In my consulting work, I spend a lot of time on storytelling. If you want to figure out a strategy forward, it helps to agree on who you are and what you do now...and getting stakeholders to tell their personal and institutional narrative is a great start towards that agreement.
One of the things I frequently do after getting a bunch of people to write down answers to a few questions (nothing particularly complex - things like "how would you describe your organization to a friend?" and "what are the values of your organization in 140 characters or less") is run those answers through Wordle.
People think it's magic.
I feel conflicted about damaging my mystique here, but I'm sharing this little tip because it turns out that a lot of my former clients are taking this brilliant (FREE) web tool and using it to make graphics for various communications, from printed material to social media.
Check it out. www.wordle.net
Simply enter a bunch of text (survey answers are super handy if you've recently asked relevant questions, or you can feed in your last couple of development pieces - case statements are great for this), tweak your colors, and voila - a free graphic that reflects language you use when talking about yourself or your mission.
Also...what if you don't identify with what comes out when you pop in your development narratives? You might want to use that as the starter for a serious conversation about a disconnect between your organizational identity and your fundraising strategy!
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