Are you struggling to attract the right donors and volunteers to your nonprofit? The secret might lie in your organization's vision and mission statements. These foundational elements are more than just corporate jargon – they're powerful tools that can transform your fundraising efforts and organizational impact.
In this eye-opening episode, I'm joined by Dan Johnson, a seasoned nonprofit coach who has raised over $3 million for new nonprofits and helped turn around struggling organizations. Dan shares his expertise on crafting compelling vision and mission statements that resonate with donors and align with your organization's goals.
Why Vision and Mission Statements Matter
Dan reveals why these often overlooked elements are crucial for nonprofit success:
- They provide clarity and focus for your organization's efforts
- They help attract donors and volunteers who share your values
- They guide decision-making and strategic planning
- They differentiate your nonprofit from others in the same space
Key Insights on Crafting Effective Statements
Learn how to create vision and mission statements that drive results:
- The five essential components of a powerful nonprofit vision
- How to craft a problem statement that resonates with donors
- Tips for creating a mission statement that highlights your unique approach
- The importance of incorporating specific, measurable goals
Putting Your Vision into Action
Discover practical strategies for integrating your vision and mission into every aspect of your organization:
- How to use your statements in marketing and fundraising efforts
- Ways to incorporate your vision into staff and volunteer onboarding
- Tips for regularly reviewing and refining your statements
Don't miss this opportunity to revolutionize your nonprofit's approach to vision and mission statements. Tune in to gain insights that will help you attract the right supporters, increase your impact, and create lasting change in your community.
Want to skip ahead? Here are key takeaways:
06:28 Crafting an Effective Problem Statement Get specific about the issue being addressed, talking to those affected, and using their language. A well-crafted problem statement helps donors connect emotionally and understand the organization's unique approach to creating change.
19:38 Setting Measurable Goals and Staying Focused Include specific, measurable goals in vision statements to drive accountability. Stay focused on the core problem and not getting distracted by unrelated opportunities. Regular review of vision and goals helps keep your organization on track.
30:47 Developing Effective Value Statements Another role of value statements is in attracting and retaining staff and volunteers. Limit values to three core principles and including specific ways the organization upholds them. This approach helps create accountability and ensures the desired culture is maintained.
34:51 Crafting a Unique Mission Statement An effective mission statement clearly communicates an organization's unique approach. Explicitly state what makes the nonprofit different from others addressing similar issues, which can help with fundraising and marketing efforts.
Dan Johnson
Dan is a nonprofit coach that helps business owners and professionals create nonprofits that last. Dan has raised over $3 million for new nonprofits, turned around several struggling organizations, and helped over 30 nonprofit leaders create sustainable nonprofits.
Dan is a 4x nonprofit founder, former impact evaluator, and nonprofit coach. He grew his first nonprofit to 10,000 volunteers nationwide in 3 years, and has created federal and state policy change on numerous issues. Dan’s work has been featured in The Nonprofit Communicat
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Sami Bedell-Mulhern (00:00):
Whether you started your nonprofit
organization or you joined oneat some point in your career, it
was started to solve a problem.It was started to create impact
and build inside of yourcommunity for something
specific, and your vision andyour mission were created in
order to clearly communicate howyou are solving that problem.
(00:23):
And a lot of times, as years goon, or things change and evolve,
or we are trying to adapt inreal time to what's happening in
the current climate, we tend tostray away from that. Or maybe
we see a funding opportunitythat's kind of closely aligned,
but might not be quite hittingthe mark, regardless of what it
is, we really need to focus onwhat our vision and mission is.
(00:43):
Stay tight, stay concise, andreally make sure that we're
clearly communicating exactlywhat it is that we do so that we
can align better with those thatwant to fund us. So today we're
talking about really, yourbranding, your story, telling
your vision, your mission, sothat you can have better donor
alignment. Find the right donorsthat are really going to connect
(01:05):
with what you do and be aroundfor the long haul. If we're
going to take the time and theeffort to acquire new donors, we
want to make sure they're theright donors. They're the ones
that we can continue to getconnected with and that are
going to give multiple times,that are going to bring their
friends and their family torally around us and support us
as well that are going to showup and volunteer at our events.
Right? We want to work smarter,not harder, and some of that
(01:29):
comes in making sure that ourdonors are aligned with how we
solve the problem, becausethere's so many different ways
to do things, we want to do itin a way that is uniquely us. So
today to talk about this awesometopic, is my guest, Dan Johnson.
Dan is a nonprofit coach thathelps business owners and
professionals create nonprofitsthat last Dan has raised over $3
(01:52):
million for new nonprofits,turned around several struggling
organizations, and helped over30 nonprofit leaders create
sustainable nonprofits. Dan is a4x nonprofit founder, former
impact evaluator and nonprofitcoach. He grew his first
nonprofit to 10,000 volunteersnationwide in three years, and
has created federal and statepolicy changes on numerous
(02:12):
issues. Dan's work has beenfeatured in the nonprofit
communications report CNN, theChicago Tribune, the Examiner
,Mike magazine and organizationshe's helped have been featured
in national outlets, includingVanity Fair, the New York Times
and hundreds of local newsstories. Dan developed the five
levels of sustainability to givenew nonprofit leaders a pathway
(02:33):
to create a nonprofit thatlasts. He serves nonprofit
leaders through one on one andgroup coaching programs. He
lives in North Carolina with hiswife and two sons, Alex and Leo,
and it is a long suffering fanof Detroit Lions. You're going
to love this conversation andthe practical tips and resources
that Dan gives. So I really hopethat you'll check it out,
especially as we're trying tofigure out, how do we get new
(02:54):
donors. It really makes iteasier when you're acquiring
them in a way that is authenticand genuine to the problem you
actually solve. So before we getinto all the goodness in this
episode, it is brought to you bydo good university. Now you've
been hearing me talk about thisfor weeks on this podcast, but
I'm really so passionate andexcited about it, because if
you're looking for marketingsupport in real time, I show up
(03:17):
live in that platform alongsidePatrick Kirby every single week.
So it's like having me in yourback pocket, but instead of just
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(03:42):
on demand, trainings andresources on grant management,
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So I really hope that you'llcheck it out. You can go to
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what is all inside the platform.But I really hope to see you
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(04:03):
is right for you, please let meknow. Hit me up.
Hello@thefirstclick.net, we'llget on a quick call. I'll walk
you through what is all includedand what's involved, and we'll
see if it's the right fit forwhere you're at and what goals
you're trying to achieve foryour organization. But again,
check it out atthefirstclick.net/dgu. Let's get
into the episode.
You're listening to the digitalmarketing therapy podcast. I'm
(04:25):
your host, Sami Bedell Mulhern,each month, we dive deep into a
digital marketing or fundraisingstrategy that you can implement
in your organization. Each week,you'll hear from guest experts
nonprofits and myself on bestpractices, tips and resources to
help you raise more money onlineand reach your organizational
goals.
(04:45):
Hey, friends, please join me inwelcoming Dan Johnson to the
podcast. Dan, thank you so muchfor being here today.
Dan Johnson (04:51):
Thank you for having me on Sami.
Sami Bedell-Mulhern (04:54):
Okay, so we're talking vision, mission,
messaging, all of the things andso before we jump into this.
Strategies. Why is this a topicthat you love to talk about?
Dan Johnson (05:04):
Because it's the topic that I came to realize was
the key to whether a newnonprofit succeeded or failed.
I've started four of my ownnonprofits, and your listeners
are about to get the secretsauce effectively to my
consulting company, so mildlynervous, but, but the the reason
(05:24):
is that a new nonprofit succeedsor fails based on the strength
of its vision, and also, perhapsmore importantly, a nonprofit
does what the people in chargeof it want it to do based on how
strong their vision is, and soover the past two years, very
(05:47):
few people want to work on theirvision. They're like, ah, that's
corporate mumbo jumbo, whatever.And they don't realize that when
they're brand new in particularor they've not delivered a
significant impact, they don'thave anything to sell if they're
not giving the vision, and theydon't have anything for people
to join or get excited about ifthey're not getting the vision.
And, you know, I've done justvision statements for only
(06:11):
vision statements for peoplebefore and 5x to their revenue.
So I just, I'm very passionateabout this underlooked and over
overlooked area of nonprofits,and how getting it right can
literally change everything atyour org.
