Donor Tools

Last Sunday at our church we listened to a presentation by Sandra Staudt-Killea, Board Chairman of Waste Not Want Not. Normally these presentations are given right before church is dismissed, so you can imagine how much attention they get.

But Sandra’s presentation immediately grabbed my attention. It was one of the best examples that I’ve heard in a long time of a compelling, understandable message with a crystal-clear call to action.

Here’s what she said:

¼ of all the food in this country is thrown away unsold every year. While more and more people are struggling to put food on the table, 31 Billion dollars worth of food is moved directly from store shelves into the dumpster every year.

We, at Waste Not, believe that this is wrong!  So for 20 years we have been rescuing  food by persuading restaurants and stores to donate unmarketable, but still wholesome food to us rather than throwing it away.

Between 10 am yesterday and 10 am today, Waste Not volunteers rescued 2852 loaves of sliced bread, 1614 packages of hotdog and hamburger buns, 727 sweet bakery items, 922 unsliced items like bagels, French bread, rolls, 150 pounds of fruit, 50 pounds of meat and 82 pounds of canned goods, for a total of 6400 pounds of food.

By noon it was all gone.  More than 2000 families will have more food this week as a result of what Waste Not volunteers accomplished in one day.  And we rescue food 362 days a year.

You can help us reach our goal of rescuing 1 million pounds this year. We make over 80 rescues a week. You could help pick up food. We sort and distribute food every morning Mon-Sat, you could help with that. When you grocery shop, ask for paper…. We use more than 3000 bags a week to package the food we rescue.

I noticed a couple of things:

1. I immediately connected with the things she said. The statistics that she mentioned were how many pounds of food were rescued yesterday. It’s one thing to hear that 50 bazillion pounds of food is wasted every day, but the human mind has trouble grasping huge numbers. Also, saying this focuses on the problem, not the solution. Instead, Sandra listed of a litany of numbers that I could connect with: 2852 loaves of sliced bread, 50 pounds of meat, etc. It’s much easier for me to connect with these numbers – they’re big enough to be impressive, but manageable and understandable, and they grabbed my attention right off the bat.
2. The problem and the solution are clearly articulated. “We, at Waste Not, believe that this [wasting of food] is wrong!” Wasting food is wrong. Period. Now, on to the solution, which is to rescue it.
3. There’s a success story. They rescued all this food yesterday, and “by noon it was all gone.” Wow, so what they do is really effective. I know that if I volunteer my valuable time for this organization, my time will be well spent, and I’ll be able to see the results as I drive away.
4. There’s a clear call to action. Volunteer, help rescue food, help sort food, and ask for paper instead of plastic when you shop so that you can donate your paper bags to help package all this food. They need your help, and there is no grey area about how you can help.

I was so touched by this message that I signed up to volunteer; I’m looking forward to bringing the kids along with me to pick up some food in our family Suburban.

What about your organization? How do you connect with your constituents? Do you have a clearly articulated problem and solution? A success story? A call to action? If you’re proud of yours, let’s hear about it! If yours needs some work, take this opportunity to feel inspired, and work on it now! Ask for help, get feedback. You can post here in the comments, or start a discussion with our little community over on our Facebook fan page.

And have a look at Waste Not Want Not. They’ll surely get you inspired.