They're Just as Bad

Non-profits are used to being told they don’t communicate as well as businesses.

So days like yesterday make the do-gooder in me smile.

I attended the Clean Energy Venture Summit in Austin, where 400 people came to watch a dozen or so clean energy start-ups make their pitches to would-be investors. It was like speed dating for money.

The good news is that there are lots of interesting companies out there who might not just save the planet, but could very well make a ton of money in the process. The bad news is that bad communication hurts businesses as much as non-profits.

The ideas were great. The pitches were dreadful. The slides were (mostly) unattractive and bullet-laden. The speed-clicks caused whiplash. Many presenters seemed unaware that humility is an attractive quality. In a couple of cases, I simply couldn’t believe that “this guy” was the best pitchman the company could have sent to Austin.

In my training sessions on communication, I talk about the “Connecting Points” presenters have with an audience. Message, Material and Messenger are among the most important. Yesterday, none of the presentations I saw scored well on all of them. The best messengers didn’t have the best messages. The best messages were carried weak spokespeople. And don’t get me started on the death-by-PowerPoint curse that so painfully permeates corporate America.

Surely, these companies carry a lot of pressure when they present to investors. But it’s no different than the pressure non-profits carry when pitching their cause to major donors.

So – non-profiters of America – don't let your corporate friends mock you. We’re not any worse than the business world at pitching our cause to an audience. Of course, that doesn’t mean we’re any better.