Asking Outside the Box – Part 1 | The Non-Profit Toolbox

Guest post by Chad O’Connor, Adjunct Professor Emerson College

In an earlier guest blog I mentioned some issues regarding uses and gratifications and selective exposure. To recap, we are constantly seeking ways when we communicate to get people to pay attention to us, and when they do pay attention to what we are saying they are more likely only listening for key signals and thoughts that reaffirm what they believe already.

To get deeper into this concept, it is increasingly important to focus on the way we phrase what we say, the order in which we are saying it, and changing our approach based on the audience. The importance of this comes to bear when people come to the conversation with preconceived ideas about the speaker and what the speaker is looking to accomplish. In the nonprofit world, just as in the rest of the economy, people are looking for money. Though your cause may be noble, this does not mean that your potential audience is experiencing some donor fatigue. They have been hit up for money already from so many angles that yet another person asking for money may be too much to bear. When they know they have a meeting coming up with a nonprofit they may be conditioned to be immediately defensive or reluctant if they know that an ask for money will be coming within minutes.

I suggest being open to outside the box solutions and asks because it truly engages your audience and reduces some of their preconceived barriers. By asking for more general help (ie. “So what we are asking for is your assistance in any way you thing you can help: connections to people; in-kind items or services that could accomplish X; coming to future events to show your support”) you get people to think about what is the best way they can get involved, not just say to themselves “I don’t have money to give right now so I’m not getting involved.” How you build this case will be the subject of my next blog entry.

Chad O’Connor teaches communication at Emerson College in Boston, serves as a connector for Boston World Partnerships, and works with various individuals, companies and nonprofits as a communication consultant on issues such as public speaking, message strategy, copy refining, etc. Chad can be contacted at his gmail account, chad.a.oconnor ,and found on Twitter @chadoconnor

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