logo
    • Magazine
    • Membership
    • Donate
  • Racial Justice
  • Economic Justice
    • Collections
  • Climate Justice
  • Health Justice
  • Leadership
  • CONTENT TYPES
  • Subscribe
  • Webinars
    • Upcoming Webinars
    • Complimentary Webinars
    • Premium On-Demand Webinars
  • Membership
  • Submissions

Wanted: More Storytellers, Less Sausage Factory

Ruth McCambridge
August 4, 2010
Share
Tweet
Share
Email
Print

Ruth McCambridge

The last time I wrote in this column, I referenced an article entitled, “The Way We Write is All Wrong,” and asked you for examples of your favorite fundraising letters and emails. We got some great ones! Our intention is to award a subscription to the best of what we get. The jury on that competition will return next week, but in the meantime I find that I am not done with that topic.

First, I want to invite more letters from you all. And second I want to whine a little.


 SUBSCRIBE | Click Here to subscribe to THE NONPROFIT QUARTERLY for just $49


For the past few days I have been reading proposals for an outfit I admire like crazy . . .

Sign up for our free newsletters

Subscribe to NPQ's newsletters to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

By signing up, you agree to our privacy policy and terms of use, and to receive messages from NPQ and our partners.

. . . and I am here to tell you, it’s not that much fun despite the fact that I am with a bunch of nice people.

Wading through pages and pages of language meant to impress—never interrupted by a story or example of something real . . . never mind a real decisive measure of success—it makes me worry about us.

Some of what is wrong about our writing (performance monitoring) in this sector seems to be an undying affection for the rhetoric of the day (evidence based). This tendency, which I realize is sometimes perversely encouraged by funders who have to read it,  results sometimes in whole paragraphs of strung together words and phrases from which the reader can discern nothing substantive (appropriate redundancy, assessment of impact, consistent oversight, social entrepreneurism).

It’s like putting your program through a sausage making machine. The result? No one can tell what’s in the meat anymore. I think we need some plain speak classes that allow us to escape from the prison of oft used and relatively meaningless language into language that speaks clearly and even evocatively to our fellow humans.

Anyway, I thought I would attach an article that reminds us about storytelling in our work and, of course, send us those fundraising letters so that you are in the running for a FREE SUBSCRIPTION!

Share
Tweet
Share
Email
Print
About the author
Ruth McCambridge

Ruth is Editor Emerita of the Nonprofit Quarterly. Her background includes forty-five years of experience in nonprofits, primarily in organizations that mix grassroots community work with policy change. Beginning in the mid-1980s, Ruth spent a decade at the Boston Foundation, developing and implementing capacity building programs and advocating for grantmaking attention to constituent involvement.

More about: Editor's NotesOpinionPolicy

Become a member

Support independent journalism and knowledge creation for civil society. Become a member of Nonprofit Quarterly.

Members receive unlimited access to our archived and upcoming digital content. NPQ is the leading journal in the nonprofit sector written by social change experts. Gain access to our exclusive library of online courses led by thought leaders and educators providing contextualized information to help nonprofit practitioners make sense of changing conditions and improve infra-structure in their organizations.

Join Today
logo logo logo logo logo
See comments

Spring-2023-sidebar-subscribe
You might also like
Cancelling Student Debt Is Necessary for Racial Justice
Kitana Ananda
To Save Legal Aid, Expand Public Service Loan Forgiveness
Zoë Polk
No Justice, No Peace of Mind and Body: The Health Impacts of Housing Insecurity for Black Women
Jhumpa Bhattacharya, Maile Chand and Andrea Flynn
The Human Impact of the Global Refugee Crisis Must Be Understood—And Acted Upon
Anmol Irfan
Black Americans Need Reparations: The Fight for the CTC Highlights the Roadblocks
Jhumpa Bhattacharya and Trevor Smith
Edgar Cahn’s Second Act: Time Banking and the Return of Mutual Aid
Steve Dubb

NPQ Webinars

April 27th, 2 pm ET

Liberatory Decision-Making

How to Facilitate and Engage in Healthy Decision-making Processes

Register Now
You might also like
Cancelling Student Debt Is Necessary for Racial Justice
Kitana Ananda
To Save Legal Aid, Expand Public Service Loan Forgiveness
Zoë Polk
No Justice, No Peace of Mind and Body: The Health Impacts of...
Jhumpa Bhattacharya, Maile Chand and Andrea Flynn

Like what you see?

Subscribe to the NPQ newsletter to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

See our newsletters

By signing up, you agree to our privacy policy and terms of use, and to receive messages from NPQ and our partners.

NPQ-Spring-2023-cover

Independent & in your mailbox.

Subscribe today and get a full year of NPQ for just $59.

subscribe
  • About
  • Contact
  • Advertise
  • Copyright
  • Careers

We are using cookies to give you the best experience on our website.

 

Non Profit News | Nonprofit Quarterly
Powered by  GDPR Cookie Compliance
Privacy Overview

This website uses cookies so that we can provide you with the best user experience possible. Cookie information is stored in your browser and performs functions such as recognising you when you return to our website and helping our team to understand which sections of the website you find most interesting and useful.

Strictly Necessary Cookies

Strictly Necessary Cookie should be enabled at all times so that we can save your preferences for cookie settings.

If you disable this cookie, we will not be able to save your preferences. This means that every time you visit this website you will need to enable or disable cookies again.