Sami Bedell-Mulhern (06:28):
Yeah, well, you kind of already touched on
my first question, which is, Ifeel you're right. It's like a
box we check, like when you'retrying to apply for your 501c3,
or you're, you know, doing yourboard structure, and you're kind
of creating the structure ofyour organization. We set this
up, and then we kind of forgetabout it, or executive
leadership shifts, and we kindof forget about it. So how can
(06:52):
we kind of, first of all, if wealready have it done, how do we
kind of keep it front and centerfor our team so that we ensure
that we are kind of sticking towhat we've already determined
are these mission and visionstatements. So
Dan Johnson (07:07):
first of all, you actually have to have a useful
vision, and this is notsomething that is particularly
popular in our space, andcertainly not in the corporate
space, because it's it's bothhard and it's something people
just like to check a box with.But, but what we call it when
you have a really good visionis, we call it a
(07:28):
transformational vision, becausenonprofits, unlike for profits,
you have a for profit, you'relooking to serve people and
provide them with services forwhatever their needs are. But if
you're doing a nonprofit, you'retargeting an area where people
don't have the money necessarilyto pay for or have some way they
can't really access those forprofit services. And you're
(07:52):
going in and saying, We cancreate a transformation in them.
Whether you are if you're acommunity based nonprofit, then
you're transforming people'slives. If you are a educational
nonprofit, you're changingpeople's minds, transforming
their minds. If you are apolitical nonprofit, you are
transforming laws, but you havechange as your end game. And if
(08:14):
people don't know what changeyou're going for, ie, what is
your vision? Then most of thepeople you're going to get on
board are going to be people whoknow, like and trust. And trust
you, as opposed to people whobuy into what you're doing. And
you're going to get verydifferent results from that. So
if you look at what we what weconsider a transformational
vision, so what you're whatyou'll usually hear is you need
(08:34):
a mission, and what you'llsometimes hear is you'll need a
mission and a vision. Weactually think you need five
things. And these five thingsactually also make up your pitch
for your organization. Thesefive things are, you need a
founding story. People want toknow where you came from.
They're not interested in justsupporting something because
it's cool. They're like, Why didSammy go crazy when she was
(08:58):
having this great marketingcompany? Why did she go crazy
and start a nonprofit insteadlike what? What went wrong with
you? They want to know that. Andnumber two is you need a very
overlooked thing, which is yourproblem statement. You need a
pressing problem that needs tobe solved right now. You need a
vision statement so you needyour what does it look like when
(09:20):
we solve this problem for thepeople we serve, you need your
mission, and your mission onlyhas one goal, and it is to tell
everybody how your approach isdifferent. So if your mission
doesn't do that, missionstatements are the most abused
tool in nonprofits. That is theonly purpose. They are how we
get from A to B. They're themission we're gonna go take, you
(09:42):
know, the Omaha Beach so that wecan defeat the Nazis, that that
is not the vision of themilitary. That is the mission
that they are currently on. Thatis what you're doing. And then
finally, your values and yourmission, your values really
distinguish yourself from otherorganizations. So if you take,
if you. Have these five piecesin place. Here's my founding
(10:03):
story, here's the pressingproblem, here's my vivid vision,
here's my unique mission andvalues. Now people understand
what you're trying to do whenyou either really don't have a
whole lot to show for it yet, oryour leadership team thinks you
need to be going in a differentdirection.
Sami Bedell-Mulhern (10:24):
So good. And as you're saying this, like
I use different terminology whenI'm talking about your website,
but I think very similar, andthat when we talk about your
homepage layout, we alwaysadvise clients on what's the
problem you solve. How do yousolve that problem, and why are
you uniquely qualified to be theperson to solve that problem?
(10:44):
And also getting super specific,right? Because a lot of the
problems we're trying to solveare very big, right? So there's
a lot of ways to tackle whatyou're doing, and so people need
to know how you're going aboutit, to know if they're in
alignment with the work that youknow. Are you in alignment with
the with me as the donor, and myvalues and what I want to give
(11:05):
to and I think so. I love whatyou're saying, because we talk
about this in our marketing in asimilar way, kind of using what
you're talking about. So inlight of that, as we think about
all of these different elements.Some you might feel like you are
pretty good at. Some you mightfeel like you need to kind of
(11:28):
fix or refine. So if we'relistening this podcast and we're
like, okay, you know what, thisis a perfect time to really
review with our team and reviewwith our board, where we stand
on all of those things. Is thereone of those elements where we
should start first, like, whichone is the most big picture?
Dan Johnson (11:45):
Yeah, so the element you want to start with
first is your problem statementalways, all day long. Why and
why don't you have one? So, forprofits and everybody comes,
most people come into thenonprofit space with a for
profit mindset, and that's goodin a lot of cases, but not
understanding the differencebetween for profits and
nonprofits is where a lot of theprofessionals and the business
(12:08):
owners that I work with getburnt out. They wonder, why
isn't this working? I've beensuccessful before. What's going
on here? You just don'tunderstand the fundamentals of
nonprofits. Nonprofits aredesigned to solve a problem.
That's how you create thetransformation you have a
problem you need to solve it.But very, but very few of them
have actually defined thatproblem. They solve. Businesses
(12:29):
solve problems too, but the keyword is problems, because
businesses go and seek and solvethe problems for the people who
are able to pay them and they'reable to deliver on that problem.
Businesses pivot all the time.The if you have an organization
that's going to pivot all thetime, start a for profit,
they're way more efficient atdoing that. But yeah, when
(12:51):
people start a nonprofit, theyhave a problem in mind that they
want to solve. They see, youknow, their their brother
struggles with PTSD, and they'veseen some of his infantry men
struggle with PTSD, and they'relike, we could do something
about this. Why haven't we donesomething about this? Or, you
know, they struggle with itthemselves. Or they've seen
something in their community.They have a specific problem
(13:12):
they want to solve, but theydon't realize social change is
hard. Like that. The reason theproblem hasn't been solved isn't
because nobody tried. There havebeen hundreds and 1000s of
people who've tried to solvethis problem before you, and
it's going to take you 1020, 30years to effectively make an
(13:33):
impact on this problem.
So you need to pick one and goafter it, pick one piece of the
pie and go after it, and that'swhat your problem statement
does. So what goes into aproblem statement? The first
thing that goes into a problemstatement is what is the
specific problem you're solving,right? So you can define this
kind of however you want, butit's basically what's the root
(13:57):
of the issue. So if you'resaying that we want to help
veterans. The problem could bethat they have PTSD from war.
The problem could be they'regoing to war in the first place,
and that creates the PTSD. Theproblem could be that they don't
have adequate housing, and thatmakes the PTSD more intense. All
(14:21):
of those are very different,1020, 30, 100 million dollar
organizations based on theproblem that you solve. So you
need to decide what's the rootof this. And the second thing
you need to do is actually gotalk to people who suffer from
this problem, right? So we'reworking on a vision statement
(14:43):
right now, or a problemstatement right now. That is for
a non partisan organization likeeducational organization, and
their initial problem statementwas like, we want to make this
system more exciting. Accessibleand or there much problem. Say
was like, this system is notaccessible enough. It
(15:04):
disenfranchises people, and youknow, it's leads to bad
outcomes. Okay, let's getspecific. And how you get
specific is talking to peoplewho actually struggle with this.
And so what this system actuallydoes is, and we're talking about
a kind of national system, soyou might even be able to guess
(15:27):
which one it is. When I give youwhat it actually the problem it
actually solves, which is, if Ican get my computer to actually
load this up, because, believeit or not, I do not remember all
of my clients, problemstatements. Off the top of my
head, I do try. This is one thatwe came up with our election
(15:51):
Well, I guess it tells thesystem. Our election system is
so broken that one in fiveAmericans believe violence is
the answer to our problems. Themajority of voices aren't heard.
People believe that thecandidate who wins doesn't win
fairly, and politicians wedidn't fairly elect are imposing
policies on us we didn't askfor. Those are from stories of
(16:11):
people who didn't get the resultthat they needed out of our
election system, right? And thelast piece, which is in there,
is, what is that reason to solveit? Now, everybody's been
complaining about how awful theelection system is, how terrible
it is, but if people don't knowthat, one in five Americans when
(16:34):
polled, when asked by someone,do you believe violence is the
answer to our problems? Answeredyes. Now maybe there's a reason
to give to this organizationinstead of something else.
That's what your problemstatement should sound like.
Sami Bedell-Mulhern (16:53):
There's so many things to unpack here in a
great way. So I want to startwith what you just said in that
interviewing and talking topeople, and I love that you're
using their language in yourproblem statement, because I
think so many organizations arelike, we're doing this work.
