The Grant Impact Pitch

Celeste, thank you for this chance.

Hello everyone, I appreciate your time today.

Let’s dive right in with an example for two points I want to make. Picture being at a conference reception. Consider how most people tell you what they do. Let’s say someone named Judy comes up to you. When you ask, “So what do you do?”, she will probably say something based on this formula:

“I am [title] at [org name] and we do [jargon].

For example:

I’m a vice president of development at Law Students for a Better America. We foster social justice and strengthen democratic institutions.

What if instead Judy said:

“I spend a lot of time working with young law students who are trying to save democracy by becoming judges. And my organization has developed a secret sauce that is amazingly good at helping them accomplish that. Our name is Law Students for a Better America and I’m the VP of development.”

She uses a formula she learned during her Elevator Speech Training session: “I work with so and so people, and we help them accomplish so and so thing, and here is something interesting about how we do that.”

I’m sure you’d say: “What’s your secret sauce?” Right?

This example illustrates two important points: first, most nonprofit leaders have surprising room for improving how they communicate. Second, there are quick transformative solutions they can learn in less than one hour.

Elevator Speech Training focuses on these time-efficient solutions, because the number one reason nonprofit leaders don’t improve how they communicate is that they just don’t have the time. That’s why Elevator Speech Training uses just one hour of it.

There are more than 500 testimonials on our website that say the efficiency of the training worked for them. More than 100 come from CEOs and Executive Directors who are, of course, especially time-pressed and therefore appreciate quick solutions.

Let me give you two more examples that can benefit you for a lifetime and have an impact on an entire organization.

First, imagine that Judy’s organization maintains a cheat sheet called “Best examples ever” with bullets that show that their secret sauce actually works. Judy introduced the cheat sheet at Law Students for a Better America after learning about it during an Elevator Speech Training session. Every time there’s a full staff meeting, Judy leads a 5-minute agenda item called “Best Examples Ever Cheat Sheet update”. She usually says, “Hey, any new examples that show how well our secret sauce works?” And a colleague may say something like, “Yes, last week, the New York Times called us the ‘backbone of democracy’.” That colleague then gets a box of chocolates, and the quote is added to the cheat sheet. Everybody loves the cheat sheet because it makes it easy to talk about their work convincingly. And people get chocolate for contributing to it. It’s become an organization habit. Like I said, it’s something Judy learned during her one-hour Elevator Speech Training, and it ended up transforming her entire organization’s communications culture. It’s helping everyone talk about what they do.

Second example: Judy used to be nervous at conference receptions but when she spoke with you, she just exuded joy and confidence. That’s because her Elevator Speech Training session also gave her the idea of reframing speaking situations by focusing on what she is giving instead of what she is needing in that moment. For example, she is mindful that she gives you her talent, creativity, and good intentions, rather than needing approval and being perceived in positive ways. Being needy makes you nervous. Being giving makes you confident. Elevator Speech Training has even built a mobile phone app to help with that mindset called MindSetter App.

So, again, I just showed you, not told you, that quick solutions are possible in just one hour. Heck, I just gave you three in five minutes. That’s why 99% of everyone we ever trained rated their experience very or exceptionally useful. There are more than 500 testimonials on my website, including from more than 100 CEOs. They are especially time-pressed so they appreciate the time efficiency of the training.

One last thing: For a grant maker, giving the training to all grantees requires just one group email, once a year. So it’s very efficient in this way, too. JPB has used this approach for four years, and it’s been a great success.

So my ask is: do what JPB did. Offer all your grantees this efficient way of improving how they communicate. For you, it’s one quick email. For them, it is one transformational hour. Like I said, ultimately, it’s about increasing grant impact. Which is why I put a transcript of everything I just said at grantimpact.com. Check it out. Maybe review the three solutions I shared and try them out. I hope we’ll work together.

And as I said, it all boils down to increasing grant impact – efficiently.

Thank you.