After a few decades of professional work, I’m getting less circumspect about my experiences. There are things I was afraid to say, or to admit to, 20 years ago, but now feel need to be shared, to help others pursuing a similar career path and to remind some folks in power of some things they should be reminded of. I’m in a good position to share them, per my decades of work and diversity of experiences. This blog is one of many coming from that feeling that it’s time to say it – whatever it is.
Many years ago, I trained as a journalist. I even worked as a professional journalist for a few years. But before graduating from university, I realized I didn’t want to be a journalist. Before I left university, I started working in public relations for a nonprofit, and then I was in charge of publicity for the entire season of my university’s children theater series. We broke attendance records. I loved it. So I’ve done communications work ever since for nonprofits and cause-based programs, except for a few breaks to manage programs and projects for nonprofits or the United Nations.
I love applying what I learned as a journalist to the work I do with nonprofits – I think it’s why I’m successful at getting media coverage. And I love writing with the purpose of promoting, even explaining, a program or project. For nonprofits, I find such writing easier than a lot of other people, because I believe so much in the fundamental importance of the third sector and the public sector to everyone’s quality of life. That innate motivation makes it easy for me to be motivated to write for most any nonprofit or government mission. I feel great inspiration in why most nonprofits and government programs exists, whether it’s a winterization program or a new musical or a new approach to community meeting facilitation, and I think it shows in what communications products – press release, web pages, social media posts, speeches, video scripts and more – that I make for them.
But writing for causes I immediately find worthy is not without some big challenges. And the biggest for me is the reaction from co-workers or funders reading a draft of something for the first time. The expressed shock of some of them, even suppressed outrage, that things are incorrect or aren’t perfectly clear can be exhausting.
Of course, the first draft is imperfect. Of course, you will need to edit what I’ve written. I knew that going in. Didn’t you?
Very often, the person that asks me to write a press release or slide show presentation or video script has nothing written at all, not even an outline. I have to draw my material for the first draft from talking to them, from researching online, and if I’m lucky, from printed or online material I’ve been able to track down, like a grant proposal. I do my best with what I can find, and when I provide that first draft, I’m not thinking, “Here it is, all perfect and ready to share!” I’m usually thinking, “Here it is, ready for your edits, because I know how much easier it is to edit than to write from scratch!” I expect edits!
One of my least favorite phrases is this: “I don’t know where you got this from”, referring to some graphic or quote I’ve included in my draft. Please note that I’m not AI (artificial intelligence) and I don’t make things up; whatever it is, I found that graphic or quote somewhere, from a different communications project I wasn’t involved with, from a headquarters, from another nonprofit – somewhere credible and reliable. Or, perhaps you explained something, in terms I cannot use, and so I had to interpret them – and it turns out your explanation wasn’t as good as you thought it was.
One of the best ways to know how good of an explainer you are is to explain something to a person, and then ask that person to explain it back to you. And that’s what you are doing when you ask me to write something you need to communicate with others.
In addition, so much of effective communication isn’t just saying something in one particular way, and expecting the reader or listener to understand. Rather, it’s about saying things in multiple ways, and the reader, or listener, gets the meaning from those different ways you have said it and that they have heard it – more than once.
When you get that first draft, don’t panic that it’s not perfect. Instead, think about how much easier it’s going to be to edit this than to try to write it entirely from scratch.
It’s fine to say, “I don’t like this” about a sentence or graphic, but be able to say more about why. Are the words too big? Do you feel like it could be interpreted to be saying something you don’t want said and, if so, what is that something?
It’s fine to say, “I haven’t heard this way of saying it before. Did this come from somewhere else?” I always have the source material for just such an occasion, like when a client thought I had made an inappropriate leap in logic in how I described one of the programs she managed, and I was able to provide the web pages of her affiliate’s headquarters, as well as other affiliates, that used the same descriptions.
Is the way you have been describing something really better than the alternative now being offered? You may be far closer to the subject matter than the person that wrote this press release draft, and that person may be thinking about the audience, people who don’t know as much as you do about the subject, or who may even be hostile about it.
Did the writer have to follow a particular template provided by a funder? Can the writer make the changes you want and still follow the template the funder wants followed?
Did the writer actually do what you wanted and you are now realizing it’s not what you wanted? That’s okay! It seemed like a great idea to adapt that poem or song lyric a certain way, but now that you see what that would look like, it’s okay to say, “I’ve changed my mind.”
Remember that the writer just did the heavy lifting and you now get the far easier role of editing and altering. Thank them for that heavy lifting!
Also see:
What theatre taught me about management & internal communications.
Abilities you need to work in humanitarian development successfully
How to support your online community manager in times of trolling.
Support Your Local Online Discussion Manager!
The delicate, peculiar task of promoting a charity’s gala.
Be careful using Canva – nonprofit graphics are starting to all look the same!
Getting great photos for your nonprofit’s marketing needs takes planning.