Learn from NGOs. They know how to communicate. Your business will benefit from these tips. Increase your sales by learning from others

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WHY YOUR BUSINESS SHOULD BE
THINKING (AND COMMUNICATING)
LIKE AN NGO
You sell a thing. It’s a good thing. You’ve done your research, found your people, and
convinced them to give you their money in exchange for it.
Well done, you! Great job!
Crack open that bottle-o-something, throw your feet up on the desk, and bask in the
triumph of being a successful seller of things.
But after you’ve had your moment, put your shoes back on, sober up a little and con-
sider this: Your work is just beginning.
Yes, your people have bought your thing, but will they buy it again? How do you keep
them from going with The Other Guy Who Sells That Same Thing next time? What’s
that mysterious marketing magic that makes “your people” truly yours?

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Take a walk with us down an unexpected path - we’ve got
some ideas…
Since Bwritr began, we’ve worked with and studied and been positively awed by NGOs,
and not just because they save little babies and heal sick people and make the world a
better place.
It’s because year after year, they successfully convince people to give them their
money, and in return those people get (drumrollllllllll) a big ol’ goose egg. There’s no
“thing” at the end of that transaction. They had some money and now they don’t have it
because they gave it to that NGO.
If that’s not some magical marketing, we don’t know what is.
Yes, of course it feels great to know you’re contributing to some baby-saving. But
there’s more to it than that. NGOs have some people-keeping hacks that anyone trying
to keep their people would be nuts to ignore.
We’re listing a few of them here, for you, dear seller of things. And to illustrate each
hack, we’ve scoured the internet for some proof: the good ol’ annual report.
The annual report is a document every established and successful NGO produces at
the end of its fiscal year to communicate to their people just how worthy of support
their efforts are. It’s a snapshot of the work they do and a tidy little illustration of how
they do it.
So let’s take a look, shall we?

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NGO PEOPLE-KEEPING HACK #1: BRING THEM IN
When you communicate with the people who buy your thing, how do you speak to
them? “Hey people over there, the ones we’ve studied and quantified and market test-
ed to death…” - maybe like that?
How about this:
“You are us.”
“You are critical, integral, can’t-live-without-you members of this team.”
That is how the most successful NGOs treat the people who give to their cause. And
it isn’t a trick - it’s the truth. Without their people, they have no money, they save no
babies. Their organization disappears, and everyone goes home.
Same is true for you: without your people, you sell no things. You disappear.
Talk to your people like they’re in this with you, because they actually are.
CASE STUDY: CHILDREN’S RIGHTS
AND YOU (CRY)
CRY does this beautifully in their 2016 annual re-
port. Right there on the cover, they lay it out: “YOU
MADE IT POSSIBLE.”
Not “look what we did” or “aren’t you proud you
gave us some cash to do stuff?” No, no. You - our
people - are essential. You are a part of this. YOU
made this happen.
People give year after year because they know they
are a part of this great thing. They identify with it
and they don’t want to be left out.
How can you speak to people in a way that brings
them into what you’re doing?
View the full report: https://www.cry.org/
wp-content/uploads/2018/03/Annual-Re-
port-16-17_Double-Spread-min.pdf

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NGO PEOPLE-KEEPING HACK #2:
TELL SOME STORIES
You can toss facts and figures and fancy product features at folks all day long, and of
course that counts for something (no one’s buying your shoes if they have no soles),
but the stuff that actually sells your thing?
It’s the story.
CASE STUDY: BIG BROTHERS BIG
SISTERS OF NYC
The entire first section of this annual report is a collection of sob-worthy success
stories… Young Jesus didn’t believe in himself, but his “Big” helped him get into an
impressive university… Little Juliana lost her Mom but finally has someone to talk to in
her Big, Rose.
Yes, oh yes, where do I send my money?!
View the full report:
https://www.bigsnyc.
org/sites/default/
files/BIG_050_2016_
AnnualReport_Fi-
nal_Digital_Revised_
LoRes_Pages.pdf

