What\u2019s So Terrible About Jargon, Anyway?<\/h2>\n
Every industry develops its own jargon, and it\u2019s not an inherently bad thing. We develop specialized language because it helps us communicate quickly about something everyone in the industry already understands. The problem is when professional jargon seeps into communications outside of the industry circle.<\/p>\n
Jargon Is Confusing<\/h2>\n
I\u2019m sure even astronauts have jargon. But if I, a non-astronaut, somehow ended up on the International Space Station, I really hope they wouldn\u2019t use industry shorthand to explain what I needed to do. In the same way, donors and peer-to-peer fundraisers<\/a> are rarely philanthropy professionals, and you should explain things without that specialized language.<\/p>\n Jargon can lose you money. For example, if you ask, \u201cMegan, are you interested in our matching gift program?\u201d and I think you mean, \u201cDo you personally want to match donors\u2019 gifts?\u201d I\u2019m going to tell you no, because I\u2019m only capable of matching donor gifts up to, say, $20 total. If you think of that kind of thing as a \u201cchallenge gift,\u201d and were actually asking if my employer offers a match for gifts I make, that jargon-based miscommunication means you missed out. \u201cMegan, does your employer match your charitable contributions?\u201d is clearer.<\/p>\n Fundraising jargon is so deeply woven into everything we do that it\u2019s easy to lose sight of it. Just as a reminder, here are some terms that the average person may be very fuzzy on:<\/p>\n When you use jargon to talk about fundraising, you send an \u201cus and them\u201d message. You are the all-important expert, separate from the people actually receiving your communications. You\u2019re the person who understands the mystery of fundraising, and they are the people who need your messages decoded.<\/p>\n This separation does not make for good fundraising. You want your supporters to feel like they\u2019re part of the team. Have you ever hung out with a group of people who\u2019ve developed an inside language that you don\u2019t share? It can be kind of alienating, right? Using jargon can leave supporters out of the loop in a similar way.<\/p>\n Even if your supporters don\u2019t feel alienated by your jargon, it\u2019s hard to get excited about something you\u2019re not sure you understand. It\u2019s much easier to forget, ignore, or throw away jargony messages because you don\u2019t feel connected to them.<\/p>\n Jargon is good for talking to other fundraising professionals and foundations. That\u2019s basically the limit of its usefulness–shop talk and grant proposals. It doesn\u2019t add anything valuable to your other communications.<\/p>\n As anyone with a cluttered garage can tell you, useless stuff isn\u2019t neutral. It actively takes up room you could use. Just like getting rid of the junk in your garage makes room for your car, clearing the clutter from your communications gives you space to tell your nonprofit story, make the case for support, and inspire your supporters to give. Call it the life-changing magic of tidying up.<\/p>\n Unlike so many things in fundraising, in which you have to wait to see the fruits of your labor, you can benefit from giving up jargon almost instantly. What do you get when you take it out?<\/p>\n The first benefit to using \u201cnormal\u201d language is that people are much more likely to understand what you\u2019re talking about. When people understand what you\u2019re trying to do, they are much more likely to contribute to making it happen. If I don\u2019t know what a capital campaign is, your invitation to donate to it isn\u2019t going to inspire me to give. Ask me to help you build a house, on the other hand, and I\u2019m already reaching for my checkbook.<\/p>\n The Asian American Arts Alliance<\/a> has a 35-year history of empowering artists to have agency over their own careers. In their 2017 CauseVox campaign, in which they raised more than $23,000, they used clear, jargon-free language to communicate their goals and explain their programs.<\/p>\n A million thought pieces have been written about millennials and their demand for authenticity<\/a>, but I don\u2019t think any generation has ever loved phoneys. People want to know you\u2019re for real and speaking to them in language that they \u201cget\u201d is how you show it.<\/p>\n When you use clear jargon-free language, you sound less like a fundraising robot and more like a group of humans.<\/a> People know who you are, which builds trust and loyalty.<\/p>\n I think there\u2019s a temptation for small organizations to hide behind jargon to sound bigger and more established. This is a mistake. The distance you create stops people from connecting with your actual organization, rather than the face you present.<\/p>\n The Motherhood Collective runs an annual campaign, \u201cMaternal Health Matters<\/a>.\u201d By elevating the stories of the women they serve, the organization shows their authenticity–that they are who they say they are, and do what they claim to do. They don\u2019t use language that separates the \u201cexperts\u201d from the supporters. Instead, they make the women who have benefitted from their programs the most important members of the team–no jargon needed.<\/p>\n When you clearly communicate what you\u2019re doing and what you need, and authentically demonstrate who you are, you give supporters the opportunity to truly connect with you. You become more than one organization in a sea of good causes; you stand out. Donors can then build a relationship with you,<\/a> based on their understanding and confidence in what you\u2019re doing. Jargon simply cannot deliver that.<\/p>\n To start clearing out your metaphorical garage today:<\/p>\n Clear and authentic communication connects you with your audience, deepens donor relationships, and improves fundraising–don\u2019t let jargon rob you of these benefits.<\/p>\n For more on donor communications, check out:<\/strong><\/p>\n If someone told you to, \u201cWrite a year-end appeal with two soft asks and a hard ask at the end, aimed at recurring donors, with a mention of planned giving\u201d would you know what to do? If so, congratulations! You\u2019re probably fluent (or at least conversational) in nonprofit jargon. You understand the specialized language that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":36,"featured_media":51342,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10750","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-article"],"acf":[],"featured_image_src":"https:\/\/www.causevox.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/nonprofit-jargon-600x400.jpg","featured_image_src_square":"https:\/\/www.causevox.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/nonprofit-jargon-600x600.jpg","author_info":{"display_name":"Olivia Hosey","author_link":"https:\/\/www.causevox.com\/author\/ohosey\/"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.causevox.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10750","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.causevox.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.causevox.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.causevox.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/36"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.causevox.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10750"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.causevox.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10750\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.causevox.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/51342"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.causevox.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10750"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.causevox.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10750"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.causevox.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10750"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n
Jargon Creates Distance<\/h2>\n
Jargon Doesn\u2019t Add Anything Good<\/h2>\n
The Top 3 Benefits Of Giving Up Jargon<\/h2>\n
1. Clearer Communication<\/h2>\n
![\"Show](\"https:\/\/causevox.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/Asian-American-Arts-Alliance-2.png\")
2. Greater Authenticity<\/h2>\n
![\"Authentic](\"https:\/\/causevox.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/Motherhood-Collective.png\")
3. Deeper Connections<\/h2>\n
Jargon, Be Gone!<\/h2>\n
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