Elevating Nonprofit Storytelling: Deborah Evans and Luminate Communications

Tasha: Good morning. Can you please introduce yourself and tell us a little bit about your nonprofit origin story?

Deborah: , I’m Deborah Evans. I run a communications agency called Luminate Communications. My nonprofit origin story actually started, I worked at one of the larger nonprofits in the country in the communications department.

Deborah: So I really learned how the big machine works. So when I ventured out on my own, I took that big machine mentality and applied it to the smaller organizations, the ones that don’t have that big machine to make their engine run, but still need their engine to run.

Deborah: They don’t have the internal resources to make that engine run themselves all the time. So I Support them with their communications efforts so they can still get their message heard and still be heard in the space, but my nonprofit origin story actually goes back even further than that.

Deborah: Before I worked in the nonprofit world, I started out as a journalist. I worked full time as a reporter for five or six years out of university. I studied journalism in school. That’s all I wanted to be was a reporter. And I was a general assignment reporter. And one of the things I learned out of that was, other than having to tell a story very quickly, was how to tell a really good story.

Deborah: You have to, in newspaper reporting, you have to be able to tell a story to help the audience. And engage with them and while sharing all the necessary information. So flash forward to today, I use that same strategy and skills for nonprofits. Tell a really good story to hook the audience.

Tasha: I think I was just talking with another Hive member yesterday about how communications and marketing, A, get lumped together in most nonprofits under a marketing branch, but there’s a lot of nuances there and it covers so many pieces when you say the word communications.

Deborah: Absolutely. We support nonprofits with all forms of communication and you’re right.

Deborah: It covers so many pieces. It’s everything from social media posts to simple things like blogs, which are not so simple, but seems simple. Newsletters. Impact reports, annual reports and everything in between, really. It’s all about communicating with the donor. It’s not about, communications is not about asking for money, although sometimes it’s in there.

Deborah: There’s a soft ask in there, but it’s about sharing the impact of the money that was raised with the donor. It’s communicating that impact so that the donor is more likely to want to give again because they see how their money was spent the first time.

Tasha: And communications is a beautiful place to build relationships, right?

Tasha: Fundraising seems like it’s the house of relationship building within nonprofit, but communications. Builds, maintains, encourages that relationship.

Deborah: Absolutely, Tasha. You’re right. Fundraising is the way forward, every non profit cannot carry on without fundraising.

Deborah: But the donor doesn’t always want to be asked for money. They don’t want to be asked for money in May and then asked for money in July and then asked for money again, the holidays even though that’s what you’re, you may do they want to hear from you. They want to feel like they have a relationship from you, with you.

Deborah: They want to feel like they have a relationship with you that isn’t. Only transactional. And that is solved with communications by showcasing impact through communications. It builds that relationship that isn’t just transactional.

Tasha: Love it. And your favorite part of working in this beautiful sector?

Deborah: My favorite part that’s a really tough question. I said that what I bring to the table is storytelling and the ability to showcase impact. And in a way that is my favorite part because I love telling stories. I think we all gain so much insight from. reading a good story, telling a good story, whichever end of it you’re on because it really, it, it humanizes the work, the, our non profits, they’re working so hard.

Deborah: They’re trying to do so much with so little. And, Sometimes it’s very easy to forget the real humans behind the work, the real humans that are being supported by whatever the work is and just telling their, that one person’s story can. Showcase the entire efforts of an entire effort an entire organization through one person And I just I love doing that.

Deborah: I love hearing people’s stories you know when we interview them and I love being able to write their stories and Really, showcase that power to the world.

Tasha: Yeah, I think within non profit It’s people who really like people do you know what I mean? overall, it’s people who enjoy peopling people who want to help and You Showcasing the why for any human, and that’s my favorite thing to do.

Tasha: And whether I’m at a conference or a coffee shop, or I’m that annoying gal at a startup beers event going, why did you do this? Right? I love that question of why and the storytelling piece. And I think in nonprofit, we’re often not great at figuring out. Storytelling for both our clients and obviously there’s the whole ethical storytelling piece that has really come to light and I think it’s actually scared off a lot of nonprofits are worried they’re not doing it right.

