Does your writing sound like a boy band?

📣First, let’s hear from you: last month’s poll results 📣

Where you find stories

29% Scramble to find one whenever we need one (no shame, been there)
14% Asked your program team to report back when they hear a good story
19% Have a dedicated email address or Slack channel where staff can send stories
29% Have a story collection form we share with our supporters
2% Use another strategy

So if you don’t have a process for collecting stories yet, you’re in good company. But maybe we can all find some ideas here to inspire us.

Keep reading to participate in this month’s poll.

Fellow millennials, did your parents ever tell you that your favorite boy bands of the '90s and '00s all sounded the same? (Non-millennials, please stick around. You’re welcome to laugh at us for our basic taste in music.)

Well, according to this parody piece by Da Vinci's Notebook, they may have been kinda right.

In "Title of the Song," the group trolls the tropes of boy band ballads by creating one that's basically just a template. Check out the chorus:

🎶 Title of the song

Naive expression of love

Reluctance to accept that you are gone

Request to turn back time, and rectify my wrong

Repetition of the title of the song 🎶

This spot-on satire wounds my tween self’s pride because it shows that, while the formula works, it has zero unique identity. How could I be naive enough to fall for that?

And I realized, we do something similar with nonprofit writing.

Think about it. According to Google’s AI summary (highly scientific research, I know), there were 50+ actively recording or touring boy bands during that timeframe. How many of them do you actually remember? Maybe five?

Nonprofits tend to be guilty of the same thing. We stick to a familiar formula that feels safe and makes us completely forgettable.

That can look like formulaic patterns, like:

Using formal legal names from your database ("Dear Daniel") instead of the names they actually use in real life ("Hey, Dan").
Sincere thanks on behalf of the board
Jargon-packed sentences that don't actually explain what the org does

Or hackneyed phrases:

Now more than ever
Donors like you

Or overused taglines/phrases that lack specificity (Thanks, Erika G. Musser!):

Be their hero
Transform a life
Because of you
For less than a cup of coffee
Make an impact

So how can you be less 5ive or LFO and more *NSYNC?

Be clear: supporters should be able to understand what you do, who you help, and why within seconds (write to a person)
Be specific: if you write something that could apply to any other nonprofit, it’s time to drill down (write about a person: not “make an impact,” but “feed 30 hungry kids this summer”)
Be you: Don’t be afraid to write with personality, as long as you keep it true to your organization and its brand (write from a person)

When you do, you’ll find that more of your supporters move from “Bye, Bye, Bye” to “I Want You Back.”

Apologies for planting multiple earworms in your brain. 😅

Poll: What’s a common nonprofit phrase you love to hate?

A gif of Kevin O'Leary from Shark Tank saying, "You have to make a decision"

Interesting Nonprofit Link

Have you ever used your gift string to give examples of the different things that your donors can make possible? Same here. But in this post, fundraising expert Jeff Brooks argues that tactic gives donors a decision-fatigue headache that could drive them away from making a gift. Check it out to see what he recommends instead.

A cartoon teddy bear with heart eyes wearing an apron that says "Volunteer"

Nonprofit Good News

If you’ve been struggling to recruit and retain volunteers, you’ll probably be stoked by Points of Light’s ambitious National Volunteer Strategy, which aims to double the number of volunteers in the US by 2035. Learn more and stay up to date here.