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CASE STUDY: PARTNERS IN HEALTH
The impact of PIH’s work (and your money, dear donor) could not be made any clear-
er in this heartstrings-yanking report. Real, actual people with faces and names and
stories upon stories of life-changing stuff… it’s enough to make a grown man toss his
wallet on the table and run away weeping.
Maybe you’re not in the business of getting kids to college or curing horrible diseases,
but you’ve got a story. You’ve probably got a few… the engineer who can build a safer
bridge because of the steel timbers you sell… the family with an heirloom to treasure
because of the watch you’ve created… …
How can you make people feel some of the good that can come from the thing you do?
View the full report: https://www.
pih.org/sites/default/files/pdf/
PIH_2017_Annual_Report_web.pdf

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NGO PEOPLE-KEEPING HACK #3:
DEMONSTRATE YOUR CREDIBILITY
When you work on a shoestring (as most charities do), you can’t afford to pay celeb-
rities to tout your stuff or hire big PR firms to spin your shortcomings. It’s on you to
communicate your successes and convince your people that you’re the best one doing
that thing you do.
NGOs are brilliant at this: Do the thing, show that you did the thing, do more of the
thing. On and on. The proof in the pudding is a critical piece in that cycle.
CASE STUDY: MÉDECINS SANS FRONTIÈRES
/ DOCTORS WITHOUT BORDERS
There is no better wow factor than “We’ve provided nearly 10 million medical consul-
tations in a single year!” (p.20). Except maybe that sprawling map of the 71 countries
these folks work in, on pp.18-19. Or the thoughtful analysis of the various crises they
respond to peppered throughout this impressive report.
Doubtless, you’ve put a lot of thought into what you do. You’ve studied and tested and
consulted (or become) experts in order to provide the very best for the people you
serve. Why not share that with them? What better way to inspire confidence and loyalty
in your customers?
View the full report: https://
www.doctorswithoutborders.
org/sites/usa/files/msf_
ar_2016_fulle_report_final_de-
cember_17.pdf

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NGO PEOPLE-KEEPING HACK #4: MAKE
IT EASY FOR THEM TO LOVE YOU
Do not force your people to think.
Hang on - that bears repeating. And emphasis. And sound effects.
Do not force your people to think.
They don’t have time to think, or patience. They don’t owe you one second of their at-
tention, and to be sure, you won’t get it, unless you make it easy for them.
Here’s how:
Make your stuff beautiful.
This means you need to hire someone design things for you. A professional.
Yes, you are brilliant in many ways and sure, you’ve got that bootleg copy of Photoshop
and no, it’s not that hard to put some words on top of a photo and okay, maybe you just
don’t have the money to hire someone and STOP, STOP, STOP IT.
The visual representation of that amazing thing you do/make/sell is too important
to skimp on.
If your marketing looks cheap, it will be assumed that your product is too, and people
will not buy it. So, build this into your budget and hire the best person you can find to
make you look as professional as possible. Online, in print, everywhere.
CASE STUDY: BRAC
This stunning annual report website screams “We have our sh*t together!” Beautiful,
bold, and most definitely not thrown together by the intern, these guys are declaring to
the world that if we care this much about a silly website, imagine how effective we are
at the actual stuff we do!

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View the full report: http://www.brac.net/publications/annual-report/2016/
…And well-written.
We all took grammar in school and we can all write an email. We may even be able to
draft a pitch deck that doesn’t completely suck.
But we cannot all write killer copy for a website and we cannot all dream up a winning
headline for an ad campaign that will actually sell.
Stringing words together in a compelling way is an art, not an afterthought.
CASE STUDY: OXFAM AUSTRALIA
We’ll admit, NGOs aren’t always the best at this. In our research, we found more than
a few snore-worthy annual reports: too many words, acronym overload, just so much
blah-blah-blah-ing. But the fine folks at Oxfam Australia hit the nail on the head in their
last annual report. Their copy is concise and compelling, and strikes just the right tone
for their audience.

