Welcome! I'm Michelle Nusum, CEO of The Word Woman, a consulting firm I founded to assist emerging and established nonprofit organizations as well as government agencies in achieving their missions and goals for public good. Passionate about nonprofits, I have dedicated nearly 20 years to the industry. And over the past two decades, I have learned that there are many organizations that do an excellent job in communicating their missions, their needs, their accomplishments and their plans for the future. Kudos to you all! But I have also learned that there are countless others that fall short in achieving their communication goals. This is especially challenging for emerging nonprofits. These are the passionate people who genuinely want to make a difference. Perhaps you are one of them? You have secured your 501(c)3 status from the IRS and you are ready to go, right? But can you answer these critically important questions – Who? What? When? How?
Whether seeking support from an individual, foundation, corporation or governmental agency, every nonprofit must be able to explain clearly (and succinctly) who they are; who they serve; what they do; when they do it; and how they do it. Always, but especially in these tough economic times, we must be ready to tell our story with concise and precise brevity. Opportunities to make our case to prospective supporters are few and far between.
If you do not take the time to develop clear responses to: Who? What? When? How?, when these questions are presented to you, you will find yourself rambling (verbally or in writing) and no one wants to do that!
Words can be our friends or our enemies. It is all in how we use them. Taking the time to figure out in advance how best to describe your organization and what you want to accomplish will ensure that the right words will flow when the time comes to use them.
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