One of the most critical keys to the success of a nonprofit organization is developing a team of ambassadors that can share the important work that your organization is doing. Yet, articulating your elevator pitch can be challenging.

Joan Garry, the Founder of Nonprofit Leadership Lab noted that “there are over 1.5 million nonprofit organizations in the US doing the work that governments can’t and probably shouldn’t do.”

Feeding the homeless; providing camps programs for pediatric cancer patients, survivors, and their siblings; helping homeowners reduce the cost of utility bills by making their homes more energy efficient; and ensuring that those who travel for medical care and their families have a safe place to stay during their treatment and reducing the financial burden on those who have to receive medical care away from home.

Identifying the gap that your organization fills by imagining a world where … can help your team start the process of developing a clear and concise elevator pitch.

Here are five steps the the experts at Nonprofit Leadership Lab recommends that can help you develop this message and turn your board of directors and staff into ambassadors:

1. Every conversation is an invitation: turn the question of “tell me about your organization” into an invitation.
2. Get me at hello.
3. Cut through the clutter. If you say too much, the point gets lost.
4. Message discipline.
5. Leaders are ambassadors: every single person associated with your organization has to be an effective, vocal, ambassador for your organization… It’s critical because each ane very one of your stakeholders, your staff, your board, your volunteers, they need to be able to invite people to know more and do more.

Ambassadors aren’t created overnight, so practicing your elevator pitch with your board and staff is crucial to developing this message into a succinct message that illustrates your passion, enthusiasm, eloquence, and why what you are doing matters. Use a few minutes in your board meetings and staff meetings to practice perfecting your elevator pitches and be sure that your whole team are ambassadors for the important gap your organization fills!

Works cited:

• “Rethinking Your Elevator Pitch” by Joan Garry, Nonprofit Leadership Lab
• “The Big Mistake That’s Hurting your Nonprofit (and how to fix it)” by Joan Garry.