It’s that time of year again. If you’re not already working on your annual appeal, you likely will be soon. Annual appeals are one of the biggest problem areas for nonprofits aiming to take a more strength-based approach to their communications. The accepted, long-held formula for the annual appeal is one that relies on need-based tropes and “pulling on donor heartstrings” to succeed. But it doesn’t have to be that way. You can create a strength-based annual appeal that effectively meets your nonprofit’s fundraising goals without doing unintentional harm to the people and communities you serve. Here are six ways to do just that.
Lead Your Annual Appeal with the Strength, Opportunity and Power of the People you Serve
Take a look at most annual appeals you received last holiday season, and I’m willing to bet they led with a story about the needs or challenges facing the people served by the sponsoring organization. Many of those appeals probably used words like “struggling,” “suffering,” or “vulnerable.” This need-based framing, while potentially successful from a fundraising perspective, primes your donors to see the people served by your organization as a stereotypical monolith, not real, living breathing individuals with their own hopes, dreams and aspirations. And that’s a real problem.
Instead of leading with need, aim to lead with a story about the opportunities and potential of someone who receives services or participates in programs sponsored by your organization.
Have Your Beneficiaries Tell their Own Stories in Your Annual Appeal
One of the best ways to make your annual appeal more strength-based is to incorporate the voices of the people and communities you serve. Strength-based communication is characterized by whether it feels true and authentic to the people you serve, and there’s no better way to ensure that than asking your stakeholders to tell their own stories. Take a look at this annual appeal lead-in from the McCormick Foundation for inspiration:
Eliminate Saviourism in Your Annual Appeal
Saviourism happens when you position one group of people as the “hero” in another, “less fortunate” group or individual’s story. Unfortunately, it’s quite common in most annual appeals. Look for places where you’re positioning your organization as the sole actor responsible for changing an individual’s life or circumstances, and eliminate them. Instead, portray the people who use your programs and services as the central actors in their own stories (because they are!) and show how your nonprofit and its donors provide supports to help them drive positive change in their own lives.
Whenever Possible, Pair Discussion of Challenges with Context into the Systemic Inequities That Create Them in Your Annual Appeal
Yes, at some point, your annual appeal will have to address need. We’re not suggesting you should shy away from discussing challenges or skirt the important issues your nonprofit exists to tackle. Instead, we recommend you pair any discussion of challenges with a mention of the systemic inequities that create them. For example, if your organization works with those experiencing food insecurity, discuss how food insecurity is driven by systemic forces like racial inequity, housing and healthcare.
Eliminate Coded Language in Your Annual Appeal
Removing coded language from your annual appeal can be one of the easiest ways to make it more strength-based.
The National Education Association defines Coded language as “substituting terms describing racial identity with seemingly race-neutral terms that disguise explicit and/or implicit racial animus.” Coded language also shows up to disguise other sorts of bias, such as gender bias and ability bias.
Vox writer German Lopez says “coded language describes phrases that are targeted so often at a specific group of people or idea that eventually the circumstances of a phrase’s use are blended into the phrase’s meaning.”
Skim your annual appeal for terms like these, and eliminate them immediately:
- Wrong side of the tracks
- Inner city
- Blighted neighborhood
- At-risk youth
- Wrong crowd
- People from all walks of life
- Shrill
- Bossy
Use People-First Language in Your Annual Appeal
People-first language avoids defining people by their circumstances or conditions. A person-first language choice would be the use of the term “people experiencing homelessness” rather than a term like “homeless people,” which should typically be avoided. There are some exceptions to this rule, so be sure to ask individuals for their own preferences. However, if you’re unable to determine individual preferences, using people-first language is typically a better choice.
What other tweaks are you making to your annual appeals to make them more strength-based? Tell us about it in the comments!
