PUT THE POWER IN HER HANDSA Toolkit for Communication on Reproductive Health, Rights, and Justice

Women’s funds and nonprofit organizations are doing important work in reproductive health, rights and justice (RH/RR/RJ). To fulfill their missions, they need to make an effective case to funders and donors. With so many issues competing for every dollar your message matters. With that in mind, we have created this toolkit designed to help your organization deter-mine your key messages and craft your narrative. In 2010, the Women’s Funding Network (WFN) with support from Campbell & Company and consultants in Europe and Africa sought to determine what would persuade more major donors to give to organizations working on RH/RR/RJ. This toolkit is grounded in research from the target audience of 90 current and potential donors in the U.S., Africa and Europe.

THIS TOOLKIT

TIPS & TRICKS

Throughout this toolkit, look to this right hand bar for important Tips & Tricks, examples and guidance that you can use to implement this messaging toolkit.

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The toolkit is intended to help cultivate funding from major donors if you are a:

• Women’s fund;• Donor interested in advancing women;• An NGO working in the field of reproductive health, rights

and justice.

The toolkit was written to be adaptable for funds and organizations working in local, national and global contexts in:

• U.S.• Europe • Africa

YOUR GUIDE

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Crafting a Message

• Your Message Matters• How to Use Messages• Why These Messages

Share Your Story

• Crafting Your Narrative• Message vs. Narrative• Problems and Barriers• Shared Values• The Language• The Solution• The Impact• The Ask

TABLE OF CONTENTS

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CRAFTING A MESSAGEWhat is a message and how do we use it?

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Messages are a way for you to:

• Frame your work through values• Engage hearts and minds• Tell people a story• Share both challenges and solutions

Compelling messages follow Head, Heart, Ask:

• Head: use common sense supported by data.• Heart: tell stories with emotional content.• Ask: for funding, for leadership, for support.

YOUR MESSAGE MATTERS

TIPS & TRICKS:To tailor your organization’s messages, interview your stakeholders, staff and donors to incorporate their vision.

Asking their opinion will help strengthen your case and increase the likelihood they will agree with and share your messages.

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Tap into shared cultural values. Some values can vary culture to culture. What may be a key cultural value in Europe such as individual expression, may not resonate with an audience in Asia. However, there are many values shared across cultures, such as education and caring for family. Use shared values to anchor your messages and connect with listeners’ emotional core.

• Examples: respect, self-determination, empowerment, etc.

Consistently repeat your messages and pepper them into all your communications.

• Messages used on your website should parallel messages used in your elevator pitch and social media and so on.

Always remember to include your call to action.

• Tell donors what you need them to do. For example: Visit our website, donate, support our mission.

HOW TO USE MESSAGES

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DO’S & DONT’SMessages Do• Inspire interest• Invite people in• Make a connection• Gear up for more

information later

Messages Don’t • Explain a process• Take the place of an

accurate description• Convey complicated ideas• Use jargon

The current framework is limiting. Taken as a whole, reproduc-tive health, rights and justice (RH/RR/RJ) can be very broad, overwhelming and politically divisive. While these phrases conjures up many things for many people, most people’s first reaction is to think of “choice,” which can be unhelpful.

Bring the issue to life. Donors want statistics and real-life stories and to make the issue more tangible.

Less “sky is falling,” more solutions. Donors want solutions and positive language. They do not want to be overwhelmed by seemingly insurmountable challenges.

Make the connections explicit, not implied. Donors want to see how RH/RR/RJ affect women throughout their lives. Connecting to issues such as health, family and education is motivating. Doing so also broadens the conversation beyond limiting and polarizing topics like abortion.

WHY USE THESE MESSAGES?

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SHARE YOUR STORYBuilding and sharing a narrative that will resonate with your audience.

What is a narrative...

Your narrative is your story. It is the foundation for your content, whether that content is an fundraising appeal or an elevator pitch to a stranger at a conference. You should ad-just your narrative based on your focus, the audience you are speaking with and the appeal you are making.

