This week we’re sharing the concept of the For Impact Engagement Tool in Halloween style.
Organization: Stop Zombies Now
Purpose: Eradicate Zombies FOREVER!
What is the For Impact Engagement Tool?
It’s a visual one-pager (or 1-3 slides) used on a visit with a funder to help you:
- simplify your message;
- illustrate the case for support; and
- control the flow of the visit.
We have a short (10 min) teaching video that’s worth a watch — it offers a serious , simplicity, altitude, message, case, and the funding rationale to ERADICATE ZOMBIES FOREVER (download PDF).
Selected teaching points from the video:
- This format helps move from Impact to Income. It helps you make the ask!
- We use the Altitude Framework to address the three questions of every funder. We call this the kernel, or the core, of the presentation.
- Toward what end? This is about simplifying the answer to this question. It’s not about a mission statement, or a theory of change. (Those can be used in support, as needed.) This is about the essence of the message that will make me sit up in my chair and say, “This is important and clear!”
- Where does the money go? Our answer to this question must be simple and tie back to the impact we hope to create.
- How can I help? Too often, fundraisers can’t answer this with clear precision. In this video we illustrate one framework (Champion. Invite. Invest) to help.
- We’re not trying to convert people to our cause. We’re trying to connect with people (who are already committed to the cause!)
- The Rule of 3 as a simplification device.
- You don’t have to use everything on the engagement tool. In a visit, you might only reference 40% of the impact points on the tool. Use as needed.
- 1,000-day plan. To create a multi-year funding story, and secure multi-year funding commitments, we packaged projects/programs/priorities around a 1,000-day timeframe.
How to use the For Impact Engagement Tool in the virtual era…
We still find ourselves using the one-page format via screen sharing. However, some people prefer to break this up into a few slides (example here). That’s totally fine so long as you don’t lose the idea of simplicity!