This is what we're doing. We'rein our industry. We're using our
(17:14):
own industry jargon. We're usingterms that make sense to us,
especially if you're in, socialservices, or, like, scientific
type causes, or like, you know,what, what have you. But I love
that it is speaking to the wordsthat they use, because now
you're not only being specific,but you're making an emotional
(17:35):
connection with the people thatare hearing that statement
Dan Johnson (17:39):
absolutely and you're actually speaking to if
you're someone who might be adonor. This is why I say the
vision statement is the offer.It's the thing that you have to
get right before you gofundraise, is if you're talking
to a donor and you're using theblase, normal accessibility and
yada yada language, they'veheard that before, but if you're
(18:03):
talking to a donor who has beensomeone who was disenfranchised,
or maybe their you know,Grandfather was disenfranchised
by the voting system, and that'sthe words that they use, wow.
It's like, you get it. Youunderstand this problem, and you
do, frankly, like you understandit a lot better than people who
(18:23):
sit on their computer and arejust like Google or chatgpt what
the problem is, and then gostart a nonprofit off of it, you
genuinely know more, and thedonor can tell,
Sami Bedell-Mulhern (18:36):
yeah, yes. I also want to, like, just as we
start to process this problempiece, and as we're like you
said was we're talking to donorsand connecting with them, like,
what does that do then, for ourefficiency and our ability to
(18:56):
actually close more deals?Because in the time that we're
in right now, there is so muchflux happening. Things are
changing on the minutesometimes, and so I feel like
we're in this space where we'relike, okay, I need to grasp at
whatever dollar I can get, andwe're kind of losing sight of
the work that we're doing,especially when we think about
(19:18):
grants that we might be goingafter, or larger corporate
sponsors or people that we'reconnecting with. So how does
having this specific problemstatement and really kind of the
big picture that you're paintingfor us here? How does that
actually make us more effective?Or how can we use this as a tool
right now to be more effectivebecause we can be more
streamlined? There
Dan Johnson (19:39):
are two words that I don't want on my headstone. I
tried. They they're helpful. Youknow, it's better to be in the
arena than not. But what was thepoint of. Living this life. And,
(20:01):
you know, getting to 7080, yearsold or 90, you know, they'll
have to kill me before my brainturns to mush, because that's,
that's not cool. I can't livelike that. But 7080, 90, right?
And you look back on your life,and you're like, What did I do?
How were things different?Because Dan was here. What
(20:24):
changed because Dan was here?And if you look back on that and
you struggle to find something,especially if you spent your
time in nonprofits which aresupposed to change that thing,
that's going to be really hard,because you can't undo that. You
(20:44):
can't go back 60 years and 50years and try that again. So the
question is, do you actuallywant to make a change, or do you
want to labor inside anorganization that is less
efficient than a for profit,doing for profit work and
getting paid pennies for it?Those, those are your two
options, and the problemstatement helps you say this,
(21:04):
this is what we want to change.This is, you know, it's domestic
violence for women of color. Itis whatever it is that problem
is what you measure everythingby, your, your nonprofit, your,
your, I always recommend thisgets a little bit in division,
but nonprofits are slow, andthere's a reason for that, and
(21:26):
it's because they're notserious. And I strongly
recommend people have in theirvision statement a vision
metric. In three years, we willdo X, a number, an actual number
that holds you accountable.Well, if you don't have a
problem that you've identified,that vision metric could be
anything. If you have theproblem, as you know veterans,
(21:47):
PTSD, then your vision metriccan be we have helped. Your
vision can sound a lot likethis. We have helped. And by
2028 we have helped 200 veteranslive lives of confidence, peace
and opportunity. Now that'sreal. Now there's something
there. If you don't have theproblem identified, you can't do
(22:10):
that. So really, if you don'thave a problem statement, and
you can't tell me as anonprofit, the problem that you
solve, either figure it out orstop, because you're just gonna
annoy yourself at how little youget paid for that your family's
not gonna like you because ofall the extra hours you're
putting in to do this, eitheryou're doing nonprofit work or
you're not, and that's why theproblem statement's so
(22:32):
important.
Sami Bedell-Mulhern (22:34):
Okay, this is really interesting, because
the other thing that I loveabout that specificity is a lot
of times we as nonprofitsstruggle with our impact
statements. Well, that doesn'tsound like enough people. We're
not serving enough people. We'renot doing you know, the numbers
don't look great, or they don'tlook as impressive as they
should be. And so I think bybeing very specific in that
(22:56):
vision statement, with thattimeline and and your impact,
kind of all in one and having avery specific problem statement.
Now, when you're going andtalking to donors, it's like,
we're laser focused, so you canit builds trust, right? We're
laser focused. This is whatwe're doing. We're we're boots
on the ground, doing thisspecific thing. You know, your
funds are going to this specificthing. And then we as nonprofit
(23:20):
fundraisers and leaders need toalso understand that that means
we're not for everybody, andthat that's okay. And I think
that's where we get hung up on,is that, well, if somebody tells
me No, then we're doing a badjob, and we then need to adjust
what we're doing, because boardmember X said this, or donor X
said this, and now we should bedoing this, that and the other.
(23:40):
So I love the power that thatgives you as a nonprofit leader
to really lean into the workthat you know you're here to do.
It
Dan Johnson (23:47):
does, it gives you and it gives you power when you
walk into those meetings,because you know what you're
offering. You know whether youknow if this donor is interested
in solving this problem. They'rewith you. If they're not,
they're not. It gives everymember of your team. You know,
how many of you, either yourvolunteers, everybody talks
about herding cats and all thatstuff, right? Or or your your
(24:10):
your staff members who are goingthroughout their day to day, if
they know what problem yousolve, and not just whatever
problem Susan wants to solvethis week, they can plan. They
can come up with their ownideas. They can go execute
without you as a nonprofitleader who obviously has all the
time in the world, you know,sitting down and having the one
on ones with them and, you know,giving them ideas and telling
(24:32):
them what to do. If everybodyknows what the vision is and
what you're trying to do,they're not coming up with hair
brained ideas. Your donorsgenerally are not coming up with
hair brained ideas that you nowfeel like you have to do because
they give you money. Everyone isreally clear on this is the
world we're creating, andfrankly, it just gets you
(24:54):
further toward the world youwant to create because you
started or took over thisnonprofit in the first. Nice.
Sami Bedell-Mulhern (25:01):
Yeah, I love that. Okay, so, I mean, I
can geek out on nonprofitfundraising mindset all day
long, but I want to come back toOkay. So we've got our problem,
problem statement created. Wefeel good about we've got
specificity in our visionstatement. You know, the mission
is, kind of being our overallguidance. How often do we then
(25:25):
need so if I say my visionstatement, like you said, in
three years we want to do X, howoften am I kind of revisiting
these statements, either as aleadership team or as a company
as a whole, like, how often dowe want to kind of tackle that
and make sure
Dan Johnson (25:42):
we're still on track. I mean, more or less
every week. Why? Why? Okay,that's how companies do their P
and L, right? You get your salesteam together, and you're
talking about where we're at forrevenue, for the month or for
the week or for the day, for theyear, depending on the on the
company. But it's usually atleast by quarter. Um, and your P
(26:04):
and L for a non profit, is thatvision metric out of the 200
veterans that we wanted to serveby the next, you know, three
years and get to this point,where are we at? Where are, you
know, our individual metrics onwith the individual veterans?
Where's our fundraising at toget us there. What's our
marketing doing to get us there?It is an actual accountability
(26:25):
thing, instead of justeveryone's you know feels good
when they give to yournonprofit, which is not bad, but
it will be amazing, thetransformation that you have
when you stop thinking of yournonprofit as just a way, a place
that people give a bunch ofmoney to when they have it just
they're extras, they're garbage,they're, you know, you're a
(26:48):
charity, and you start thinkingof it as the only kind of
organization that can make thisimpact. You do that, and that's
what your vision really helpsyou do, is define that you're
going to be looking at thisevery week, every month, your
team's going to be constantlytalking about you're going to
share it with anybody who comeson board. You're going to share
it with your donor partners.This is an integral part of who
(27:10):
you are, just as much as revenueis an integral part of who a for
profit is.
Sami Bedell-Mulhern (27:16):
My business coach has us, you know, we go
through a whole year endplanning process together as a
group, and we do what shecalled, well, I mean, I don't
know if she made it up, but goalcard. So she said, literally
will fit, send us a physicalgoal card in the mail, and we
write our whole thing down. Butwhat's different, and she says,
(27:36):
like, place it somewhere. Butwhat's really interesting is,
lately she said, you know, placeit somewhere on your desk, where
you can see it all the time. Thetime, but every month, you need
to move it somewhere else,because it's really easy. So I
say this because it's reallyeasy to be like, in a board
meeting every or in a staffmeeting every single week and be
like, Okay, we're going toreview our like, our problem
statement and our vision. AndAre we all good? Okay, yep,
(27:58):
we're good. Like, it can be easyto get kind of complacent with
that, but the visual of likemoving it around on my wall to
different places, or on my deskto different places throughout
the year really helps you kindof see it differently, because
you can't just tune it out then.And I think it's so important
what you just said, and I agree100% because there's years where
(28:18):
I've done the planning process,and then I put my goals away,
and I think I'm working on itall year long, and then all of a
sudden, I'll pull it out at theend of the year, and I'm like,
wow, I really did not and I'm asmall team, right? Like I'm in
charge of my business. I makeall my own choices, and I'll be
like, I did not do what? So Ithink we think that it's
(28:40):
ingrained in our brain. So Ilove that you said that well,
that weekly, and it might feelhard, but like, post it, share
it, talk about it, make it.