Tasha: So they’re avoiding it, right? The storytelling piece because they’re concerned about not doing it correctly. But stories of in house people who do the work and why they got started. I love founders stories is one of my. One of my favorite things to grab.

Deborah: Absolutely. And you’re right. My favorite word when doing an interview is why, you ask somebody a question and they give you an answer and you follow that question up with why, right?

Deborah: Why are you giving me this answer, right? Why does this matter? Because that’s where the answer actually is. It’s not in the answer. It’s not always in the answer to the first question, suddenly you ask them why, and they go, Oh, well. Because this, right? And suddenly that’s your answer. And you know what you said about storytelling, founder stories and things like that.

Deborah: You’re right. There is a lot of concern about ethical storytelling. And while we still do tell stories of, people supported by, Sometimes the best way to tell a story is through the eyes of the staff. So a great way around ethical concerns or even privacy concerns, things like that.

Deborah: Some of our, some of the clients we work with it’s hard to get stories because of the people they support. And we’ll tell a story through a staff member. So, the staff member of. such and such support program, we’ll talk about, well, the, this woman who came in and, I, we did this, and this, not giving enough information to give away their life, but enough information so that the reader can understand, what that program does.

Deborah: And how it really helped people

Tasha: love that and challenges. I mean, we already kind of started to talk into the challenges, but what are some of the challenges you experience as an agency, as someone who’s supporting nonprofits or someone who’s been in house before? What do you see are some of the biggest challenges in the sector?

Deborah: I mean, the biggest challenge is this. There are so many challenges in the sector. Let’s be honest here,

Tasha: you

Deborah: know, and I could go on and on about that, but if I’m going to focus in on communications, because that’s where I am You touched on it at the beginning where you said that marketing and communications are often lumped into one and they’re not the same.

Deborah: And the, so sometimes marketing and communications is lumped into one, sometimes it’s lumped into none. Yeah. If you know what I mean. And marketing and communications is lumped into the role of, head of fundraising or it’s lumped into the role of executive director. And what happens is.

Deborah: communications falls to the side, falls to the side of the desk, it falls off to the desk. And that’s, that’s a big challenge because we already, we talked about how communications and building relationships is so important. And if you don’t have time to build relationships, it’s, you don’t, if you don’t have time to build relationships, It’s going to down the road affect your fundraising efforts.

Deborah: But if you don’t have the internal resources to dedicate the time to build the relationships. It becomes a vicious cycle.

Tasha: And I think very similarly, like marketing and communications, there is a long, it’s a long term plan, right? It’s not most of the time on social media, we’re not going to see a return on investment in a month, probably three months is even maybe like you can see signs within that timeframe.

Tasha: And I understand that’s, that can be really challenging to accept that. It takes time and time seems like the thing that most nonprofits feel the most stressed out about, so are we putting in time, manpower, potentially money to something that we don’t know what the return is that’s really hard to justify sometimes, but it’s so critical.

Tasha: I, I think. A lot of nonprofits marketing right now is an afterthought. It doesn’t have a seat at the table in board discussions, in really strategic planning, it kind of comes in last or when the money comes, we’ll start talking about this without realizing that. It’s very closely tied to your success for fundraising, but sometimes your success as an overall organization and that brand awareness component, brand awareness doesn’t show up in, in a week when you decide to all of a sudden start doing some more communications, unfortunately.

Deborah: It’s, like I said before, they don’t, your donor doesn’t always want to be asked for money. And that’s, as you said, that’s where the brand awareness comes in. Right. Right? Because if you’re raising, if you’re showcasing impact and brand awareness throughout the year, the fundraising ask is easier.

Tasha: Absolutely. And so question, peer support, whether it is in your consulting work now, when you were working in house, like how does peer support factor into your ongoing success in this sector?

Deborah: I think peer support is all about connection. One of the reasons I love the non profit Hive is because of the connection it creates for people.

