Weekly Challenge – March 11, 2024
This week — asset based language!
Organizer:
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Part 3 – Website Audit
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Part 3 – Website Audit
We’re back for part 3 of our asset-based language challenge.
We’ve looked at how you can use asset-based language in your fundraising. And get practice emphasizing people’s strengths in 1:1 conversations. Today we’re going to look at your organization’s website and evaluate the language you use there.
Here’s what you’ll do
Open up your organization’s website. Read over the descriptions you have of your programming or projects, your ‘about us’ page, and your mission/vision/value statements. Identify phrases that lean towards deficit-framing and rewrite them using asset-based language. Pay special attention to your mission statement and how it’s framed — does it position those you aid as passive recipients or active agents of change?
Why this matters
When was the last time you really looked at your website? Chances are the content there was written a while ago. This simple review helps you critically evaluate how your organization presents itself and its work to the people you’re trying to reach – your community, new donors, new supporters, new partners.
When you replace deficit-based language with asset-based framing, you’re taking an important step in shifting the narrative towards one that respects and amplifies the voices and capabilities of the people and communities you work with. This not only chips away at calcified social institutions and norms — it also reinforces internally the importance of dignity, respect, and equality in your mission.
Once you’ve finished the audit, drop a comment below and share some of what you rewrote!
And if you’re struggling, a couple of examples of how you can rewrite deficit-framed language to be asset-based are below. But as I’ve said before, check out @frank-velasquez-jr‘s worksheet for more help (click here)!
Examples:
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Before: “Our mission is to fight poverty in underdeveloped regions.”
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After: “Our mission is to collaborate with dynamic communities to co-create solutions that eradicate poverty.”
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Before: “We provide aid to the disadvantaged populations affected by natural disasters.”
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After: “In partnership with resilient communities, we co-design disaster resilience and recovery solutions, harnessing local strengths and insights.”
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2 Replies
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Love this!!
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Such a great TT!! And a great challenge! We actually had our website rebuilt two years ago (we actually won first place in the Knowbility Accessible Internet Rally!) so I’m a little excited to use Frank’s teachings and worksheet to really take a deeper look at our wording.
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