How to brief an outreach team on your cause

This is not a formality. Under state charitable solicitation law, contracts with a professional fundraiser commonly have to state that the charity controls and approves the content, volume and frequency of the solicitation, according to the law firm Perlman & Perlman. What your partner says about you is legally your call.

What a brief needs

The briefs that work are specific. They cover:

Your programs, in plain words

What you do, who you serve, and where. Not the mission statement: the work. A representative who can describe one program clearly will do better than one who has memorised a slogan.

What a gift pays for

What $10 or $25 a month actually funds. If you cannot tie a gift to something concrete, say so, and we will describe it as general support rather than invent a number.

What you will not claim

The lines you do not want crossed: results you cannot evidence, comparisons to other organizations, anything political. The Association of Fundraising Professionals' Code of Ethical Standards asks fundraisers to describe programs without misrepresentation and to keep all fundraising communications accurate. A brief that says what is off the table makes that easy to follow.

The questions you already get

Your team has heard them for years: where does the money go, how much goes to overhead, why now. Give us your answers rather than letting twenty people invent their own.

What we do with it

Every representative is trained and briefed on your cause before they speak for it, with ongoing coaching in your mission, compliance and conversation skills. If we hear a question in the field that the brief does not answer, we bring it back to you rather than guess.