Deborah: It’s very easy, whether you’re in house, in a big team, in a small team, in a team of one, or whether you’re a consultant like myself, it’s very easy to end up in a silo. And we need that support from each other. Especially if you’re in house. It’s very easy to think in your own silo and, be in a way, be competing with everybody else, competing with all the other nonprofits because in a way you are, you’re all competing for the same donor dollars, but in the other way, you’re not.

Deborah: You can learn from each other. You can benefit from each other’s insights and from each other’s experiences. And. You’re not competing for the exact same donor dollar because a donor who supports one organization may not support another one. Anyway, yeah you’re competing to be heard, but you can learn from each other’s experiences.

Deborah: So that support from each other is so great. And then from a consultant point of view it’s really about connection. I feel like I work in a silo sometimes, even though I work with dozens of nonprofits, it’s, I’m taking the support from my clients in a way.

Tasha: I think you touched on something really critical and this is partly why I very rarely put two people from the same city that are in nonprofit.

Tasha: Less concerned about, anytime we do a board member volunteer consultant Matt or, but the 2 nonprofit professionals from the same city. I rarely put them in the same conversation unless their missions are, like. On totally opposite ends of the spectrum, but part of that is, I find there is sometimes that, deep seated fear of competition and whether, we’re revealing something that might give away our secret sauce here and what’s working, which is unfortunate, but it’s easier to recognize that’s a barrier and go, Oh, I’m going to put this person from Toronto in a great chat with someone in Seattle because they, the competition immediately goes down to almost nothing.

Tasha: And everyone instead just opens up and says so much more than they would when there’s that perceived competition. Yeah, and then they’re actually able to share and learn from each other and get that peer support that they need. I eventually, maybe, everyone will let go of this belief of competition or the belief that donor dollars can’t increase because they absolutely can and what does that look like?

Tasha: But, I think the reality of nonprofit right now is. Competition feels very prevalent and community feels very low right now. And so just trying to move the needle like this much to make it a little bit easier and maybe it’ll crack open some space for opportunities within a single city to find more collaboration.

Deborah: And there’s always opportunities for collaboration, in my opinion, even between nonprofits that do similar work, because there’s room for everybody in the space, and there’s a need for everybody in the space.

Tasha: I see opportunities for complimentary work.

Tasha: And, every time someone asks me for details on how to set up a nonprofit, I’m very much I know somebody you should go and help them because they, I can guarantee you, they need the help, right. And to get started. And this is so much work, right. It’s such a, It’s such a incredible thing to want to start a nonprofit, such an incredible passion that requires it, but it also is an incredible amount of work.

Tasha: And without that peer support or planning or it’s it, most nonprofits fail. I thought it was like within the first five years, 80 percent of nonprofits don’t end up surviving. So always go and find your people who are probably already doing something incredible. They likely need your help and your passion and your drive for this.

Tasha: So last question,

Tasha: what have you gotten out of being a member of the nonprofit hive?

Deborah: It goes back to your last question. Connection. As a consultant, I really do feel like I work in a silo. And it is. It’s amazing to be able to connect with people every week, other consultants or professionals, and just be like, Hey, you have the same problem too.

Deborah: This is amazing. And I know it’s terrible because we both have a problem, but this is amazing. Right? I’m not alone. So it’s lovely to be able to do that. But then the flip side is that I’ve always believed in the power of connecting people. And I, as a consultant, I am not shy to say to a client or a potential client, Oh, you need this.

Deborah: You know what? That’s not my area of expertise. I’d like to introduce you to so and so. Yeah. And being part of the nonprofit Hive has just, flooded my You know, virtual Rolodex with people that I can say, Oh, you need to meet so and so, because, they are an expert in this area and I would like you to work with them because I’m doing no benefit to a client by pretending I know what I’m doing on something that is not my area of expertise and I can only benefit others if I can introduce them.

Deborah: So, yeah, I think I’ve done. 20 or 25 hive chats in the last year. Oh, I think it’s,

Tasha: it’s probably more than that.

Deborah: Okay.

25 or

Tasha: 30. Quite a lot.

