Story
Change the Way You Think Overview
Our For Impact Point of View is meant to do one of two things for everyone who reads it – confirm a gut feeling/intuition or give permission to completely change the way we think!
With the latter, we want to challenge old thinking around:
- Our story. Our message. And the words we use.
Everyone needs resources, but the story shouldn’t be about ‘fundraising’, or the fact that we’re a ‘not-for-profit’ (or even ‘social enterprise’). Instead, we must articulate a story about the impact, the vision, and how the world will be better because of us. We have an entire section of the Learning Library devoted to a Change in Vocabulary!
Changing our vocabulary is more than just ‘semantic gymnastics’ – MORE than wordsmithing a message – because WE BECOME WHAT WE THINK ABOUT.
Nota bene: Increasingly we’re hearing from philanthropists and foundations that say, “The WORDS you use. The WAY you talk. That’s HOW we think!” - ‘Conventional Non-profit fundraising’
We have an entire section of ‘NO MORES’ – devoted to helping you transform from high energy/low return activity to high energy/high return productivity!
No More Strategic Plans. No More Feasibility Studies. No More Special Events. And on and on. These ‘challenges-to-the-norm’ all flow from Impact Drives Income and are meant to SIMPLIFY everything! - SACRED COWS
Sacred cows: ideas or customs so widely regarded that they are above critique or criticism – even if they’re unreasonable! The social sector is full of sacred cows (although we’re seeing a chorus of critical inquiry growing!!)In addition to coaching hundreds of ‘nonprofit leaders’, we work with dozens of social entrepreneurs (both for profit and not-for-profit). One of our first message to them: THERE ARE NO RULES (aside from moral and legal).
What we mean by this is: There is not some mystical fundraising process that YOU do not know. We’re here to empower your intuition and remind you that sales is the forging of the human connection.
