The discipline required to convey a marketing message in six seconds to someone driving 70 miles an hour holds a lot of lessons for those of us trying to draw attention to the important work we do.

While the movie “Field of Dreams” gave us that great scene where Kevin Costner asks the ghost of his fictional dad to play catch, it also spread a virus among nonprofit groups from which our industry has yet to recover: If you build it, they will come.

I find that when a new piece of jargon enters the nonprofit universe, it comes in a rush, not gradually. And so it was the first time I heard someone in a meeting use the word “learnings.”

For all the talk I’ve heard over the years about the importance of having an elevator speech, I know exactly one person who ever actually found themselves in an elevator with an important person and used those 30 seconds to pitch his organization. But that’s not to say you don’t need to be ready to make a brief, compelling argument for your organization or issue e on a moment’s notice – you do.

A lot of nonprofits think of their communications campaigns as throwing the perfect dart. Well, I’d rather throw a handful of darts.

You can be complete or you can be interesting, but you can’t be both.

Even with all the content being shoved out the door, by nonprofit organizations I’m still amazed at how many are silent about the things that matter most to them and their audiences.