Dan Johnson (28:49):
Yeah, I love the idea of putting it in different
places, because, like, what doesyour vision do? It is on your
website. It's on the front pageof your website, not like as a
statement, because that's boringas hell. But like you, you have
your vision integrated into yourwebsite, because that's the
that's the human action model.Economist lube on Mises, who
(29:10):
studied human action, blah,blah, blah academics, he
identified that there were threepieces that were required for
people to take action, and theyare a problem that needs to be
solved now. They are a vividvision of a better state, and
they are a path to get from A toB. And you have all of these in
your vision. And this is whatyou need on your website to
convert people. This is what youneed in your marketing. Some of
(29:30):
your marketing should be focusedon talking about the problem.
Some of your marketing should befocused on talking about the
vision. Some of your marketingshould be focused on talking
about your mission and whyyou're different and your
values. Like this goes into yourmarketing. This goes into your
onboarding with your volunteers.This goes into everything you do
as an organization. Just think,every time revenue is brought up
(29:52):
in a for profit, revision isthere in a nonprofit?
Sami Bedell-Mulhern (29:58):
Okay, I want to talk about one. Thing
before we kind of wrap this up,because it's such a good I mean,
it's such a good conversation aswe think about, like you said,
onboarding our volunteers. Ithink staffing is a big issue
for nonprofits. Retention ofstaff. We know that the
development space is losingfundraisers at a rampant rate,
(30:19):
and not only that, they're justleaving the industry altogether.
So it's not even like they'regoing somewhere else. So we
haven't really talked a lotabout value statements yet, and
I know that's part of yourframework. But how important are
value statements, in addition toeverything we've talked about
when it comes to attracting theright people and really being
(30:39):
intentional with how we hire orwho we bring in as volunteers or
who we bring in as board membersto kind of help support us in
this work. Yeah.
Dan Johnson (30:47):
So I think value statements can be both very
helpful and potentially harmfuldepending on how you do them. So
values are who you are. That's,that's what it is, that's, it's
telling it's why it's usuallyused in a team culture or a
staff onboarding, or whatever.It's what are the general
principles of this group ofpeople that you're a part of?
(31:10):
You have your specific policies,but I really hate it when every
action turns into a policy thatyou can't do now, and you can
front load that by having threecore values. If you have 12,
nobody knows what they are,three core values, three
nonprofit leaders, three corevalues. And there's a really
(31:32):
good article about, I'm tryingto remember the name of the top
of my head, but basically thedifference between values that
help you and the values thathurt you is values that help you
have a way that the organizationupholds those values that can be
they can be held accountable tothe staff over that so the
(31:53):
difference might be, our valueis innovation. We really value,
you know, creativity and blah,blah, blah, but the value of
innovation, when theorganization is doing found
something that works and doesn'treally want to innovate, and
then all the staff come on, theythink the value is innovation.
The that actually hurts youhaving it on the wall, because
(32:14):
it's an expectation for thesepeople, right? But if you have
our value is innovation, and youhave an enforcement statement
under it, which is, therefore,we hold innovation summits every
quarter for two hours and bringall our staff together and come
up with new ideas and where wewant to go. One thing that your
(32:35):
organization will do throughoutthe year that is a way you can
improve your values and makethem actually worthwhile. And
then they're just necessary.They're necessary bring anyone
onto your team. They'renecessary part of the
conversation with any any donorwho becomes really large. You
need to have that conversationwith little donors, not as much,
but any donor becomes asignificant part of what you do.
(32:56):
You need to have thatconversation. Anybody who's a
part of your organization needsto know what your values are,
and that's how you ensure thatthe culture you want is there
when you're not.
Sami Bedell-Mulhern (33:11):
Yeah, well, there's a specificity there, and
there's an accountability there.So I think to your point in how
can your value statements helpyou is that if you're if you
don't feel strong enough aboutthat statement that you're going
to enforce it, then it has noplace as a value statement.
Like, I think everybody tends togo to like that. We operate with
(33:31):
integrity. Well, okay, great.What does integrity mean? Like,
okay, like, what you know,because then if somebody isn't
operating within integrity.Like, are you going to let them
go? And who decides that thatwas or wasn't? And, you know? So
I think, like, that's to, youknow, to your point, I think
that's a great example. And Ilove giving that specific like,
this is what we do, because italso allows you to have
(33:53):
conversations. I love that youbrought up having that
conversation with bigger boardmembers. Because what we know,
or bigger donors, what we know,is that nonprofits have to work
a lot harder to build trust, andso if you're the people that are
engaged with the organization,don't hold up to those same
values, you're going to lose alot of donors just for that one
(34:13):
person, if you take that money,just because you need to take
that money, but then somethingcomes out that they're not in
alignment with who you are andhow you operate. Now we can't
control that all the time.Sometimes we don't know, but
doing your due diligence anddoing your, you know, having
that as best practice, I think,is really smart all around so
I'm glad that you brought thatup as a statement. I think so
(34:36):
many incredible things that youbrought up today, and things to
think about, tactical thingsthat we can start to think about
with how we approach this. Isthere anything else that you
would kind of love to bring upas kind of a best practice
around this, or maybe somethingthat I didn't ask that you'd
love to mention?
Dan Johnson (34:51):
I think the the only thing we didn't cover was
mission and this is a reallyeasy tweak that anybody can make
right now to your missionstatement. So do. I'm going to
give you a tale of two missionstatements. Ready? We feed, we
feed food insecure people in theTampa, Florida area through, you
(35:14):
know, pop up grocery storedelivery. I'm coming up with
this on the fly. Public, grocerystore, delivery, delivery to
their houses, and a giveaway,outsider giveaways, great. Okay,
that's what most missionstatements sound like, and they
might have a little visionattached onto the end, so that
(35:35):
less people are food insecure.All right, so that's what most
mission statements sound like,and let me give you a mission
statement that works. Wecollect, we build relationships
between businesses andindividuals to deliver, to
deliver critical food to thosewho are left behind by
(35:58):
traditional food sources such asfood banks. What's the
difference between those two?The difference is your mission
should explicitly state why youare unique. Why is your approach
to this problem different thananybody else? You feed people,
la dee da, you make sure youmake in America at least la de
(36:18):
da, you make sure that peoplewho can't get to a food bank,
people who can't access atraditional food source, have
access to food such as seniors,such as people, mobility issues,
whatever. Now we're talking soyou can make one quick change to
your mission statement and justadjust it so that it clearly
(36:39):
states the thing that makes yourorganization different. It will
help you win more grants. Itwill help you get more
attention. It will help yourmarketing.
Sami Bedell-Mulhern (36:48):
Yeah, I just want to say to listeners
that if you're hearing this andyou're thinking, Well, I can't
get that specific. I mean, thisis just the abundant mindset
that I'm always trying to pushinto everything that specificity
allows people to self selectout, which is just as important
(37:09):
as allowing people to selfselect in, because your time and
your energy is precious, and ifthey are not the right fit for
you, you are going to spend somuch time, effort and energy
trying To convince them that youare the right organization,
versus having five moreconversations with people that
are the right person excited andgoing to give you money. So I
(37:30):
love the way that you broke thatdown. I think it's critically
important, and I think now isjust the great reminder to sit
down and take a look at it andsee how you're doing and what
that looks like. So Dan, ifpeople want to connect with you,
learn more about the ways thatyou help organizations in this
work, and kind of learn morefrom you. How can they do
Dan Johnson (37:54):
that? Yeah, absolutely. So I help business
owners and professionals createsustainable nonprofits, and do
it using the principles ofbusiness, but applied to
nonprofits. So you can go to mywebsite, Next Level
nonprofits.us. Download the fivesteps to sustainability so that
you actually have a nonprofitthat doesn't suck away all of
(38:16):
your time and all of your moneyand creates the impact that you
want it to create. And if youput in the reference code first
click, then I will also jump onthe phone with you for 15
minutes and give you one tipthat you can implement for your
organization right away, so youcan find that at next level,
(38:37):
nonprofits.us thank you so muchfor listening to this episode,
and thank you so much for havingme on Sammy.
