“If you can’t tell a good story,” says Bronwyn Drainie, “you’ll remain invisible.” Drainie made her remarks to more than 400 leaders from across the country gathered last week in Edmonton, Toronto and Montreal for the Canadian Centre for Philanthropy’s (CCP) 7th Annual Symposium. The theme for this year’s discussion was “Telling Our Story: Communicating the value of philanthropy and the voluntary sector.”
The key messages from almost every speaker at the two-day event:
Drainie presented a discussion paper developed out of 60 interviews that she conducted and culled together into a series of discussion points and questions. In her challenging remarks, she lamented the resistance in many segments of the voluntary sector to telling their stories. “You think your stories are self-evident and that the world should beat a path to your door and hand you a cheque,” she told delegates. She suggested that many nonprofits see proactive communications as “smacking of PR and salesmanship.”
To this resistance, she asserted that “it is foolish to sit on your hands and say ‘government should pay for this, therefore, we won’t do good communication and attract more private money so that government can get off the hook’.” Rather, she suggested, “If you can demonstrate that your cause has public support, that gives you more leverage with government, not less.”
We are skating on thin ice
CCP research director Michael Hall suggested that the time is urgent for nonprofit to begin communicating more effectively with all constituencies. Hall pointed out that while 80% of Canadians make donations to charities, this broad level of support is perilously shallow — 80% of donated dollars come from just 20% of Canadian adults, and 72% of volunteer hours come from only 8% of Canadian adults.
Additionally, that group of “core supporters” who are both major donors and volunteers is even smaller — just 11% of Canadian adults. This group is more also more likely to be older demographic and attend religious services regularly. Hall believes that voluntary organizations need to broaden their appeal to a wider range of Canadians, given falling rates in religious observance. “We are vulnerable,” he said. “If we lose any of the 11% of core supporters, it will have a big effect on our organizations.”
Media panel delivers tough love message
In addition to sector-based researcher, delegates to the symposium also heard from a panel of media members, all of whom invited nonprofits to be more active and more effective in soliciting media coverage.
André Picard, from the Globe and Mail, challenged attendees to stand up to the media bosses. With a hint of hyperbole, Picard said that the people who control the newsrooms across the country are not the civic core, but rather “middle aged white guys who are not religious, are unstable, and very cynical.” In painting this picture of the decision makers, he implored nonprofits to “demand that the media change — that they become more representative.”
However, he cautioned, “You need to know what your message is and what makes you different.” If you want coverage, “you need to know what is the point of your endeavour.”
The CBC’s Alison Smith generalized that “Canadians don’t understand what the voluntary sector does. They see it only from the confines of their world” such as canvassers selling daffodils for cancer. She argued that nonprofits “should be leading the debate on issues that affect [your organizations], not just waiting to react.”
To do this, Smith suggested looking “for other news events to wrap your message around.” With the example of the upcoming UN special session on children, she explained that the big media outlets will already be covering this event for its own news value. “Give your story a context in it,” she suggested. Don’t wait until the session is happening and you can only react to that discussion. If your cause relates to this issue, get working on story ideas now that can be used in the days and weeks leading up to the session.
Liane Faulder, a columnist with the Edmonton Journal also gave examples of how nonprofits can use an existing story to attract more media coverage for their causes. Faulder cited several stories that she worked on with a social justice angle. She pointed out how writers can often draw on nonprofits to give context and commentary to issues such as homelessness and mental health. “You know the issues,” she said. “The media can help you bring them forward.”
Faulder also called on nonprofits to be more proactive in pointing out areas where there is a pressing need. “Don’t be afraid to say the tough thing when it needs to be said.” Echoing Smith’s comments, she suggested that it’s good to fit a story around a broader news story that is already getting coverage.
There is still much work to be done
Both speakers and delegates to the symposium agree that there is much to be done in the area of communicating more effectively, both as individual organizations, and as an entire sector. With public awareness as one of the seven priority areas on the new Voluntary Sector Initiative, and with organizations such as the CCP devoting whole conferences to the subject, it seems as though such progress is underway.
However, as Ric Young, a social marketing consultant and CCP board member reminded everyone “we often say ‘oh, if only they knew more about us…’. We shouldn’t presuppose that we have more to say than we have to learn.” As a sector, if we are to develop people’s instincts to do good, we also need to learn more about people’s interests in addition to telling our own stories more effectively.
