The Nonprofit Narrative Podcast

In this insightful episode titled "Maximizing Grant Writing for Funding Success," experts Dan Portnoy and Lara Pimentel share transformative strategies for nonprofits seeking to enhance their grant acquisition and foster impactful relationships. Discover practical tips on crafting compelling grant proposals, navigating the complexities of funding mechanisms, and building lasting connections with donors. Ideal for nonprofit leaders, this conversation dives into the essentials of securing grants and leveraging partnerships for sustainable success. Whether you're a small community organization or a large philanthropic entity, this episode offers valuable insights into maximizing your funding potential and expanding your impact.

Osa Philanthropy - https://www.osaphilanthropy.com

www.PortnoyMedia.com

www.UnfriendTheChildren.org

Free Resources for Nonprofits

Kristin Spiotto, the co-founder and CEO of Decoded Strategies, shares insights on strategic messaging for nonprofits. She emphasizes the importance of clear and customer-focused messaging, avoiding confusion and making the audience the story's hero. Kristin also discusses the role of AI in messaging and the need for human decision-making. She highlights the significance of empathy and authority in brand messaging and the value of delivering ongoing content to build relationships. Kristin advises early career professionals in messaging and emphasizes the importance of simplicity and clarity. She also discusses the importance of strategic planning and goal setting in messaging. In this conversation, Kristin discusses the importance of blocking time for critical thinking and reflection on past performance. She emphasizes the need for strategic changes and recommends books like 'The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry' and 'Atomic Habits.' Kristin also shares how to connect with Decoded Strategies and highlights the challenges of effective communication.

Takeaways

• Clear and customer-focused messaging is crucial for nonprofits to communicate their mission and impact effectively.
• Avoid confusing your audience with insider language, jargon, or acronyms. Make sure your target audience easily understands your messaging.
• Position the recipients of your services as the story's hero rather than making your organization the hero.
• Use AI as a force multiplier to scale up your messaging, but ensure you have a clear and compelling message.
• Empathy and authority are key elements in positioning your organization as the guide in the hero's journey.
• Deliver ongoing value to your audience through content and resources that help them along their journey and build a stronger relationship.
• Prioritize and use a strong brand message as a foundation for all your communications and marketing efforts.
• Simplicity and clarity in messaging are more effective than trying to be clever or funny.
• Include avatars or personas in your messaging to ensure relevance and targeted communication.
• Strategic planning and goal setting are essential for effective messaging and achieving desired outcomes. Block out dedicated time for critical thinking and reflection on past performance.
• Be willing to make strategic changes based on the insights gained from reflection.
• Read books like 'The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry' and 'Atomic Habits' for inspiration and guidance.
• Connect with Decoded Strategies through their website or LinkedIn for messaging and nonprofit support.
• Effective communication requires constant evaluation and an outside perspective to avoid insider language and the curse of knowledge.

