Can Everyone in Your Organization Give a Great Elevator Pitch?

Can your staff, volunteers and board members give a great elevator pitch about your organization in 30 seconds or less? If not, you are missing out on a chance to empower your ambassadors, increase awareness and bring in new friends, members and possibly donors!

Here is a formula to consider:

Sentence 1: Who your organization is and why you exist e.g. your mission, what problem you are solving for

Sentence 2: Who you serve e.g. who benefits, who are your customers

Sentence 3: How you serve them e.g. programs, services, products, intangibles etc.

The best way to craft an elevator pitch is to brainstorm key words that are essential to describing your work. Now ask yourself if they are really appropriate for a first, brief introduction. Nothing controversial, too detailed or that requires explanation should be used. Next take a stab at writing your elevator pitch. In pairs or as a group, practice your pitch. Record yourself giving the pitch and study the recording. Refine your pitch over the next few days or week. Write your final pitch and laminate your copy. Keep it in your computer bag, car or pocket. Now go out and use it! Hint: To get more opportunities to use your pitch, wear swag with your organization’s name or logo!

As you get more comfortable with your elevator pitch, you can experiment with modifying sentence 3 to be more tailored to the person on the elevator. If your organization has a broad array of programs and the person on the elevator is a young mom, you want to describe kids’ programs. If it is an older man, you want to describe offerings for his demographic etc.

Remember that after you make your pitch, if the person seems interested, you want to have a call to action or possible next step ready. How they can get more information? Maybe you offer them your card or you ask them if they would like to receive some more information and you take their card or email address. If you have an invitation for an upcoming event, consider handing it out. You want to be ready in case you get someone who is interested in learning more.

Elevator pitches sound simple but putting together just the right one takes time. Don’t delay. Get crafting!