Thursday January 23- Your BHAG

Hi !

📰 The Boxscore: TL;DR version

Too many nonprofits are focused on today and immediate needs. But if you want to grow, you’ve got to think bigger.

Organizations should set:

• Short term goals for 2025

• Long term goals for the next 3-5 years

• A stretch goal meant to look far into the future and reach a goal that would vastly improve the community

See the second base section for more about this week’s pain point.

🍕 Pregame warmup: The price is high

⛰️ First base: The 40 year wait is finally over

Last week I purchased something I had wanted for 40 years.

Literally.

What I bought doesn’t matter. What does matter is that I had a goal that seemed almost unattainable but I kept reaching for it.

Something always got in the way. I couldn’t afford it. I could possibly afford it but I had other expenses. It wasn’t the right time.

Until last week. I cannot begin to describe my joy at finally owning something I had waited four decades to own.

In our sector, short term goals shouldn’t contradict long term goals. They can coexist.

Unfortunately, many nonprofits are so focused on TODAY and RIGHT NOW that they can’t think or plan for the future. Not 2025 or 2030 or 2050.

That’s how you stop your organization from growing.

But what if you had a stretch goal- something that may seem impossible to reach but it’s still worth discussing because if you get close to accomplishing it, you’ve done a lot? And if you do reach the goal, even if it takes four decades…

Let’s dive into this week’s pain point and discuss your gap and BHAG.

🎯 Second base: Do you have a BHAG?

I’m an idiot. I forgot to screenshot. 🤦‍♂️ 

A bunch of years ago I came across a nonprofit website whose hero image (the upper banner) included a countdown clock.

Their mission was to cure X by 2030. What would happen then? They would SHUT DOWN OPERATIONS because they had accomplished their mission.

The clock showed people how much time- years, months, days, hours, minutes, seconds- was left to hit the goal.

That my friends is a BHAG- a Big Hairy Audacious Goal. And I believe every nonprofit should have one.

Unfortunately, this is a pain point I am constantly running into. A lack of goals, a lack of long-term vision and an inability to think beyond tomorrow. That’s a recipe for stagnation, staying put and not moving forward towards thrival.

Let’s talk about goals for a minute:

• Short term: What you’d like to accomplish in 2025. Break it down into quarters and months. Every employee and Board member should already have a copy of the year’s targets, including the vision and reasoning that led to setting those goals for this year, plus how you’ll reach those goals.

• Long term: Goals your organization has decided to aim for, let’s say by 2030. You break down those goals by year so you can visualize and experience growth year after year. Imagine how that could inspire staff, volunteers AND your supporters!

• BHAG: Dream baby, dream!

Last week I discussed the “What If” game. Here’s another: What if you thought BIG? What if you dreamed? What if you had a goal that seemed far away and unattainable right now but you created a roadmap to try and get there?

Let’s say you have a BHAG in mind. How do you plan for it? Start with “the gap” (thank you Robert Sheehan!) which can be outlined in three steps:

1. Current condition: Describe the current state of the persons/places/things for who/which you want to make a difference.

2. Ideal condition: Describe their condition in an ideal world.

3. Mission gap: Difference between the current reality and the ideal condition. That’s the gap your nonprofit commits itself to closing.

For example:

• Current Condition: In Milwaukee, 10% of all adults, age 18 and older, are homeless.

• Ideal Condition: All adults in Milwaukee, age 18 and older, have a home.

• Mission Gap: With 500,000 adults, age 18 and older, living in Milwaukee, the Mission Gap is 50,000 adults.

Once you know the gap, you start working on your BHAG to close the gap as much as possible. (It may not be something that is 100% solvable but what about 20%? 35%? 50%?)

Not only do you have short and long-term goals to present to supporters but now you have a BHAG. From today you’re in GROWTH mode to help a lot more people, lessen poverty, better test scores at school etc.

Start rallying your audience around that BHAG. Challenge them to join you in hitting the goal or getting as close as you can. Help them visualize what their community would look like if you accomplished your BHAG. (Project 2035: 40% fewer homeless adults in Milwaukee! 20,000 more people with a permanent roof over their head!)

There are immediate needs which must be dealt with. But people want to see you have a plan for growth and making their community exponentially better, with many many more people impacted positively.

Too many nonprofits shy away from long-term goals and BHAG’s. Too focused and worried about the here and now.

But if you want to grow and thrive, you have to look not just at what’s in front of you but far off into the distance.

⚾️ I don’t know. Third base! A little of this and that

Here’s some great content for you to learn from:

1. Four strategies to boost midlevel giving (Nonprofit Pro)

2. Language and tone matter (Amy Eisenstein)

3. Readability and your appeals- this is a big deal! (Moceanic)

🖥️ Home: How to get back

In this section I’ll share with you examples of what to do and what not to do. This week’s example is a bigtime yes.

Your website is your window to the world. People visit to learn more about your organization, who you help, your impact and much more.

But imagine if they arrived on a website page that doesn’t exist! Frustrating. Might make them consider leaving your site.

Which is why your 404 error page is so important. You wanna keep people on your site and provide them a link back to the homepage or a couple of links to certain pages on your site.

When designing your 404 page consider adding humor (I love the above example!). People are frustrated they landed on a page that doesn’t exist. Relieve that stress with humor- a funny image or graphic, meme, GIF or joke. Make them smile. Put them back in the mood to want to keep browsing your site.

🥶 Postgame: Ice ice baby

A couple of weeks ago the Lawrence, Kansas police department tweeted out a short thread about driving under icy conditions. Here’s how they started:

The tweets were both informative and humorous.

There are different ways to engage your audience on social media. One of the best is humor. It catches people’s attention and they want more which increases chances they’ll read all the tweets in the thread (and future posts).

Be helpful and make people laugh? Winning combo.

I’ll be back next Thursday. Have a great weekend!

P.S. I listened to The Cure’s “Friday I’m in Love” on an endless loop while working on the enews. Always look forward to the weekend!