Sami Bedell-Mulhern (38:44):
Yeah, it's so great. And you can check out
all the links for this episode,the resources and all the ways
to connect with Dan at the firstclick.net/ 302, so Dan, thank
you so much for being heretoday. Thank you. So I really
want to thank Dan again forjoining us today and for sharing
his insights and wisdom, it wassuch a great conversation. Could
(39:05):
probably talk to him all daylong about all of the things,
but I hope you got some greatnuggets, and if you did find
something really helpful, orsome things, head on over to
YouTube at Digital Marketingtherapy, and I would love for
you to drop in the comments ofthis video. What one of your
biggest key takeaways was, I'dreally love to hear kind of how
you're going to use some ofthese strategies to really think
differently about who you'reapproaching and how you're
(39:27):
approaching them to support yourorganization. Make sure you
subscribe wherever you listen,and don't be a stranger. Leave
us a review. Tell us what youthink about these episodes, and
let me know if there's otherguests that you think would be
great fits for us to talk tohere on digital marketing
therapy. Thank you so much forlistening and taking time out of
your day to spend this time withme and I will see you in the
(39:49):
next episode.
Whether you started your nonprofit
organization or you joined oneat some point in your career, it
was started to solve a problem.It was started to create impact
and build inside of yourcommunity for something
specific, and your vision andyour mission were created in
order to clearly communicate howyou are solving that problem.
(00:23):
And a lot of times, as years goon, or things change and evolve,
or we are trying to adapt inreal time to what's happening in
the current climate, we tend tostray away from that. Or maybe
we see a funding opportunitythat's kind of closely aligned,
but might not be quite hittingthe mark, regardless of what it
is, we really need to focus onwhat our vision and mission is.
(00:43):
Stay tight, stay concise, andreally make sure that we're
clearly communicating exactlywhat it is that we do so that we
can align better with those thatwant to fund us. So today we're
talking about really, yourbranding, your story, telling
your vision, your mission, sothat you can have better donor
alignment. Find the right donorsthat are really going to connect
(01:05):
with what you do and be aroundfor the long haul. If we're
going to take the time and theeffort to acquire new donors, we
want to make sure they're theright donors. They're the ones
that we can continue to getconnected with and that are
going to give multiple times,that are going to bring their
friends and their family torally around us and support us
as well that are going to showup and volunteer at our events.
Right? We want to work smarter,not harder, and some of that
(01:29):
comes in making sure that ourdonors are aligned with how we
solve the problem, becausethere's so many different ways
to do things, we want to do itin a way that is uniquely us. So
today to talk about this awesometopic, is my guest, Dan Johnson.
Dan is a nonprofit coach thathelps business owners and
professionals create nonprofitsthat last Dan has raised over $3
(01:52):
million for new nonprofits,turned around several struggling
organizations, and helped over30 nonprofit leaders create
sustainable nonprofits. Dan is a4x nonprofit founder, former
impact evaluator and nonprofitcoach. He grew his first
nonprofit to 10,000 volunteersnationwide in three years, and
has created federal and statepolicy changes on numerous
(02:12):
issues. Dan's work has beenfeatured in the nonprofit
communications report CNN, theChicago Tribune, the Examiner
,Mike magazine and organizationshe's helped have been featured
in national outlets, includingVanity Fair, the New York Times
and hundreds of local newsstories. Dan developed the five
levels of sustainability to givenew nonprofit leaders a pathway
(02:33):
to create a nonprofit thatlasts. He serves nonprofit
leaders through one on one andgroup coaching programs. He
lives in North Carolina with hiswife and two sons, Alex and Leo,
and it is a long suffering fanof Detroit Lions. You're going
to love this conversation andthe practical tips and resources
that Dan gives. So I really hopethat you'll check it out,
especially as we're trying tofigure out, how do we get new
(02:54):
donors. It really makes iteasier when you're acquiring
them in a way that is authenticand genuine to the problem you
actually solve. So before we getinto all the goodness in this
episode, it is brought to you bydo good university. Now you've
been hearing me talk about thisfor weeks on this podcast, but
I'm really so passionate andexcited about it, because if
you're looking for marketingsupport in real time, I show up
(03:17):
live in that platform alongsidePatrick Kirby every single week.
So it's like having me in yourback pocket, but instead of just
listening to me, you get theopportunity to ask me questions,
and not just me. Patrick Kirbyis there as well, sharing his
insights with event fundraising,offline fundraising, and all of
the goodness that comes withcapital campaigns, major gifts,
donor connections, etc. Now, ifthat's not enough. There's also
(03:42):
on demand, trainings andresources on grant management,
board, management, marketing,social media, all of the things.
So I really hope that you'llcheck it out. You can go to
thefirstclick.net/dgu, theletter U, and grab a link for
two weeks free. You'll alsolearn a little bit more about
what is all inside the platform.But I really hope to see you
there. And if you have anyquestions on if this membership
(04:03):
is right for you, please let meknow. Hit me up.
Hello@thefirstclick.net, we'llget on a quick call. I'll walk
you through what is all includedand what's involved, and we'll
see if it's the right fit forwhere you're at and what goals
you're trying to achieve foryour organization. But again,
check it out atthefirstclick.net/dgu. Let's get
into the episode.
You're listening to the digitalmarketing therapy podcast. I'm
(04:25):
your host, Sami Bedell Mulhern,each month, we dive deep into a
digital marketing or fundraisingstrategy that you can implement
in your organization. Each week,you'll hear from guest experts
nonprofits and myself on bestpractices, tips and resources to
help you raise more money onlineand reach your organizational
goals.
(04:45):
Hey, friends, please join me inwelcoming Dan Johnson to the
podcast. Dan, thank you so muchfor being here today.
Dan Johnson (04:51):
Thank you for having me on Sami.
Sami Bedell-Mulhern (04:54):
Okay, so we're talking vision, mission,
messaging, all of the things andso before we jump into this.
Strategies. Why is this a topicthat you love to talk about?
Dan Johnson (05:04):
Because it's the topic that I came to realize was
the key to whether a newnonprofit succeeded or failed.
I've started four of my ownnonprofits, and your listeners
are about to get the secretsauce effectively to my
consulting company, so mildlynervous, but, but the the reason
(05:24):
is that a new nonprofit succeedsor fails based on the strength
of its vision, and also, perhapsmore importantly, a nonprofit
does what the people in chargeof it want it to do based on how
strong their vision is, and soover the past two years, very
(05:47):
few people want to work on theirvision. They're like, ah, that's
corporate mumbo jumbo, whatever.And they don't realize that when
they're brand new in particularor they've not delivered a
significant impact, they don'thave anything to sell if they're
not giving the vision, and theydon't have anything for people
to join or get excited about ifthey're not getting the vision.
And, you know, I've done justvision statements for only
(06:11):
vision statements for peoplebefore and 5x to their revenue.
So I just, I'm very passionateabout this underlooked and over
overlooked area of nonprofits,and how getting it right can
literally change everything atyour org.
Sami Bedell-Mulhern (06:28):
Yeah, well, you kind of already touched on
my first question, which is, Ifeel you're right. It's like a
box we check, like when you'retrying to apply for your 501c3,
or you're, you know, doing yourboard structure, and you're kind
of creating the structure ofyour organization. We set this
up, and then we kind of forgetabout it, or executive
leadership shifts, and we kindof forget about it. So how can
(06:52):
we kind of, first of all, if wealready have it done, how do we
kind of keep it front and centerfor our team so that we ensure
that we are kind of sticking towhat we've already determined
are these mission and visionstatements. So
Dan Johnson (07:07):
first of all, you actually have to have a useful
vision, and this is notsomething that is particularly
popular in our space, andcertainly not in the corporate
space, because it's it's bothhard and it's something people
just like to check a box with.But, but what we call it when
you have a really good visionis, we call it a
(07:28):
transformational vision, becausenonprofits, unlike for profits,
you have a for profit, you'relooking to serve people and
provide them with services forwhatever their needs are. But if
you're doing a nonprofit, you'retargeting an area where people
don't have the money necessarilyto pay for or have some way they
can't really access those forprofit services. And you're
(07:52):
going in and saying, We cancreate a transformation in them.