A narrative should:

• Demonstrate your challenges or barriers• Speak to your audiences’ shared values• Include proven and effective language• Connect your cause to a solution• Highlight the of the impact of your work• End with a call-to-action

CRAFTING YOUR NARRATIVE

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Before crafting your narrative, it’s important to understand the difference between a message and a narrative.

A message…

Is a short, simple idea that helps to communicate your point and, when combined with other messages, forms a narrative.

A narrative…

Is your story. A combination of several key messages, tailored for the person you are speaking to, a narrative is the story that drives your organization’s mission.

MESSAGE vs. NARRATIVE

YOUR GUIDECrafting a Message

• How to use messages• Why these messages

Share Your Message

• Shared Values• Problem and Barriers• Frame the Solution• Describe the Impact• Make your Call to

Action

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There are multiple challenges facing women in the space of RH/RR/RJ and many barriers to raising money to helping fight those problems.

Every organization will have their own specific challenges and barriers, and sharing those with potential supporters is important. However, remember not to dwell on the negative, rather pivot the conversation towards the positive work your organization is doing.

DEMONSTRATE CHALLENGES & BARRIERS

EXAMPLE:Barrier: Across the world, women are struggling to gain access to the resources and tools they need to become their own health advocates.

Reframe: Opportunities for women are opening up as organizations like ours work to educate and em-power women and girls.

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• Values are the foundation of our beliefs. • Values connect the heart to the head, bringing emotional

content to decision making. • Facts and arguments that support our values can per-

suade us to take action.

While some cultural values vary depending on the region, shared values across all cultures include:

• The importance of health• Caring for family• The value of education

SHARED VALUES

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EXAMPLES:

Below are a few examples of shared values your organization can use to be effective in framing support.

• Knowledge• Access• Options• Community • Families

PHRASES

“Every woman…”: It can be a challenge to start a conversation on RH/RR/RJ without jargon. Open that door by acknowledg-ing the shared experiences using the phrase “every woman.”

“Ripple effects”: This phrase makes the bridge right away between reproductive issues and other important social (and funding) priorities.

“Self-determination”: Ensuring that every woman has the abil-ity to make decisions for herself, her family, and community.

“In a vacuum...”: To discuss the many influences in a woman’s life and the social forces she is challenged by helps to underscore that no woman makes a decision “in a vacuum.”

EFFECTIVE LANGUAGE FROM FOCUS GROUPS

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ADVANCE & AVOID

TIPS & TRICKS:

It’s very important to explain challenges without overwhelming your audience. We need to balance the urgency with constructive arguments.

Use this sheet for quick tips on what to “Advance” and what to “Avoid.”

Advance

• Short, relatable language

• Optimism

• Solution-based language

• Empowerment & agency

• Being part of a community

• Culture is fluid

• Immediate action

• Demonstrate impact and outcomes

Avoid

• Jargon

• Fear-based language

• Assigning any blame

• Women as victims

• Women in isolation

• Culture is fixed

• Change in the future

• All inputs without out-comes

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An effective overarching mantra for your narrative is:

“Put the power in her hands”

RATIONALE

• RH/RR/RJ work generates many positive results, but the unifying outcome is women and girls’ empowerment.

• Your work is about ensuring women’s self-determination. It involves creating an environment that makes it possible for her to flex her power and make decisions for herself, her family and her community.

• “Put the power in her hands” also has a double-meaning; it’s about empowering donors to become leaders and ac-tivists in the areas they support and invest in.

HIGHLIGHT YOUR WORK AS THE SOLUTION

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We believe every woman and girl should have:

•Power of Mind

•Power in Hand

•Power to Make Her Path

•Power to Change Her World

CORE MESSAGES

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Power of Mind

Information and knowledge so she can make the right decisions for her health, her

family and her future.

