Nonprofit Tagline Awards!

You may have missed it last year...but now is your chance to enter this year...it is the 2010 Nonprofit Tagline Awards!  Nancy Schwartz of "Getting Attention" has kicked off this year's competition.  And if you want to know what the Tagline Report looks like, here's 2009, it is awesome! 2009 Tagline Awards Report  I think it is often difficult for a nonprofit to come up with an effective tagline, especially one that conveys the mission of the organization.  And that may be because we hang on to mission statements or even programming that is no longer relevant.  Read the 2009 report and you will be inspired to look at your tagline with a fresh prespective.  And then...enter the 2010 Tagline Awards!  Bunnie

Three New Categories Launched As Annual Nonprofit Tagline Awards Open

Great Words Promoting Good Causes—Organizations Everywhere Invited to Enter

The Getting Attention Nonprofit Tagline Awards Program (a.k.a. The Taggies), the world’s largest collection of nonprofit taglines, opens its third award season this week with the addition of three new categories.

Now, nonprofits everywhere will be able to enroll their organizational tagline in the annual program, plus any taglines they’ve created to support programs, fundraising campaigns and special events.

“The tagline is a critical element of any nonprofit’s message platform,” says Nancy E. Schwartz, president of Nancy Schwartz & Company and blogger at Getting Attention (www.gettingattention.org), the award program’s organizer.

“Adding these three new categories gives more organizations a chance to showcase their best efforts to effectively reach and communicate with their target audiences.”

In addition to the new categories, libraries have been added as a section of the organization tagline category.

Organizations can enter their nonprofits’ taglines via an easy-to-complete entry form at http://bit.ly/cQjUsw

Winners will be chosen in 13 organization fields of focus and one each in programs, fundraising and events, says Schwartz.

The deadline for entering an organization’s tagline is July 28.

This year’s award program finalists will be selected by a panel of 16 judges, including representatives from two winning organizations from last year’s program.

In late August, the finalists will be notified before voting for the tagline award winners begins in September.

Award winners will be announced in late October. The 2010 Nonprofit Tagline Report and updated database will be released in November.

Schwartz says a strong tagline does double duty – working to extend an organization’s name and mission while delivering a focused, memorable and repeatable message to its base.

All entrants will receive a free copy of the fully-updated 2010 Nonprofit Tagline Report. It’s the only complete guide to building an organization’s brand in eight words or less. There are now more than 2,500 taglines compiled and organized in the report, and that number will grow significantly with 2010 award submissions.

Twitter users can follow the 2010 Nonprofit Tagline Awards via the hashtag #taggies.

The Getting Attention Nonprofit Tagline Awards Program has four generous sponsors this year: Blackbaud, sponsoring the fundraising campaign category; Event360, sponsoring the special event tagline category; and general sponsors Eventbrite and See3 Communications.

THE GETTING ATTENTION NONPROFIT TAGLINE AWARDS

The annual Getting Attention Nonprofit Tagline Awards program came about when so many powerful taglines were submitted to the Getting Attention survey on nonprofit taglines, and is designed to motivate and guide nonprofit organizations to put effective taglines to work.

A list of 2008 and 2009 award winners can be found here: http://gettingattention.org/nonprofit-taglines/award-winners.html

THE NONPROFIT TAGLINE SURVEY

The Getting Attention Nonprofit Tagline Survey, implemented in 2008, investigated styles, usage trends, what’s working and what’s not in nonprofit taglines based on data provided by 1,900 nonprofit communicators working in organizations across 11 vertical sectors and countless locations (mostly in the United States).

Survey findings are available in the 2009 Getting Attention Nonprofit Tagline Report

http://gettingattention.org/nonprofit-taglines/get-nonprofit-tagline-report-directory.html

ABOUT GETTING ATTENTION/NANCY SCHWARTZ

The Getting Attention blog and e-update http://www.gettingattention.org/ are no-charge, high-value sources of ideas, tactics, and tips for nonprofit communicators focused on helping their organizations succeed through effective marketing.

Nancy E. Schwartz provides marketing services to nonprofit organizations and grantmakers via Nancy Schwartz & Company and is the publisher of Getting Attention.