Whether you are if you're acommunity based nonprofit, then
you're transforming people'slives. If you are a educational
nonprofit, you're changingpeople's minds, transforming
their minds. If you are apolitical nonprofit, you are
transforming laws, but you havechange as your end game. And if
(08:14):
people don't know what changeyou're going for, ie, what is
your vision? Then most of thepeople you're going to get on
board are going to be people whoknow, like and trust. And trust
you, as opposed to people whobuy into what you're doing. And
you're going to get verydifferent results from that. So
if you look at what we what weconsider a transformational
vision, so what you're whatyou'll usually hear is you need
(08:34):
a mission, and what you'llsometimes hear is you'll need a
mission and a vision. Weactually think you need five
things. And these five thingsactually also make up your pitch
for your organization. Thesefive things are, you need a
founding story. People want toknow where you came from.
They're not interested in justsupporting something because
it's cool. They're like, Why didSammy go crazy when she was
(08:58):
having this great marketingcompany? Why did she go crazy
and start a nonprofit insteadlike what? What went wrong with
you? They want to know that. Andnumber two is you need a very
overlooked thing, which is yourproblem statement. You need a
pressing problem that needs tobe solved right now. You need a
vision statement so you needyour what does it look like when
(09:20):
we solve this problem for thepeople we serve, you need your
mission, and your mission onlyhas one goal, and it is to tell
everybody how your approach isdifferent. So if your mission
doesn't do that, missionstatements are the most abused
tool in nonprofits. That is theonly purpose. They are how we
get from A to B. They're themission we're gonna go take, you
(09:42):
know, the Omaha Beach so that wecan defeat the Nazis, that that
is not the vision of themilitary. That is the mission
that they are currently on. Thatis what you're doing. And then
finally, your values and yourmission, your values really
distinguish yourself from otherorganizations. So if you take,
if you. Have these five piecesin place. Here's my founding
(10:03):
story, here's the pressingproblem, here's my vivid vision,
here's my unique mission andvalues. Now people understand
what you're trying to do whenyou either really don't have a
whole lot to show for it yet, oryour leadership team thinks you
need to be going in a differentdirection.
Sami Bedell-Mulhern (10:24):
So good. And as you're saying this, like
I use different terminology whenI'm talking about your website,
but I think very similar, andthat when we talk about your
homepage layout, we alwaysadvise clients on what's the
problem you solve. How do yousolve that problem, and why are
you uniquely qualified to be theperson to solve that problem?
(10:44):
And also getting super specific,right? Because a lot of the
problems we're trying to solveare very big, right? So there's
a lot of ways to tackle whatyou're doing, and so people need
to know how you're going aboutit, to know if they're in
alignment with the work that youknow. Are you in alignment with
the with me as the donor, and myvalues and what I want to give
(11:05):
to and I think so. I love whatyou're saying, because we talk
about this in our marketing in asimilar way, kind of using what
you're talking about. So inlight of that, as we think about
all of these different elements.Some you might feel like you are
pretty good at. Some you mightfeel like you need to kind of
(11:28):
fix or refine. So if we'relistening this podcast and we're
like, okay, you know what, thisis a perfect time to really
review with our team and reviewwith our board, where we stand
on all of those things. Is thereone of those elements where we
should start first, like, whichone is the most big picture?
Dan Johnson (11:45):
Yeah, so the element you want to start with
first is your problem statementalways, all day long. Why and
why don't you have one? So, forprofits and everybody comes,
most people come into thenonprofit space with a for
profit mindset, and that's goodin a lot of cases, but not
understanding the differencebetween for profits and
nonprofits is where a lot of theprofessionals and the business
(12:08):
owners that I work with getburnt out. They wonder, why
isn't this working? I've beensuccessful before. What's going
on here? You just don'tunderstand the fundamentals of
nonprofits. Nonprofits aredesigned to solve a problem.
That's how you create thetransformation you have a
problem you need to solve it.But very, but very few of them
have actually defined thatproblem. They solve. Businesses
(12:29):
solve problems too, but the keyword is problems, because
businesses go and seek and solvethe problems for the people who
are able to pay them and they'reable to deliver on that problem.
Businesses pivot all the time.The if you have an organization
that's going to pivot all thetime, start a for profit,
they're way more efficient atdoing that. But yeah, when
(12:51):
people start a nonprofit, theyhave a problem in mind that they
want to solve. They see, youknow, their their brother
struggles with PTSD, and they'veseen some of his infantry men
struggle with PTSD, and they'relike, we could do something
about this. Why haven't we donesomething about this? Or, you
know, they struggle with itthemselves. Or they've seen
something in their community.They have a specific problem
(13:12):
they want to solve, but theydon't realize social change is
hard. Like that. The reason theproblem hasn't been solved isn't
because nobody tried. There havebeen hundreds and 1000s of
people who've tried to solvethis problem before you, and
it's going to take you 1020, 30years to effectively make an
(13:33):
impact on this problem.
So you need to pick one and goafter it, pick one piece of the
pie and go after it, and that'swhat your problem statement
does. So what goes into aproblem statement? The first
thing that goes into a problemstatement is what is the
specific problem you're solving,right? So you can define this
kind of however you want, butit's basically what's the root
(13:57):
of the issue. So if you'resaying that we want to help
veterans. The problem could bethat they have PTSD from war.
The problem could be they'regoing to war in the first place,
and that creates the PTSD. Theproblem could be that they don't
have adequate housing, and thatmakes the PTSD more intense. All
(14:21):
of those are very different,1020, 30, 100 million dollar
organizations based on theproblem that you solve. So you
need to decide what's the rootof this. And the second thing
you need to do is actually gotalk to people who suffer from
this problem, right? So we'reworking on a vision statement
(14:43):
right now, or a problemstatement right now. That is for
a non partisan organization likeeducational organization, and
their initial problem statementwas like, we want to make this
system more exciting. Accessibleand or there much problem. Say
was like, this system is notaccessible enough. It
(15:04):
disenfranchises people, and youknow, it's leads to bad
outcomes. Okay, let's getspecific. And how you get
specific is talking to peoplewho actually struggle with this.
And so what this system actuallydoes is, and we're talking about
a kind of national system, soyou might even be able to guess
(15:27):
which one it is. When I give youwhat it actually the problem it
actually solves, which is, if Ican get my computer to actually
load this up, because, believeit or not, I do not remember all
of my clients, problemstatements. Off the top of my
head, I do try. This is one thatwe came up with our election
(15:51):
Well, I guess it tells thesystem. Our election system is
so broken that one in fiveAmericans believe violence is
the answer to our problems. Themajority of voices aren't heard.
People believe that thecandidate who wins doesn't win
fairly, and politicians wedidn't fairly elect are imposing
policies on us we didn't askfor. Those are from stories of
(16:11):
people who didn't get the resultthat they needed out of our
election system, right? And thelast piece, which is in there,
is, what is that reason to solveit? Now, everybody's been
complaining about how awful theelection system is, how terrible
it is, but if people don't knowthat, one in five Americans when
(16:34):
polled, when asked by someone,do you believe violence is the
answer to our problems? Answeredyes. Now maybe there's a reason
to give to this organizationinstead of something else.
That's what your problemstatement should sound like.
Sami Bedell-Mulhern (16:53):
There's so many things to unpack here in a
great way. So I want to startwith what you just said in that
interviewing and talking topeople, and I love that you're
using their language in yourproblem statement, because I
think so many organizations arelike, we're doing this work.
This is what we're doing. We'rein our industry. We're using our
(17:14):
own industry jargon. We're usingterms that make sense to us,
especially if you're in, socialservices, or, like, scientific
type causes, or like, you know,what, what have you. But I love
that it is speaking to the wordsthat they use, because now
you're not only being specific,but you're making an emotional
(17:35):
connection with the people thatare hearing that statement
Dan Johnson (17:39):
absolutely and you're actually speaking to if
you're someone who might be adonor. This is why I say the
vision statement is the offer.It's the thing that you have to
get right before you gofundraise, is if you're talking
to a donor and you're using theblase, normal accessibility and
yada yada language, they'veheard that before, but if you're
(18:03):
talking to a donor who has beensomeone who was disenfranchised,
or maybe their you know,Grandfather was disenfranchised
by the voting system, and that'sthe words that they use, wow.
It's like, you get it. Youunderstand this problem, and you
do, frankly, like you understandit a lot better than people who
(18:23):
sit on their computer and arejust like Google or chatgpt what
the problem is, and then gostart a nonprofit off of it, you
genuinely know more, and thedonor can tell,
Sami Bedell-Mulhern (18:36):
yeah, yes. I also want to, like, just as we
start to process this problempiece, and as we're like you
said was we're talking to donorsand connecting with them, like,
what does that do then, for ourefficiency and our ability to
(18:56):
actually close more deals?Because in the time that we're
in right now, there is so muchflux happening. Things are
changing on the minutesometimes, and so I feel like
we're in this space where we'relike, okay, I need to grasp at
whatever dollar I can get, andwe're kind of losing sight of
the work that we're doing,especially when we think about
(19:18):
grants that we might be goingafter, or larger corporate
sponsors or people that we'reconnecting with. So how does
having this specific problemstatement and really kind of the
big picture that you're paintingfor us here? How does that
actually make us more effective?Or how can we use this as a tool
right now to be more effectivebecause we can be more
streamlined? There
Dan Johnson (19:39):
are two words that I don't want on my headstone. I
tried. They they're helpful. Youknow, it's better to be in the
arena than not. But what was thepoint of. Living this life. And,
(20:01):
you know, getting to 7080, yearsold or 90, you know, they'll
have to kill me before my brainturns to mush, because that's,
that's not cool. I can't livelike that. But 7080, 90, right?
