Eating at the Buffet: Communicating Our Message
For reasons I’ll never quite understand, my parents love to celebrate special events by eating at Hometown Buffet. They look at the rows and rows of food created from recipes around the world as an opportunity to sample a little of everything. I, on the other hand, see more food than my brain or stomach can digest.
Since I began working at Giving Children Hope this past summer I’ve found myself with a parallel problem in that I use far too many words to try and explain who GCHope is and what it is that we do. My response sounded more like a Hometown Buffet menu than something I’d really like to invite others to partake with me in.
Is GCHope a disaster relief organization? Yep! Does GCHope provide life-saving medicines to medical missions around the world? Absolutely! Is it true that GCHope refurbishes medical equipment that would otherwise end up in landfills into pristine, working condition and delivers them to clinics serving the poor both locally and internationally? Of course! Doesn’t GCHope provide backpacks full of food for homeless and hungry children in Orange County? Yes!
Do you see our dilemma? While some organizations do one thing well and are able to tell their simple story in a simple way, we have a team of partners that enable us to do many things well. While we pride ourselves in our service, we’ve failed in communicating our story. In meeting with the Chamber of Commerce, other local businesses and fellow non-profits I constantly hear, “You’re the best kept secret around.” We don’t want to be the best kept secret! With this in mind GCHope has been hard at work to better define our menu message to help the community and our partners clearly understand what it is we do.
So how do we condense our vast menu into a chewable bite that introduces people to the flavor and substance of our work while not losing our customer’s interest in the never ending verbiage of a non-profit buffet menu?
After much internal discussion with the staff and with the external input of partners, as well as a few “God please help us” moments, we have narrowed down our message to the following: Bringing Health to Kids in Crisis
Before you object that your favorite dish was left off of the menu take a minute to look over our tagline again and I believe you’ll find that it’s still there only in a smaller more manageable portion, but none the less tasty.
So join with us in getting the word out about the best kept secret in Orange County: Giving Children Hope. – Sean
Sean Lawrence
Nonprofit Partner Manager
Giving Children Hope
Eating at the Buffet: Communicating Our Message
For reasons I’ll never quite understand, my parents love to celebrate special events by eating at Hometown Buffet. They look at the rows and rows of food created from recipes around the world as an opportunity to sample a little of everything. I, on the other hand, see more food than my brain or stomach can digest.
Since I began working at Giving Children Hope this past summer I’ve found myself with a parallel problem in that I use far too many words to try and explain who GCHope is and what it is that we do. My response sounded more like a Hometown Buffet menu than something I’d really like to invite others to partake with me in.
Is GCHope a disaster relief organization? Yep! Does GCHope provide life-saving medicines to medical missions around the world? Absolutely! Is it true that GCHope refurbishes medical equipment that would otherwise end up in landfills into pristine, working condition and delivers them to clinics serving the poor both locally and internationally? Of course! Doesn’t GCHope provide backpacks full of food for homeless and hungry children in Orange County? Yes!
Do you see our dilemma? While some organizations do one thing well and are able to tell their simple story in a simple way, we have a team of partners that enable us to do many things well. While we pride ourselves in our service, we’ve failed in communicating our story. In meeting with the Chamber of Commerce, other local businesses and fellow non-profits I constantly hear, “You’re the best kept secret around.” We don’t want to be the best kept secret! With this in mind GCHope has been hard at work to better define our menu message to help the community and our partners clearly understand what it is we do.
So how do we condense our vast menu into a chewable bite that introduces people to the flavor and substance of our work while not losing our customer’s interest in the never ending verbiage of a non-profit buffet menu?
After much internal discussion with the staff and with the external input of partners, as well as a few “God please help us” moments, we have narrowed down our message to the following: Bringing Health to Kids in Crisis
Before you object that your favorite dish was left off of the menu take a minute to look over our tagline again and I believe you’ll find that it’s still there only in a smaller more manageable portion, but none the less tasty.
So join with us in getting the word out about the best kept secret in Orange County: Giving Children Hope. – Sean
Sean Lawrence
Nonprofit Partner Manager
Giving Children Hope