The Importance of the Mission Statement

by Bunnie Riedel, Host

The last two articles, “Mercy Medical Airlift: Keeping the Mission Torch Burning” and “Messaging Crisis for Nonprofits,” fit nicely into what I want to tackle today: mission statements.

Developing a mission statement can be one of the most difficult tasks a nonprofit can face but it is uniquely critical to guiding what the nonprofit will do and how it will convey what it does to the general public or its constituency. Mission statements are the cornerstone of developing programs and certainly key to messaging (or marketing) efforts. Whether your organization is a new start-up or has a long history, re-visiting your mission statement from time to time is a good idea.

That being said, I know of organizations that want to re-write their mission statements constantly. Sometimes mission statements get challenged by new board members or they are challenged when the organization hits a rough patch. Constant tinkering with the mission statement is a bad idea and very unproductive as it can waste valuable time and resources. Therefore the bar is set high to “get it right” the first time.

Mission statements should encompass the work you do and they should be more specific than general. Action verbs should be prevalent and strong: this is what we are doing…this is what we are going to do. As much as possible, try to incorporate the five rubrics of journalism: who, what, where, why and how. Additionally, I am a fan of short, succinct mission statements. Keep it to two or three sentences, any more than that loses the audience and dilutes the message.

The two following mission statements are from similar organizations that provide grants in their communities (the names provided are fictitious but the mission statements are real):

The XYZ Foundation Mission Statement

The XYZ Foundation is a resource for people, businesses, and communities in XYZ Land, working toward prosperity through economic and social justice. Our purpose is to strengthen families, grow a sustainable regional economy, cultivate leadership and philanthropy, and foster respect for all. Through our grants to non-profits, loans to local businesses, and other special programs, the XYZ Foundation is building a strong foundation for the future of our region.

The BFF Foundation Mission Statement

Our mission is to actively serve the people of the BFF area by building permanent charitable capital, making philanthropic grants, and providing services that contribute to the health and vitality of the community.

As I indicated, these two organizations are similar in that they basically provide grants to nonprofits and businesses in the community. The XYZ Foundation has a wordy mission statement that makes a lot of promises and could potentially cause confusion in determining the range of its programming. I am not sure how a foundation goes about fostering “respect for all” nor am I sure which nonprofits or businesses in their region could qualify for grants that would meet that objective. The XYZ Foundation has to ask itself how it will go about cultivating leadership and philanthropy, what programs will it create to do so and is it possible given their funding to achieve all that their mission statement promises?

Conversely, the BFF Foundation mission statement is simple. They promise to: build charitable capital; make grants; and provide services that contribute to the health and vitality of the community.

At every board meeting the directors can ask themselves: “what are we doing to build charitable capital?” “what grants have we made or are we making?” “what programs do we have in place that contribute to the health and vitality of the community?” The mission statement becomes a touchstone for everything they do. It also narrows the scope of what they will do and helps to keep the organization focused.

In researching mission statements I came across this website: http://www.missionstatements.com/nonprofit_mission_statements.html

It’s worth looking at other organizations’ mission statements to see which ones resonate with you and which mission statements are clear and compelling.

There are many ways to go about writing a mission statement but at the core of this must be an exploration of what the organization is; who does the organization serve; how will the organization accomplish its mission. Once you have achieved a mission statement I would recommend having a focus group of people unfamiliar with the organization go through the mission statement and provide feedback. This will help you learn whether or not the mission statement is telling your story.

On a final note, years ago I began the practice of putting the mission statement on the name placards of the board members for their meetings. It can be a tent folded placard with their names on one side and the mission statement on the other, with the mission statement facing the board member. I know of another woman who put the mission statement on laminated placemats. Either way, this practice provides board members with a constant reminder of the mission. Many times I have seen board members pick up the placard and ask if what the board was discussing was conducive to the mission. Try it at your next board meeting, you will be surprised at how having the mission statement in front of board members keeps the board focused.

(post script: The recent events in Haiti show once again that nonprofits are capable of providing services governments cannot provide. They are also a testament to the amazing work nonprofits are doing throughout the world. I know we all have the people of Haiti in our thoughts and prayers)