So That: Part II (How To Avoid Making Your Unbelievably Exciting Life-Transforming World Changing Crazy Cool Work Sound Exceptionally Boring)

Last week, I wrote about the two most underrated words in fundraising and how to structure your invitations to give using the words “so that” to paint a more vivid picture in your audience’s mind about the impact of their giving.

Did you know you can also use the words “so that” when you’re speaking or writing about your organization to paint a more vivid picture of the purpose behind the work you do?

Take a look at this example:

“We serve orphaned children in southern Malawi by providing education, residential care, family reunification, and vocational training.”

Once again, if you’re well-versed in the world of caring for vulnerable children, you intuitively understand how these different programs work together to promote the well-being of children.

But what if you’re not?

What if you’ve just met a potential new supporter, and they’re asking about what your organization does? Do they understand the ultimate goal of these programs, or do they need a little more explanation?

Let’s add a “so that” statement and see what it does:

“We serve orphaned children in southern Malawi by providing education, residential care, family reunification, and vocational training so that they can experience healing, restoration, and the hope of a bright future.”

Which one is more compelling? 

When I read the first example, it’s easy to understand that you provide schooling, residential care, reunification with families, and vocational training. But why do those things matter, and what is their deeper purpose?

The programs are important, but let’s be honest. it’s not really about the education, residential care, family reunification, and vocational training. 

The real purpose of what you do is the transformed lives. The real purpose is helping orphaned children experience healing, restoration, and the hope of a bright future.

Education, residential care, family reunification, and vocational training are just programs designed to achieve a greater purpose.

Let’s look at another example:

“We serve children in foster care by providing group counseling and TBRI training to foster parents.”

If you live and work in the child welfare space, you know what TBRI is, and you intuitively understand the impact counseling can have in the life of a child in foster care. 

But what if, like the vast majority of people who give to support your work, you don’t know?

Is this any better?

“We serve children in foster care by providing counseling and TBRI training to foster parents so that children can experience a safe environment that leads to resiliency and the development and strengthening of secure attachments.

The work you do isn’t really about TBRI training and counseling.

The work you do is about helping children develop resiliency and experience secure attachments.

Don’t tell people you do the former without explicitly telling them the latter. 

If we had more time, and I had any idea what I was talking about, we could do better by eliminating some more jargon words, because, really... what in the world is resiliency or a secure attachment, and why is it important to develop them?

Maybe we'll tackle jargon some other Friday. But today is about so that statements.

Think back to your response the last time someone said to you: “Tell me about your organization.”

Did your answer include a “so that” statement?

When we simply tell people about our programs without getting into the deeper purpose they serve, we run the risk of making the unbelievably exciting, super important, life-transforming, world-changing, crazy cool work we do in the for-impact world sound exceptionally boring.

Don’t do that.

People don’t give to programs. People give to change the world... or save lives... or transform lives. 

The longer you’ve worked in a specific space and the more you know about the details of your various programs, the more at risk you are for making this mistake.

Fortunately, the solution is simple. 

The next time someone asks what you do, 1) tell them about the problem you exist to solve, 2) quickly summarize the programs you have to address that problem, 3) and then use a simple jargon-free “so that” statement to explain why your programs matter and how they’re connected to your deeper purpose.

Do those three things, and you just might change the world.