Chapters

00:00 Introduction and Background

02:24 Starting a Business in 2020

04:33 Common Messaging Mistakes

06:31 Making the Shift to Customer-Focused Messaging

09:03 Positioning the Recipients as the Hero

10:09 Avoiding Emotional Manipulation in Messaging

12:13I mportance of Strategic Messaging

13:04 Pitfalls in Messaging and the Importance of Clear Brand Message

16:38 The Role of AI in Messaging

20:10 The Balance Between Cleverness and Clarity in Messaging

21:52 Including Empathy and Authority in Messaging

23:23 Delivering Value and Building Relationships

26:06 Advice for Early Career Professionals in Messaging

28:14 Simplicity and Clarity in Messaging

29:42 Creating Subplots in Brand Messaging

31:28 Prioritizing a Strong Brand Message

32:34 The Importance of Clear Messaging in Overcoming Blank Page Syndrome

33:16 Including Avatars in Messaging

35:12 Strategic Planning and Goal Setting

36:13 Blocking out time for critical thinking

37:12 Reflecting on past performance

38:18 Making strategic changes

38:48 Recommended books

39:50 How to connect with Decoded Strategies

40:50 The challenges of effective communication

Connect With Kristin Spiotto

Web - http://decodedstrategies.com/

LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/kristin-spiotto/

Grab a FREE PDF on Welcome Videos

www.PortnoyMedia.com

www.UnfriendTheChildren.org

Free Resources for Nonprofits

Hello, and welcome to the nonprofit narrative podcast, the go-to space for marketing managers and development directors passionate about taking their nonprofits to new heights. I'm your host, Dan Portnoy high. In each episode, we will dive into the world of nonprofit storytelling, donor engagement, and fundraising strategies; whether you want to refine your narrative, boost your fundraising efforts, or seek inspiration guidance, you're in the right place. So today, we'll be exploring some innovative tips, practical ideas, and success stories whenever you never know where we will go. But today, I want to talk about welcome videos. Welcome videos are a great thing to talk about in February because in January, you know, we're getting ourselves back together after a crazy December, and you take a breather, and then you got to think about, alright, what are we doing? What are we doing for this year? What's our strategic planning looking like? When was that all coming together? Well, our theme for the month in The Nonprofit Narrative Academy is strategic planning. So I want to talk about that. But that'll be coming up a little later this month. And we've got an I've got a great guest in Kristen Spiro, who's going to be telling us talking to us about strategic communication. And then also later this month, I've got my brother, and you say, oh, nepotism, and I say, Well if your brother is really good at a thing, you should let him talk about his thing. And he's really good at graphic design. He has just an incredible eye for design. So we're going to talk about design. And we will talk about all that goes with it and what it conveys. So that's going to be some great font later this month. Okay, so let's talk about welcome videos. Well, I had a crazy idea a couple of years ago, and as a writer, I know that sometimes I come up with ideas, and they're half-baked, so I need to let them ruminate. And sometimes that takes a long time. So, actually, it did. It took a long time tyranny of the urgent and some the things, and I came up with the idea that I should want to talk about things like welcome videos and just a lot of the kinds of sins of nonprofits in general. But the tough part about doing it is that it usually means trashing a nonprofit or trying to block out everything they did, like all their logos, and then talking about it. And so, instead of doing that, I've created a fictional nonprofit called Unfriend the Children. And you can visit unfriend the children.com or.org. And you'll find my website. And so it's the more we do about this. This year, we will talk about all the different things that Unfriend The Children is going to do wrong. And it's just easier when I'm making all the mistakes to talk about it instead of somebody who's really trying very hard to get something out into the world. And then I trash it. So that's what I decided to do. So, with that, I decided to do a quick welcome video, and I want to talk about some of the sins of this welcome video.

www.PortnoyMedia.com

www.UnfriendTheChildren.org

Free Resources for Nonprofits

I'm thrilled to unveil an idea two years in the making. It will be a game-changer for you and your organization: The Nonprofit Narrative Academy.

Each month follows a theme to maximize an organization's story and put the pieces in place for maximum communication.

And each month, you'll learn how to communicate your impact and engage with your community effectively. The academy covers it all, whether it's through managing social media, crafting compelling email campaigns, or launching impactful videos.

The structure for learning a NEW e-book and audiobook every month. Then, on the second week of the month, I'll launch training with how-tos and give some homework. Then, a podcast from an additional export will be released in week three. And finally, a LIVE Q&A to answer questions, review specifics, and make changes for member organizations.

In the ever-evolving world of nonprofit organizations, the ability to craft a compelling narrative and tell a captivating story can be the difference between achieving your mission and getting lost in the noise. In today's episode, we welcome 6-time Primetime Emmy nominee writer Matt Beans, a storytelling expert with a treasure trove of experience in the entertainment industry. Matt Beans joins the show to shed light on how nonprofits can utilize narrative and storytelling techniques to elevate their messages and impact.

Before diving into the episode, here's some info on Matt. Matt Beans is a renowned writer with a prolific television, animation, and entertainment career. With six Primetime Emmy nominations to his name, Matt's impressive portfolio boasts work on popular shows like "Robot Chicken," "Trolls," and "Dawn of the Croods." His extensive experience in storytelling makes Matt Beans the ideal guest to discuss the application of narrative techniques in the nonprofit sector. There's no better way for Nonprofit organizations to connect with audiences than through a compelling story, and Matt's expertise promises to provide invaluable insights into this practice.

Creative journey from Maryland to LA with Robot Chicken writers. (0:04)

Writing for TV shows with a focus on character development and scene structure. (6:09)

Writing for TV and film, emphasizing clarity. (11:58)

Writing for TV shows and nonprofit storytelling. (16:48)

Nonprofit storytelling and emotionally compelling messaging. (21:02)

I want to thank Matt for being on the show, and my hope is that you're inspired and equipped with the tools to craft narratives that resonate deeply with your audience.

Matt at IMDB

Email me your questions [email protected]

What if you aren't ready for Giving Tuesday?

Don't worry, I'm here to help. This week is a 7-part training I made to help Giving Tuesday be amazing.

Watch the training here - https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLE2kh3qUPEGSc-5BGce0HrgaxNRNl7Uds

Download the sample editorial calendar here - https://portnoy.co/3NynUjt

Don't let this happen to you! I recently received a mailing from a nonprofit that was big and jam-packed with goodies for me but there was zero connection. What should you do? Listen in to find out.

Okay, here we go. Hey, welcome to the show. My name is Dan. This is the nonprofit narrative podcast. In today's episode, our first journey together. This is an interview that I did a couple of months back with Dave Avramovich. He's a young life area director, he is responsible for the Los Angeles area. And he's also a pretty great guy. The fun part about today is like this is a maiden voyage. So I had to build a studio. So that's why it kind of took so long. And so hopefully very shortly here, we'll have a lot more episodes. But check out what Dave has to say about what we can do as nonprofits to raise money. One thing that Dave is really great at is raising money. He's actually never had a problem with it, which is pretty wild. So let's hear what he has to say.

Check it out.

Connect with Dave Avramovich

Twitter

Website

Resources:

Multipliers - Liz Wiseman

The New Extraordinary Leader - John Zenger, Joseph Folkman

The Ideal Team Player - Patrick Lencioni

The Five Dysfunctions of a Team - Patrick Lencioni

New for 2022! The Nonprofit Narrative Podcast is to help you tell your story the best way possible and connect with more donors and the community better than ever. I hope you'll join us.

Connect with Rory

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/go_innovation/

Website: http://go-innovation.com