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Communicating the essence of your organization’s mission in an elevator pitch is hard enough. Imagine doing it in in 10 words or less. That’s the goal of a great tagline.
Nancy Schwartz just announced the winner’s of the Getting Attention Nonprofit Tagline Awards for 2009, and once again there are some inspired examples of the powerful messaging a great tagline can convey in just a few words. Crafting a memorable tagline is tough but essential work; done right, it’s the hardest-working message in your communications arsenal.
More than 1,700 taglines were submitted in this year’s competition, but I imagine it was pretty easy to winnow the list down to 60 semifinalists because most taglines are so dull and uninspired. I worked for an organization once whose tag was “Improving Children’s Lives.” Nice sentiment, but what does it tell you? It certainly didn’t give you any sense of how that particular organization significantly and uniquely made a difference in the lives of children. There was no focus or specificity, nothing emotionally compelling, nothing to distinguish this organization from the countless others also working to improve outcomes for children.
That’s what I love about my two favorites on Nancy’s list of winners. The first is nearly four decades old and still as effective as the day it was introduced: The United Negro College Fund‘s “A Mind is a Terrible Thing to Waste.” This is a tag that, standing alone, immediately makes you think of the UNCF and its mission.
The other is newer but no less powerful: “Nothing Stops a Bullet Like a Job.” That’s the tag of Homeboy Industries, the largest gang intervention program in the country. Homeboy does more than just find jobs for gang-involved youth. It creates them, from its cafe and catering services to its print shop and commercial building maintenance service.
Consider that tagline again: “Nothing Stops a Bullet Like a Job.” It conveys so much more than just a bland description of the service Homeboy provides; it’s a mission statement and call to action rolled up into seven words. Absolutely brilliant.
I’m a little worried that, in our SEO-obsessed zeal to make everything ultra-findable on the web, we lose some of the poetry that these two taglines represent. They just as easily could say “Helping African-American Youth Through Education” or “Gang Intervention Through Employment Opportunities” or some such nonsense to make sure the right keywords are present in the tag. What you might gain in searchability would pale in comparison to what you would lose in terms of sheer emotional impact.
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