That New Car Smell

26 South.  That’s what the police call it, so say my husband and my son. 26 meaning car wash; south meaning the car wash on the south end of town.  It used to be Rich’s Car Wash.  I loved 26 South.  I’d get the Gold Package.  They would not only send my car through the maze of long hanging damp strips of cloth, but they also detailed the entire inside.  When the boys were little, they’d even find and discard all the lost McDonald’s French Fries and Goldfish Crackers. It was a beautiful thing. 

But my favorite part was the end.  Right before they’d open my car door for me to get back inside, they’d ask me what scent I would like sprayed in my car.  From memory I know they had cherry, vanilla, piña colada, and, of course, new car smell.   (Who even knew that you could bottle the smell of a new car?  But apparently someone did it and sold it to car washes around the world.  Good for that guy!)  I know I got each one of those flavors sprayed in my nice, clean car at least once.  But there was one scent that I never got, nor would I ever get.  It was called “I don’t care”.  I’m not kidding. They actually had a scent called “I don’t care”. 

I get it.  I’m sure a lot of people really didn’t care much about the scent of their car.  And probably many other customers had waited so long that they that just wanted to get out of dodge.  So, to expedite their departure, the attendants needed a go-to scent when someone said, “I don’t care”.  So, they picked a mystery scent and intentionally named it “I don’t care”, and gave it to everyone that answered, “I don’t care” when asked to choose.

That is not me.  It’s not you either. I care. You care. We work for nonprofits. We fundraise to help others build a better quality of life. People tell us no…a lot.  There’s a new challenge every single day. We work on shoestring budgets with skeleton crews! That’s some big-time caring there. You care about your team and your Board and your donors.  You care about your community, other nonprofits, and your mission. You endure a pile full of no’s to get to a handful of yes’s because making sustainable impact in the community you serve is vital for a quality social return on investment. Yeah, I said it…Social ROI. It’s the unsexy cousin of the oh-so-popular Financial ROI.

Yeah, the left brainers in our offices and on our Boards gladly remind us about the Financial Return On Investment—and that’s important, they’re important…we need them! We need to raise funds and we need to grow the funds we raise. After all, anyone can spend money, it takes real left brain financial fortitude to invest those funds wisely and make a financial gain. Yay money!

But sustainable impact, those two words are real kickers, aren’t they?  That means that 25 or 50 years from now, your community will be able to look back and say, “I’m so glad they did ‘that’!”  ‘That’ is the right brain story you need to tell your donors. What kind of sustainable impact is your organization trying to make and how will it impact your community now and decades from now? You need to tell the story of ‘that’.

If you don’t know what your ‘that’ is, how will your donors know?  Your ‘that’ needs to literally change lives. ‘That’ is sustainable impact! Your ‘that’ eliminates a specific need or adds value long-term.  Your ‘that’ improves a local asset in a way that would make you brag. 

Don’t always let the popular Financial ROI take center stage! What’s your Social ROI? That’s your ‘that’.  Do you know it, talk about it, write about it?  More importantly, do you donors know it as well as you do?  Do you explain it so well, that you make a quality case for giving? Think sustainable impact. Think of what you can do to make your community better for your children and grandchildren in 25 or 50 years.  Think about how spending creative right brain time to craft your case for giving is like intentionally choosing that ‘new car smell’ instead of the ‘I don’t care’ scent.  And if you care as much as I know you do, be kind to yourself and communicate with those donors who also care.  They’re stampworthy, they have an affinity for your mission, and they have the capacity to do something about it. They’ll read all about your ‘that’ because they care…just like you do.

All My Best,

Dawn
[email protected]
dawn brown creative, llc.