By. Amber Alarid

Updating your 2014 language for clarity and consistency

It’s January and you’re probably in goal setting mode both personally and professionally. Though you’ll no doubt have many goals to fulfill, one of the most important goals I can suggest setting is to realign all your organization’s “marketing.” In this case I use marketing as a broad term that encompasses your website, social media, videos, reports and grant proposals—anything that publicly represents your organization. The following are some key things you should be looking for when refreshing these materials:

Clearly articulate your mission throughout your materials

Having a clear mission statement that is frequently made public helps your board and staff to remember what they’re working toward and helps donors and volunteers quickly identify with your organization and the cause it supports.

All materials should be consistent with your mission

When posting something to your website or social media, ask yourself how it relates to and advances your mission. The answer should always be clear and the posts should always inspire the same passion for the cause in the reader that you have for your organization. When writing a grant, you should always revisit your mission statement to ensure that the funder’s goals align with your mission and vice versa. Avoid mission drift by eliminating funders from your list that do not directly relate to your mission.

Always run your materials through an editing process

In a funder panel JVA hosted, funders said that while they might not throw a grant proposal out for spelling and grammar mistakes, a well-written proposal is always appreciated. With the high volume of proposals that funders receive, it’s hard to take the time to reread and fully understand a proposal littered with spelling errors and half finished sentences, so always be sure that someone else in your organization rereads the proposal to catch any obvious problems and to point out places where you can clarify information. This is a similar case with your direct mail and online appeals—while donors may not eliminate you from their giving plans because of typos, they certainly will notice.

Take some time this January to look over your existing information to clarify and update materials and create new language if needed. Going forward, use the existing language as a template for future posts and proposals to ensure that information consistently and positively reflects the amazing work your organization is doing. Do you have other tips? Please share them in the comments section below.