FRAME THE SOLUTION

EXAMPLES:

Education, and particuarly health education, can empower a woman to ask the questions that they need answered and make decisions about her and her family’s health.

The more information women have about their health, the more informed decisions they can make.

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Power in Hand

Access to the services that will keep her and her family healthy and strong.

FRAME THE SOLUTION

EXAMPLES:

Providing affordable and available medical care is critical to ensuring women are able to make their own decisions about their medical treatment, with-out intervening factors.

Access to medical services on a regular basis will prevent small, treatable medical issues from growing into larger, chronic problems. Provide women that access and their community will see a decrease in the number of serious preventable medical issues.

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Power to Make Her Path

Options and the freedom to act on her convictions.

FRAME THE SOLUTION

EXAMPLES:

Together we can empow-er women and girls to find their own voice and assert their right to make decisions about their own body.

We will not be limited by cultural or social barriers, rather we will encourage women to confront those challenges and embrace their right to make their own decisions.

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Power to Change Her World

The training, tools and resources to empower her to make a broader impact in

her community, for her community.

FRAME THE SOLUTION

EXAMPLES:

Through our small loan program, women and girls receive the education and financial support they need to become business leaders in their own community.

Our health center is providing the knowledge and the training for women and girls to not only make informed decisions about their own health, but become advocates and resources for their entire community.

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When donors are considering making a gift, they need to be convinced that their dollars are going to an organization or network that will create the largest possible impact.

DESCRIBE THE IMPACT

EXAMPLES:

Tell stories that link donors’ actions to impacts that enable women to improve their wellbeing, care for their families and realize their goals.

“Your donation can help…• Make a difference in a

woman’s life – at each stage of her life.

• Create opportunities for women and girls to go to school and invest in their livelihoods and futures.

• Ensure that RH services are not a privilege, but a reality for the over 10,000 women our program serves.

Whenever possi-ble provide hard data or infograph-ics to demonstrate your impact.

In messaging, it’s imperative to communicate the Return on Invest-ment (ROI). A mix of data and anecdotal evidence works.

Sample for demonstration purpose:

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Make the donors or funders an active part of the solution.

Examples:

Your support will ensure…

• giving birth is no longer a common cause of death worldwide.

• women of color have the resources to make lasting, positive change in their communities.

• we can address violence against women as part of the RH equation.

IMPACT STATEMENTS

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Making the call to action is the most important element of your message - but it is often excluded.

• Lead with the conviction that change can happen now.

• Position their support as part of the solution by describ-ing the impact their gift can have.

• Speak to transforming individual lives and also broader societal change.

• Highlight connections to issues such as health, family and education, which are motivators and help align RH/RR/RJ to other funding priorities.

MAKE THE ASK

TIPS & TRICKS:

Making the call to action can, for some people, feel uncomfortable.

It’s important to remember that these potential supporters are:

• Compelled by RH/RR/RJ;

• Invested in the future of their community;

• Interested in how they can get involved.

Your call to action isn’t a nuisance. It’s an opportu-nity for someone to act. Be bold.

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“Did you know that out of every 100 women giving birth, 30 never live to hear the first cry of their baby?

The result of this is 1/3 of newborns growing up without their mothers. One death is too many. Thirty is unacceptable, and it has a direct impact on entire families and communities on many levels.

One mobile clinic would create access that would significantly reduce the rate of mothers dying by 50%. Your investment in a mobile clinic is the solution. It will help save mothers’ lives, and ensure that their children will have a healthy start in life, which includes an education, improved health, and a strong family.”

EXAMPLE: A VALUE-BASED NARRATIVE

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• Use the messages

• Trust the research

• Find the voice to represent your organization

• Get and stay on message

• Have the patience to repeat yourself

• Keep it up!

REMEMBER: MESSAGES WORK IF YOU USE THEM

MORE INFORMATION

Visit:www.womensfundingnetwork.org

Contact:NameEmailTelephone

Updated April 2014

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