www.huffingtonpost.com: I often hear board members of arts organizations suggest that "all they need to begin fundraising is an elevator speech." By elevator speech they mean a three-minute, or less, canned speech about the organization that they can use as they discuss the institution with their friends and associates.
4 comments:
While this article makes good points about the usefulness of specificity, it is important to remember that broad information can also be crucial in fundraising. Organizations have mission statements for a reason; they need to represent the core of their being, the reason that they exist. This information is often broad and general, but this gives potential donors and board members the essence of the organization they are dealing with. Once that general information is established, details that are fresh and memorable are definitely important and a great way to be successful at fundraising. People are much more likely to donate to an organization that sticks out as interesting or thought-provoking than to a run-of-the-mill, easily forgettable one.
While the saying "There is nothing more dangerous than an uninformed person with a small bit of knowledge" is too often true. In this case, the article is very sound advise. I do not have much experience with a community or regional theater board, but with a group of managing faculty and parents who sometimes have no real connection to the arts i do. Describing some of the more exciting projects we are working on or hoping to work on (with their support) has often been very helpful.
This makes some really good points about the power or dryness of a elevator speech. I do think the article is correct elevator speeches for organizations should be varied but there is no reason why there can not be some standardization in the speech. But for a individual person using a elevator speech, I think standardization is completely ok. People going to a conference it is a good idea to have a solid idea of what you want to say to anyone, especially if you are trying to get a job. I love the idea of a elevator speech and should always have one prepared. It is also very important to be able to vary the speeches for companies to see if you can match your values to their values.
I agree with what this author has to say. A canned speech no matter how good still sounds bad. You need people who have enough information to talk on a topic and summarize things so that they are easy to understand but without sounding like they have rehearsed it a million times. I find this to be really true of my work on Playground, if I just reiterate to people the goals that I am trying to achieve this year that I have said to a million people a bunch of times they don't really gain interest; but if I phrase my goals from a unique point of view or so people understand how it effects them then they really want to talk to me about them.
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