top of page
Elevator PItch 1.jpg

By Emily Davis

​

A topic that has come up a lot lately with my governance clients is around the board and organization’s elevator pitch for the organization. There is a desire for consistency in messaging by board and staff members – this is certainly a helpful thing for any organization.

​

Traditionally, we often think of an elevator pitch as a series of bullet points with quantitative facts about an organization that everyone uses just the same way. My reaction to that concept? BORING!!!

​

Let’s backup first and uncover the purpose behind the elevator pitch. The purpose is really so people have a consistent way to talk about the organization. The reason we want board and staff to talk about the organization is to attract donors, volunteers, board members, and general awareness about the mission. We need financial and human resources to fuel the work.

​

Rather than going the route of an elevator pitch, I would argue that board members need to learn how to be great AMBASSADORS for the organization, using their own stories and experiences. In fundraising, people give to people. They connect to experiences. Ambassadorship is a great way to start these connections and relationship-building.

​

​

​

Board Hats.jpg

Board members wear three hats in their roles – the legal hat, the volunteer hat, and the ambassador hat. I think the ambassador hat is the most fun because it’s where you get to brag about your organization and tell people all the great things that the people in the organization accomplish. This is at the heart of fundraising – authentically sharing the stories of impact and need. It feels less robotic and prescriptive to serve as an ambassador rather than networking through an elevator pitch.

​

What do you need to be a good ambassador?

  1. You need to know about the programs and activities of the organization.

  2. You need to know about the areas of need for the organization.

  3. You need to know the cost of doing business for the organization. In other words, what does it cost to run programs and activities?

  4. You need to share information back to the staff about connections you’ve made.

  5. You need to have experiences of your own within the programs and activities of the organization. This will help you tell the stories and be a good steward of your role.

  6. You need to know the mission of the organization.

 

Now the mission statement conversation is a big one. Many organizations have mission statements that neither board nor staff can recite from memory. Mission statements tend to be way too long and cumbersome. Many times they aren’t inspirational at all.

​

As an alternative to talking points or being able to recite the mission statement, we often recommend that organizations participate in a message mapping activities. This is process and not a document. The process can take approximately two hours and provides a physical, visual map of entry points to conversations and how to direct those conversations back to the core message. The core message is often not the same (but complementary to!) the mission statement. It’s short. It’s concise. It’s the heart of the organizational activities. (Contact us if you want to learn more about message mapping.)

​

We’ve been facilitating more and more conversations with boards about the role of ambassadorship in an organization rather than developing bullet points of quantitative information for elevator pitches. Consider putting a new framework around building relationships by putting on that ambassador hat and giving it a try!

​

​

​

bottom of page