Ususally, when one is part of an organization they know a lot about some topic. Regardless of their industry, it just seems that you talk about it all day long...it's second nature. We forget sometimes that "we" are not the audience. It's their language, not ours, that needs to be spoken.
An example is numbers. I personally love them and think they add an unbeatable argument to everything under the sun. The average person, though, doesn't care as much as I do. Sometimes, there's the assumption of intent (stolen from my former VP of Human Resources). We think "Oh sure, they want all the facts and data to support everything."
Not really.
They just want whatever you are offering to ease their burden or fulfill a need. The message is figuring out where's their connection? What is the language they speak and understand?
Actually, if more nonprofits used this method instead of feeling that "the cause" and emotion create a captive audience their events would be much more successful. Mind you, I did horribly at fundraising because I didn't follow these simple rules. Just assumed everyone was "on board." At the end, I was floating in the sea, far far away from shore.
