Make Your Case (Statement)!
by Josh Amidon
Over the course of my career I have worked with many non-profit agencies. One of the things that all successful non-profit agencies are good at is asking for money. The standard tool used in fundraising is something called a “case statement.”
A case statement, as the names implies, is an approach created to make their case to the donor to answer - “why you should give us money?” One of the best in recent memory was the SPCA’s commercial showing video of mistreated dogs and cats while a Sarah McLachlan song played. Without saying much, you knew what the SPCA did and why you should be throwing money at them. If that commercial doesn’t give you a case of the feels, then you’re either heartless or lying.
When you think about it, there’s not that much difference between the profit and non-profit sectors. Almost every small business is proposing that the prospect trade money for something of value.
I have found the case statement to be a handy tool for cutting through the marketing hype and getting to reason why a prospect should trade their money for what you have to offer.
Dump the traditional sales & marketing speak and create a case statement to compel your target market to understand why they should give you their money. This idea may be the most significant piece of marketing collateral you can produce.
Your case statement should address the following:
- A statement of a challenge, frustration or problem that your target market experiences
- An image of what life is like when the problem is solved
- A directed call to contact you
Think about it this way, let’s say you’re looking for a geriatric doctor for a family member. You have 2 in your town and their websites say:
- “I’m a geriatric doctor”
- “I’m a geriatric doctor, but what I really do is help people stay in their homes longer, go to one more granddaughter’s wedding and attend their great, great grandson’s Bar Mitzvah.”
Now, you tell me, who has the better case statement? When you need a doctor to care for you when you get to that point in life, who would you call?