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…And organized.
Let’s play a game: You’ve got ten seconds and a newbie potential customer ready to
buy that thing you sell. They’re on your website. Now take a look with fresh eyes: Will
they know where to go? What if they need help with their order? Can they navigate all
the stuff you’re throwing at them in order to find - 3…2…1… Oops! They’re gone. You’ve
lost the sale.
Just because you know where everything lives doesn’t mean anyone else will. If infor-
mation is hidden or hard to find, it may as well not exist.
The structure of things matters. Your website should be navigable by a 10-year-old.
Your print materials should be grasped at a glance. Spend time examining the format-
ting and flow of everything you publish. Show it to people outside of your organization
and ask for honest feedback on where they got lost, when they dropped off, what was
confusing.
View the full report:
https://www.oxfam.org.
au/what-we-do/about-
us/assessing-our-perfor-
mance/annual-report/

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CASE STUDY: TERRES DES HOMMES
Terres des Hommes provides a jaw-dropping array of services for children in need
across the globe. Capturing all that they do in a single document is a mammoth task,
which they handled beautifully in their 2016 annual report.
»» A table of contents prepares the reader for how the document is organized before
they dive into the meat of it.
»» Varied (but consistent) use of fonts and icons provide an unmistakable visual hier-
archy so they can skim if they want to.
»» Beautifully designed graphs and tables make complex data easily digestible.
»» Page headers remind the reader of where they are in case they forget.
View the full report:
https://www.tdh.
ch/sites/default/
files/170616_tdh_
ra2016_en_web.pdf
…And simple.
What you do is complex and unique and impossible to describe without ALL the words
and ALL the pictures and ALL SO MUCH STUFF, THROW EVERYTHING IN, GUYS, MORE,
MORE, MORE!

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Well, that’s one way to go.
But do people really need to know ALL of it? And - more importantly - will they pay
attention to any of it when there’s all of it to wade through?
Nope.
Strip it down, simplify. Remove the clutter surrounding your message and get to
the point.
CASE STUDY: CHARITY: WATER
We are in love with the elegance and minimalism of this annual report. With nary a
bloated paragraph to be found, charity: water proves that a few short sentences - or
even a few simple words - are all you need to convey the crux of it all.
View the full report: https://d11sa1anfvm2xk.cloudfront.net/about/
downloads/cw_2016_annual_report.pdf

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NGO PEOPLE-KEEPING HACK #5: CLOSE THE DEAL
What’s the goal, here? The whole point of all of this marketing and messag-
ing business?
The opening of a wallet, of course. The exchange of money for something of value.
Amazingly, many businesses forget that crucial step.
You must ask your people to take the leap and buy the thing.
For NGOs “the ask” is infused in nearly every aspect of what they do. They are con-
stantly finding creative, classy ways to compel people to give. It can be direct or subtle
or roundabout, but in one way or another, it’s the button on the conversation: Give.
Invest your money in this.
CASE STUDY: SEEDS OF PEACE
Some might say that including a call to action in an annual report is tacky - it’s an up-
date and a thanks. And we’d agree that it might not be the place for an in-your-face ask.
But you’ve got their attention, you’ve spelled out the need, and you’ve made the case
for your effectiveness. What a missed opportunity to not give a gentle nudge toward
being a part of that!
Seeds of Peace walks that line with class in their 2016 annual report. A simple “here’s
how to give” bit lets people know that their contribution would be welcomed without
coming across as tacky or desperate.
For your business, this might be as simple as listing your web address at the bottom of
a print ad, or adding a CTA button, or a “follow” at the end of each blog post or e-blast.
Be discreet, that’s fine. But don’t leave your people hanging when they’re primed
to purchase.

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ALL THIS IS TO SAY…
We know that as a savvy seller of things, you study industry trends and
read marketing books and keep a close eye on those other guys who do
what you do.
But don’t forget to take a look outside of your sector every once in a while.
And definitely pay close attention to the brilliant folks in the NGO world.
They’ve figured something out about people-keeping that the rest of us
could learn from.
Have a charity you support? Let us know what they’re
doing to keep you engaged and giving, and how you might
implement some of those strategies into your business!
Contact us at mail@bwritr.com or 41(22)5624100
View the full report: https://www.seedsofpeace.org/wp-content/up-
loads/2017/08/2016AnnualReport.pdf