You’re going to look it up now. Aren’t you

Tasha: going to look it up and send it to you afterwards? Cause I think I have it. I could,

Deborah: It’s okay. So I think I’ve done maybe 25 chats in the last year and.

Deborah: Every single one of them has been beneficial. I’ve kept a running list of all the people I’ve met. I’ve connected with them all on LinkedIn and aside from the 30 minute chat, which was lovely, it’s, as I said, it just, oh, throws open my virtual Rolodex of people I can now. Trusted professionals I can introduce to other people.

Tasha: It’s the same thing I love and partly what prompted the Trusted Hive Partners program was me going, this is the person I tend to refer all the time, like for everyone, right? Or here’s what I know their expertise is. They really like to work with animal welfare based clients, or they really have a specialization in hospitals and social work and that kind of organization.

Tasha: It’s lovely. To find right fit and right fit can be a consultant to nonprofit relationship, but sometimes it’s a right fit between people in nonprofit themselves. And sometimes it’s a right fit where a consultant is looking to put in on an application for an RFP, but doesn’t, like you said, have the expertise in 1 zone and How much more powerful is it to bring to the nonprofit sector the exact right people for the exact right project and find collaborators?

Tasha: And I think it’s something that, a lot of big agencies like to say they do everything. And I think once we all say, we do everything, the quality tends to just kind of go down in the same way that I often. Say to nonprofit professionals. I had someone I was chatting with yesterday about her project.

Tasha: Feel free to put all over your website. We focus in on youth in Southern California. That’s a power move. I know it feels like you’re constricting yourself, but in some ways that niche is so much more powerful because you’re able to go very specifically to donors in that area who know of those struggles, who are aware of that.

Tasha: It’s going to be harder to find. You can open it up and sit and not use Southern California as your word, but that’s who you’re only supporting a New York donors going to start going down the rabbit hole and realize that this maybe doesn’t resonate with them. And the same thing for consultants, I find.

Tasha: The ones that I feel that do some of the best work are the ones where it’s no, I’m very much in the communications sphere and I don’t and here, but here’s someone I know who does this kind of fundraising. I’d love to pair up with them to help you out. Right. It’s just, I think there’s so much power there.

Deborah: Yeah, absolutely. And that’s how I feel. If you’re good at one or two things, stick to that lane and bring in the experts. And as you said, the big agencies like to say they do everything and maybe they do because they, I go, I like the big nonprofits. They are a big machine. Yeah. They have everyone who can do everything.

Deborah: Where us. Small business owner consultants I think what makes us strongest is when we learn to partner or refer to other small business consultants.

Tasha: So just in conclusion, remind us again what The services offered by illuminate communications are and how people can best get ahold of you.

Deborah: Sure. So we offer communication services for nonprofits we and to narrow down it’s copywriting and graphic design. So blogs, social media, newsletters, annual reports, impact reports. I have two pagers is a great way to say it because everyone knows what a two pager is. Yes. Nobody really knows exactly what it is until they know what they want.

Deborah: So yeah, so we do all those things. We do the planning, the writing and the design for anything that needs to be a digital printed product. So yeah. What was the second half of your question? Oh, it’s just

Tasha: how best can people get ahold of you?

Deborah: Oh, you can find us on our web, my website. You can find me on the nonprofit hive partners page.

Tasha: Absolutely. Yeah. And lots of great tidbits coming out on LinkedIn as well. I love some of the shares you have. If someone is local to Ontario. Debra shares the travel destinations and I have a list of places that I need to check out when I can convince my kids to leave the house. So

I’m happy to help a couple times a month.

It’s nice to go off topic on your LinkedIn and just share something else.

Tasha: I love it. I save them because I, I hope to leave and do things at some point, but thank you so much just for your continued support. And I know it’s lovely. Whenever your name shows up in a hive chat, I’m like, well, I can easily put anyone with Deborah in it.

Tasha: So you’re one of those people for me. And it’s been lovely to, build this community with wonderful individuals like you.

Deborah: Well, thank you. It’s been lovely to be part of this community. I have no intent of going anywhere anytime soon. Amazing. Deborah. Thank you.