It’s your time to shine!

I am dusting off an old blog “You Are the Best Kept Secret – Now Stop It!” and giving it a new opportunity to shine!

This one is specifically for all the nonprofit leaders out there. You are often the best kept secret in your community. It’s time to let the secret out.

In times like we are in today, we need you. You know how to coordinate much needed help. And so many in our communities need the help.

• Community members who need your services need to know how to find you, how to navigate with and through you, and how to eventually thank you for no longer needing your services.
• Community members who refer your services need to know what you offer, who you serve, and where you serve. Plus, they need to learn the best method to be your partner in services.
• Community members with time, money, knowledge, skills, abilities and the desire to help others need to know what you do, who you serve, and most important, how they can help you serve! Whether they want to volunteer, donate supplies, write you a check, become a member of your board or advocate to others about the good you do, they need to know you.
• Community members who want nothing to do with you — they don’t want to help; they don’t want to hurt—they need to know you too. They need to know what you do to help the community. They need to know WIIFM (what’s in it for me); in this case, what’s in it for them. Tell them how you impact the economy. How you help people go from surviving to thriving. How you use your resources so efficiently that you spend 85+% of all funding on providing services. They can benefit you by being aware of the positives in the event a negative happens.
• And community decision makers need to know you. When they are discussing politics and voting, they need to know how you help your community and how much it costs to provide that help.

How about you share the good news of what you are doing. Right now, we could use all the good news we can get!

• Did you receive a new grant?
  • Share how you will spend the dollars to address a community need.
• Is your team not just surviving in this new environment – but thriving?
  • Share the new innovative ways they are helping others and making impact.
• Does a volunteer have a such a passion in making sure your agency moves forward they did something amazing?
  • Highlight their action as a thank you to them for serving during scary times.
• Will your services look different in the future?
  • Share how you plan to continue to serve in safer and healthier ways.
• Did you help a family meet an outcome that puts them on the path to stability?
  • Share how your resources, your support, helped them to not need you anymore.

My colleague Steve Lipton always says don’t wait for perfect. Just tell short, shining examples of positive impact that you are doing every day.

Here is a truth – it really is ok to share when something goes well. Learning from our successes (meaning sharing them so that others can learn what went right too) is just as powerful as learning from our mistakes. And it feels pretty good too. Sometimes we need those little wins – or big wins – to help get through the non-wins.

Moving forward, how will you share good news in a way that feels authentic to you?

How will you encourage others to share good news?

Let us know what you come up with in your answers.

Wishing you a great day and remember: Lead with legacy –

Tammy

PS: If you need help learning how to tell your story we are hosting a virtual learning opportunity: Now’s Your Time to Shine: How to Capture and Tell Your Story

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