On an internet exchange group recently, I followed a discussion which reminded me, anew, of one of the most obvious – and most often ignored – communications lessons nonprofits need to heed.
One of the group’s participants posted a query which included the use of an abbreviated name – let’s say it was “XYX.” She knew exactly what XYX meant, but many of those with whom she was communicating were unfamiliar with it. In a subsequent posting, she explained what the initials stood for.
There’s a small lesson in that exchange and it represents a larger issue which nonprofits have to address constantly: vocabulary.
The small lesson is that one can’t assume that the rest of the world knows the internal vocabulary and short hand which is often common inside nonprofits. The use of initials to substitute for the full name – LAHSA for Los Angeles Housing Service Authority, OMB for Office of Budget Management – happens all the time, usually among “insiders” who know from their own experience what the initials mean. The problem arises when that same shorthand is used, without explanation, for a larger audience.
This problem isn’t confined to nonprofits, of course. Doctors often try to communicate with the public using their own arcane vocabulary, leaving most mystified; lawyers are notorious for falling back on legalese even when the audience are not lawyers. In any case, the point remains – when talking to those who don’t know your vocabulary, take care to be sure those strangers can understand what you are communicating.
The larger lesson is one which nonprofits ignore or forget all the time: The audience is not as well-informed about your cause as you are.

It is one thing to use an accepted vocabulary inside the organization – among staff or board members or volunteers or members – and quite another to use that same vocabulary with the public at large.

Time and again, I’ve watched nonprofits spend hours carefully crafting a message which will be presented to the public. They work long and hard to make sure that their message satisfies everybody in the room – all insiders – but nobody asks the critical question: Will this make sense to strangers? This exercise is typically compounded when there are more than one group involved – when coalitions or alliances decided to join forces to deliver a message, they usually spend hours making sure each member of the group is content with the message but never consider those who will ultimately get the message.
There’s a very simple way to fix this problem. If your message is to be delivered to and consumed by strangers, share that message with a stranger before you distribute it. When a stranger can understand the message you want to deliver with accuracy, then, but only then, it is ready for broad distribution.
Paying careful attention to vocabulary is essential if you want to deliver the right message to the right audience – and the message will fall flat if you don’t do it.