And you look back on your life,and you're like, What did I do?
How were things different?Because Dan was here. What
(20:24):
changed because Dan was here?And if you look back on that and
you struggle to find something,especially if you spent your
time in nonprofits which aresupposed to change that thing,
that's going to be really hard,because you can't undo that. You
(20:44):
can't go back 60 years and 50years and try that again. So the
question is, do you actuallywant to make a change, or do you
want to labor inside anorganization that is less
efficient than a for profit,doing for profit work and
getting paid pennies for it?Those, those are your two
options, and the problemstatement helps you say this,
(21:04):
this is what we want to change.This is, you know, it's domestic
violence for women of color. Itis whatever it is that problem
is what you measure everythingby, your, your nonprofit, your,
your, I always recommend thisgets a little bit in division,
but nonprofits are slow, andthere's a reason for that, and
(21:26):
it's because they're notserious. And I strongly
recommend people have in theirvision statement a vision
metric. In three years, we willdo X, a number, an actual number
that holds you accountable.Well, if you don't have a
problem that you've identified,that vision metric could be
anything. If you have theproblem, as you know veterans,
(21:47):
PTSD, then your vision metriccan be we have helped. Your
vision can sound a lot likethis. We have helped. And by
2028 we have helped 200 veteranslive lives of confidence, peace
and opportunity. Now that'sreal. Now there's something
there. If you don't have theproblem identified, you can't do
(22:10):
that. So really, if you don'thave a problem statement, and
you can't tell me as anonprofit, the problem that you
solve, either figure it out orstop, because you're just gonna
annoy yourself at how little youget paid for that your family's
not gonna like you because ofall the extra hours you're
putting in to do this, eitheryou're doing nonprofit work or
you're not, and that's why theproblem statement's so
(22:32):
important.
Sami Bedell-Mulhern (22:34):
Okay, this is really interesting, because
the other thing that I loveabout that specificity is a lot
of times we as nonprofitsstruggle with our impact
statements. Well, that doesn'tsound like enough people. We're
not serving enough people. We'renot doing you know, the numbers
don't look great, or they don'tlook as impressive as they
should be. And so I think bybeing very specific in that
(22:56):
vision statement, with thattimeline and and your impact,
kind of all in one and having avery specific problem statement.
Now, when you're going andtalking to donors, it's like,
we're laser focused, so you canit builds trust, right? We're
laser focused. This is whatwe're doing. We're we're boots
on the ground, doing thisspecific thing. You know, your
funds are going to this specificthing. And then we as nonprofit
(23:20):
fundraisers and leaders need toalso understand that that means
we're not for everybody, andthat that's okay. And I think
that's where we get hung up on,is that, well, if somebody tells
me No, then we're doing a badjob, and we then need to adjust
what we're doing, because boardmember X said this, or donor X
said this, and now we should bedoing this, that and the other.
(23:40):
So I love the power that thatgives you as a nonprofit leader
to really lean into the workthat you know you're here to do.
It
Dan Johnson (23:47):
does, it gives you and it gives you power when you
walk into those meetings,because you know what you're
offering. You know whether youknow if this donor is interested
in solving this problem. They'rewith you. If they're not,
they're not. It gives everymember of your team. You know,
how many of you, either yourvolunteers, everybody talks
about herding cats and all thatstuff, right? Or or your your
(24:10):
your staff members who are goingthroughout their day to day, if
they know what problem yousolve, and not just whatever
problem Susan wants to solvethis week, they can plan. They
can come up with their ownideas. They can go execute
without you as a nonprofitleader who obviously has all the
time in the world, you know,sitting down and having the one
on ones with them and, you know,giving them ideas and telling
(24:32):
them what to do. If everybodyknows what the vision is and
what you're trying to do,they're not coming up with hair
brained ideas. Your donorsgenerally are not coming up with
hair brained ideas that you nowfeel like you have to do because
they give you money. Everyone isreally clear on this is the
world we're creating, andfrankly, it just gets you
(24:54):
further toward the world youwant to create because you
started or took over thisnonprofit in the first. Nice.
Sami Bedell-Mulhern (25:01):
Yeah, I love that. Okay, so, I mean, I
can geek out on nonprofitfundraising mindset all day
long, but I want to come back toOkay. So we've got our problem,
problem statement created. Wefeel good about we've got
specificity in our visionstatement. You know, the mission
is, kind of being our overallguidance. How often do we then
(25:25):
need so if I say my visionstatement, like you said, in
three years we want to do X, howoften am I kind of revisiting
these statements, either as aleadership team or as a company
as a whole, like, how often dowe want to kind of tackle that
and make sure
Dan Johnson (25:42):
we're still on track. I mean, more or less
every week. Why? Why? Okay,that's how companies do their P
and L, right? You get your salesteam together, and you're
talking about where we're at forrevenue, for the month or for
the week or for the day, for theyear, depending on the on the
company. But it's usually atleast by quarter. Um, and your P
(26:04):
and L for a non profit, is thatvision metric out of the 200
veterans that we wanted to serveby the next, you know, three
years and get to this point,where are we at? Where are, you
know, our individual metrics onwith the individual veterans?
Where's our fundraising at toget us there. What's our
marketing doing to get us there?It is an actual accountability
(26:25):
thing, instead of justeveryone's you know feels good
when they give to yournonprofit, which is not bad, but
it will be amazing, thetransformation that you have
when you stop thinking of yournonprofit as just a way, a place
that people give a bunch ofmoney to when they have it just
they're extras, they're garbage,they're, you know, you're a
(26:48):
charity, and you start thinkingof it as the only kind of
organization that can make thisimpact. You do that, and that's
what your vision really helpsyou do, is define that you're
going to be looking at thisevery week, every month, your
team's going to be constantlytalking about you're going to
share it with anybody who comeson board. You're going to share
it with your donor partners.This is an integral part of who
(27:10):
you are, just as much as revenueis an integral part of who a for
profit is.
Sami Bedell-Mulhern (27:16):
My business coach has us, you know, we go
through a whole year endplanning process together as a
group, and we do what shecalled, well, I mean, I don't
know if she made it up, but goalcard. So she said, literally
will fit, send us a physicalgoal card in the mail, and we
write our whole thing down. Butwhat's different, and she says,
(27:36):
like, place it somewhere. Butwhat's really interesting is,
lately she said, you know, placeit somewhere on your desk, where
you can see it all the time. Thetime, but every month, you need
to move it somewhere else,because it's really easy. So I
say this because it's reallyeasy to be like, in a board
meeting every or in a staffmeeting every single week and be
like, Okay, we're going toreview our like, our problem
statement and our vision. AndAre we all good? Okay, yep,
(27:58):
we're good. Like, it can be easyto get kind of complacent with
that, but the visual of likemoving it around on my wall to
different places, or on my deskto different places throughout
the year really helps you kindof see it differently, because
you can't just tune it out then.And I think it's so important
what you just said, and I agree100% because there's years where
(28:18):
I've done the planning process,and then I put my goals away,
and I think I'm working on itall year long, and then all of a
sudden, I'll pull it out at theend of the year, and I'm like,
wow, I really did not and I'm asmall team, right? Like I'm in
charge of my business. I makeall my own choices, and I'll be
like, I did not do what? So Ithink we think that it's
(28:40):
ingrained in our brain. So Ilove that you said that well,
that weekly, and it might feelhard, but like, post it, share
it, talk about it, make it.
Dan Johnson (28:49):
Yeah, I love the idea of putting it in different
places, because, like, what doesyour vision do? It is on your
website. It's on the front pageof your website, not like as a
statement, because that's boringas hell. But like you, you have
your vision integrated into yourwebsite, because that's the
that's the human action model.Economist lube on Mises, who
(29:10):
studied human action, blah,blah, blah academics, he
identified that there were threepieces that were required for
people to take action, and theyare a problem that needs to be
solved now. They are a vividvision of a better state, and
they are a path to get from A toB. And you have all of these in
your vision. And this is whatyou need on your website to
convert people. This is what youneed in your marketing. Some of
(29:30):
your marketing should be focusedon talking about the problem.
