases for support resulting in manifesto-like campaign cases that donors skim without any detectable increase in their passion for the project or campaign. It’s unfortunate but true that what the traditional case for support does is ineffective and, quite frankly, bores the prospect with too many statistics and too little focus on future impact.

The imperative of effective messaging for nonprofits inspired me when I was starting my consulting practice, to bring top creative services talent to our firm and focus on message and prospectus development, and donor-inspiring websites and microsites.

Why? The single most important action to empower your board members, campaign volunteers, and CEO to take the first steps toward cultivating, engaging, and asking for investment is a succinct pitch deck and a prospectus that intrigues potential supporters. It is that simple. No one feels prepared to ask for funds without it. Whether it is used to engage prospect interest in a focused Zoom meeting or an in-person prospect visit sharing the deck or prospectus on your laptop screen, professional, compelling materials motivate volunteer and senior leadership action. Your campaign co-chairs will not feel ready until they have talking points to complement the prospectus and with a strong call to action for everyone who believes in the value of your mission.

We have found that the prospectus should not focus on campaign financial goals, but rather develop an easy-to-digest comprehensive five-year funding visual illustrating how the revenue you are asking for will change lives and have super-charged impact for your nonprofit. Being transparent about money, candid about challenges, and honest about what the potential impact can be are essential to motivating your board and campaign volunteers to actually take that first step toward opening doors and using their circles of influence to bring in major donor investment.

If you decide that hands-on help is needed to corral your organization’s strategic message, should you hire an ad agency, a public relations firm, or a development consulting firm that specializes in writing for development? Our experience shows that there is a place for all these services—but development writing and design are unique.

Specialists in development materials craft compelling talking points and content for all channels of campaign and stewardship communications. They can craft the communications strategies, implementation plans, and produce for you the actual materials you need to drive philanthropy, social impact, and corporate social responsibility dollars to your organization. Not advice about messaging, but the actual messaging. Effective communications are not one-size-fits-all. Development communications is a hybrid of information sharing, persuasive selling, and testimonials that speak to your impact. It is a unique beast and your organization will be best served by partnering with development communications experts, rather than generalist communicators.

What you don’t need is an expensive printed “view book” or a lengthy case for support with very few inspiring details about what the new revenue will do to transform your impact. Innovative Resources Group is proud to have partnered with more than 300 nonprofit organizations over 32 years who have seen the value of a development consulting team that specializes in creative services.

Do you want to try to move from siloes fundraising to a comprehensive campaign approach? Take a look at this case study on how we communicated a holistic approach for a 150-year-old Napa Valley Episcopal Church.

It's essential to have a crisp, clear, easy-to-navigate Giving page on your website that shows how to give non-cash gifts that will be most tax advantageous to your donors such as gifts of appreciated stock, such as this one we created for a nonprofit that provides essentials of daily life to those in need.

Traditional cases for support often focus on the organization’s history—they look back rather than forward. For reasons that are a mystery to me, there is a worry about getting specific about the dollars needed and how they will effectively transform the organization. Here are two prospectus examples that are honest about revenue required, and transparent about challenges in the creation of compelling, forward-looking prospectuses.

Here's an example of an effective, impact-focused giving microsite.