Your Unique Message Needs to Reach Everyone
I remember taking a speech class years ago, and I had to give a persuasive speech to my class. My topic was on why the treatment court model needed to be supported and funded. My speech was focused on the heart and I highlighted the things that many find “inspirational”. I used my life and the lives of others that I had seen as the content for my speech.
Overall, it was a good speech and I got a decent grade. However, I got marked down because my arguments were not persuasive to everyone. I asked my instructor what he meant, and he informed me that I did not speak to his “pocket book.” I was perplexed. I was talking about peoples lives and saving them. Someone’s pocket book was the farthest thing from my mind. I did not know it, but I was experiencing a learning moment that would come into play later in my career.
My instructor was right. My speech did not reach everyone, because my message was only focused what I found to be inspirational and persuasive. As a result, I missed the opportunity to plant seeds of change.
I truly believe that we need to be in communication with the communities that we serve and that we need to make sure that our message is able to reach everyone. We need to showcase the lives that are being transformed, but also showcase the other benefits that communities receive from doing this work.
Our work has a message for everyone. Many will love to see and hear about the lives being transformed. Others will care more about reductions in crime. Others will only care about the savings that they are getting as a tax payer and community member. Business owners may only care that people have a place to go and are no longer sleeping in their doorways. Each one of us is different and we receive and process information in our own unique way.
As you craft your unique messaging, you will need to take a step back and look at your community as a whole. What do the conversations look like? What are the supporters saying? What are the dissenters saying? What is the business community saying?
As you gather the talking points of the community, you will be able to see how you can craft your own talking points to address their concerns. You are not doing this to be argumentative. That will get you nowhere. You are doing this to build support, but it will not win over everyone.
However, it will bring more people from different cross sections of the community closer to the heart of your work. This will inevitably create many allies and advocates that will over time also help you win over the hearts of the entire community and raise your donor base.
Does your community have fears about serving the homeless?
Are you struggling to find a way to tell your story and change the heart of the community?
