Answer two questions you cannot answer from the inside: how do outsiders actually receive you, and is your core problem that people have heard of you but do not understand you, or that they have never heard of you at all? Those two need opposite fixes.
After you have a named finding, before you write your plan.
Ask three or four people outside your organization, separately. Pick a lapsed donor, a community member, and someone who should know you but may not. Record each one.
| Person | What they think you do | Why it matters, in their words | Heard of you? Yes / Vaguely / No |
|---|---|---|---|
Compare what they said to what you believe you say. Where the honest answer is worse or blanker than you expected, trust the honest answer, not your hopes. The gap between what you think you communicate and what outsiders actually receive is the real size of your problem.
If people have heard of you but describe you wrongly or vaguely, your core problem is being misunderstood: a message problem, and clarity comes first. If people have simply never heard of you, your core problem is being unknown: an awareness problem, and you need to get seen. If both, clarify the message first, then get seen, because spreading a muddled message just multiplies the misunderstanding. This feeds the Prioritized Communication Plan.
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