Some of your marketing should befocused on talking about the
vision. Some of your marketingshould be focused on talking
about your mission and whyyou're different and your
values. Like this goes into yourmarketing. This goes into your
onboarding with your volunteers.This goes into everything you do
as an organization. Just think,every time revenue is brought up
(29:52):
in a for profit, revision isthere in a nonprofit?
Sami Bedell-Mulhern (29:58):
Okay, I want to talk about one. Thing
before we kind of wrap this up,because it's such a good I mean,
it's such a good conversation aswe think about, like you said,
onboarding our volunteers. Ithink staffing is a big issue
for nonprofits. Retention ofstaff. We know that the
development space is losingfundraisers at a rampant rate,
(30:19):
and not only that, they're justleaving the industry altogether.
So it's not even like they'regoing somewhere else. So we
haven't really talked a lotabout value statements yet, and
I know that's part of yourframework. But how important are
value statements, in addition toeverything we've talked about
when it comes to attracting theright people and really being
(30:39):
intentional with how we hire orwho we bring in as volunteers or
who we bring in as board membersto kind of help support us in
this work. Yeah.
Dan Johnson (30:47):
So I think value statements can be both very
helpful and potentially harmfuldepending on how you do them. So
values are who you are. That's,that's what it is, that's, it's
telling it's why it's usuallyused in a team culture or a
staff onboarding, or whatever.It's what are the general
principles of this group ofpeople that you're a part of?
(31:10):
You have your specific policies,but I really hate it when every
action turns into a policy thatyou can't do now, and you can
front load that by having threecore values. If you have 12,
nobody knows what they are,three core values, three
nonprofit leaders, three corevalues. And there's a really
(31:32):
good article about, I'm tryingto remember the name of the top
of my head, but basically thedifference between values that
help you and the values thathurt you is values that help you
have a way that the organizationupholds those values that can be
they can be held accountable tothe staff over that so the
(31:53):
difference might be, our valueis innovation. We really value,
you know, creativity and blah,blah, blah, but the value of
innovation, when theorganization is doing found
something that works and doesn'treally want to innovate, and
then all the staff come on, theythink the value is innovation.
The that actually hurts youhaving it on the wall, because
(32:14):
it's an expectation for thesepeople, right? But if you have
our value is innovation, and youhave an enforcement statement
under it, which is, therefore,we hold innovation summits every
quarter for two hours and bringall our staff together and come
up with new ideas and where wewant to go. One thing that your
(32:35):
organization will do throughoutthe year that is a way you can
improve your values and makethem actually worthwhile. And
then they're just necessary.They're necessary bring anyone
onto your team. They'renecessary part of the
conversation with any any donorwho becomes really large. You
need to have that conversationwith little donors, not as much,
but any donor becomes asignificant part of what you do.
(32:56):
You need to have thatconversation. Anybody who's a
part of your organization needsto know what your values are,
and that's how you ensure thatthe culture you want is there
when you're not.
Sami Bedell-Mulhern (33:11):
Yeah, well, there's a specificity there, and
there's an accountability there.So I think to your point in how
can your value statements helpyou is that if you're if you
don't feel strong enough aboutthat statement that you're going
to enforce it, then it has noplace as a value statement.
Like, I think everybody tends togo to like that. We operate with
(33:31):
integrity. Well, okay, great.What does integrity mean? Like,
okay, like, what you know,because then if somebody isn't
operating within integrity.Like, are you going to let them
go? And who decides that thatwas or wasn't? And, you know? So
I think, like, that's to, youknow, to your point, I think
that's a great example. And Ilove giving that specific like,
this is what we do, because italso allows you to have
(33:53):
conversations. I love that youbrought up having that
conversation with bigger boardmembers. Because what we know,
or bigger donors, what we know,is that nonprofits have to work
a lot harder to build trust, andso if you're the people that are
engaged with the organization,don't hold up to those same
values, you're going to lose alot of donors just for that one
(34:13):
person, if you take that money,just because you need to take
that money, but then somethingcomes out that they're not in
alignment with who you are andhow you operate. Now we can't
control that all the time.Sometimes we don't know, but
doing your due diligence anddoing your, you know, having
that as best practice, I think,is really smart all around so
I'm glad that you brought thatup as a statement. I think so
(34:36):
many incredible things that youbrought up today, and things to
think about, tactical thingsthat we can start to think about
with how we approach this. Isthere anything else that you
would kind of love to bring upas kind of a best practice
around this, or maybe somethingthat I didn't ask that you'd
love to mention?
Dan Johnson (34:51):
I think the the only thing we didn't cover was
mission and this is a reallyeasy tweak that anybody can make
right now to your missionstatement. So do. I'm going to
give you a tale of two missionstatements. Ready? We feed, we
feed food insecure people in theTampa, Florida area through, you
(35:14):
know, pop up grocery storedelivery. I'm coming up with
this on the fly. Public, grocerystore, delivery, delivery to
their houses, and a giveaway,outsider giveaways, great. Okay,
that's what most missionstatements sound like, and they
might have a little visionattached onto the end, so that
(35:35):
less people are food insecure.All right, so that's what most
mission statements sound like,and let me give you a mission
statement that works. Wecollect, we build relationships
between businesses andindividuals to deliver, to
deliver critical food to thosewho are left behind by
(35:58):
traditional food sources such asfood banks. What's the
difference between those two?The difference is your mission
should explicitly state why youare unique. Why is your approach
to this problem different thananybody else? You feed people,
la dee da, you make sure youmake in America at least la de
(36:18):
da, you make sure that peoplewho can't get to a food bank,
people who can't access atraditional food source, have
access to food such as seniors,such as people, mobility issues,
whatever. Now we're talking soyou can make one quick change to
your mission statement and justadjust it so that it clearly
(36:39):
states the thing that makes yourorganization different. It will
help you win more grants. Itwill help you get more
attention. It will help yourmarketing.
Sami Bedell-Mulhern (36:48):
Yeah, I just want to say to listeners
that if you're hearing this andyou're thinking, Well, I can't
get that specific. I mean, thisis just the abundant mindset
that I'm always trying to pushinto everything that specificity
allows people to self selectout, which is just as important
(37:09):
as allowing people to selfselect in, because your time and
your energy is precious, and ifthey are not the right fit for
you, you are going to spend somuch time, effort and energy
trying To convince them that youare the right organization,
versus having five moreconversations with people that
are the right person excited andgoing to give you money. So I
(37:30):
love the way that you broke thatdown. I think it's critically
important, and I think now isjust the great reminder to sit
down and take a look at it andsee how you're doing and what
that looks like. So Dan, ifpeople want to connect with you,
learn more about the ways thatyou help organizations in this
work, and kind of learn morefrom you. How can they do
Dan Johnson (37:54):
that? Yeah, absolutely. So I help business
owners and professionals createsustainable nonprofits, and do
it using the principles ofbusiness, but applied to
nonprofits. So you can go to mywebsite, Next Level
nonprofits.us. Download the fivesteps to sustainability so that
you actually have a nonprofitthat doesn't suck away all of
(38:16):
your time and all of your moneyand creates the impact that you
want it to create. And if youput in the reference code first
click, then I will also jump onthe phone with you for 15
minutes and give you one tipthat you can implement for your
organization right away, so youcan find that at next level,
(38:37):
nonprofits.us thank you so muchfor listening to this episode,
and thank you so much for havingme on Sammy.
Sami Bedell-Mulhern (38:44):
Yeah, it's so great. And you can check out
all the links for this episode,the resources and all the ways
to connect with Dan at the firstclick.net/ 302, so Dan, thank
you so much for being heretoday. Thank you. So I really
want to thank Dan again forjoining us today and for sharing
his insights and wisdom, it wassuch a great conversation. Could
(39:05):
probably talk to him all daylong about all of the things,
but I hope you got some greatnuggets, and if you did find
something really helpful, orsome things, head on over to
YouTube at Digital Marketingtherapy, and I would love for
you to drop in the comments ofthis video. What one of your
biggest key takeaways was, I'dreally love to hear kind of how
you're going to use some ofthese strategies to really think
differently about who you'reapproaching and how you're
(39:27):
approaching them to support yourorganization. Make sure you
subscribe wherever you listen,and don't be a stranger. Leave
us a review. Tell us what youthink about these episodes, and
let me know if there's otherguests that you think would be
great fits for us to talk tohere on digital marketing
therapy. Thank you so much forlistening and taking time out of
your day to spend this time withme and I will see you in the
(39:49):
next episode.
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