Other general notes for creating effective presentations:

• Less text is always more impactful. Try to have no more than 3-4 bullet points per slide, and if you are using graphics, use only one graphic per slide.
• Make sure all text is legible and easily readable from a distance. This may seem brain-dead obvious, but you’d be amazed at how many presentations are completely lost on an audience because they can’t read text, charts or graphs or see what should be emotionally-powerful photos.
• Photos, audio and/or video (when appropriate and technology allows) are more powerful than words alone.
• Infusing your own personal story with the story of your constituents is a wise idea, but do NOT make the issue exclusively about you. Social entrepreneurship is not a place for sizable egos. 
• Don’t feel you need to put EVERYTHING into your presentation. It should be a tool or an aid for discussion, not an exhaustive report of every thing you’ve ever done.
• When giving a presentation, you should usually allow 2-4 minutes per slide. If you have 30 minutes to speak, you should have no more than 10 slides. Again, less is more.
• Practice, practice, practice. The best speakers rarely have to refer to their slides. Your story, your voice and your passion should be the backbone of the presentation – and the slide deck should serve to provide additional context or back-up data.
• Whenever possible – invite and enable others to speak for you and/or with you. For an audience to hear about your successes directly from the people you’re helping is more powerful than anything you directly can say.
• Finally, as with any story, your presentation should have a beginning, middle and end. Keep it flowing, relevant, fresh and ‘lyrical.’ Your audience should be taken on a journey and deposited at its natural conclusion.
  

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Diana L. Reid, Conscious Communications

On the more practical level, here are some things to consider adding to your standard PowerPoint presentation:

• Detailed research, data, “needs analysis” and history of the issue, people or region you are focused on serving. What is the landscape and what makes your organization and your mission necessary and useful (if not critical)? [Note: credible third party data is especially effective here. Consider using research reports, government papers, media citations, etc. to make your point.]
• Your organization’s vision, mission, brief history and leadership team
• Objectives, strategic goals, progress year to date (and/or multi-year results)
• Financials such as operating budget, key funding sources and development goals
• Your organization’s success and/or metrics in relation to other similar organizations (as appropriate/applicable)
• Photos and/or stories from the field and those you serve. How has your organization changed their lives and/or positively impacted the community, region or world?
• A clear and concise slide on how someone can get involved and/or help you achieve your mission – e.g.
  

• Volunteer initiatives
• Program support
• Professional services
• Donation or sponsorship levels
• Fundraising events
• Advocacy, grassroots, outreach or letter-writing campaigns
• Staffing or board of directors/advisors recruitment

• Contact information for your organization (especially if you are leaving the slides as a printed hand-out)
• Also consider creating 2-3 specialized slides for diverse audience needs (that can be added in or removed from the slide deck as appropriate for the presentation situation). For instance, a foundation or high net-worth funder may want more or different information than a group of potential volunteers or interns. And a government organization or potential business partner may be interested in different aspects of your organization than fellow social entrepreneurs. This enables you to keep your presentation fresh, brief and targeted each time.
  

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Diana L. Reid, Conscious Communications

PowerPoint Presentation or other Visual Storytelling Aid

While important and useful, oftentimes a brochure or even a website isn’t sufficient to tell your organization’s story thoroughly and completely, or to convince a group of people to take action (which as a social entrepreneur, is what you’re all about – taking action to change the world and motivating others to help do the same). Occasions such as speeches, town hall meetings, congressional hearings, development events, conferences or other “1-to-many” venues often call for a presentation that includes not just words, or even charts and graphics, but a story.

Why a story? Think back to when you were a kid… What are some of the most memorable times you can recall? What kept you on the edge of your seat wanting to know more? What taught you lessons and morals? What opened your eyes to other parts of the world? What warmed your heart or inspired big dreams for your future? Yes, stories. These tales could have been found in books, in song, or in fables passed down orally from generation to generation, but almost universally, stories are very much the fabric of most of our lives. Well-told stories create mental images; they tug at heart strings; they create angst, anger, laughter or elation; they inspire new stories or new acts of greatness; and above all, they seem to bring people together.

So, what’s this got to do with a business-related communications tool? Plenty. For a social entrepreneur, telling the story of how you came to be a social entrepreneur has the power to inspire and educate others. The story of the people you are serving for and/or with can shed light on new cultures or issues, and compel others to seek ways to get involved and add their energy to the cause. And, the story of how you’ve creatively, effectively and passionately built your organization around a mission and a vision that creates social change can move even the stingiest donors to reach deep into their pockets to help support your efforts (or customers to buy your products or services).

So before you think about creating an actual document – a presentation – think about your story. What is unique, rich, dramatic, compelling, urgent and/or widely appealing? Then, consider who your most likely audience(s) will be and what opportunities you’ll have to tell your story in depth.

What is most important to them: Facts and figures? Photos of far-flung people and places? Charts and graphs? Testimonials and personal anecdotes? Business-driven data or warm and fuzzy images? Consider also: What is the core of your story and should be told each and every time? What topics or information may vary by audience?

Once you have brainstormed who will want or need to hear your story, you’ll be better prepared to create a presentation that will help you inform, educate and motivate your audience. And you will be able to “slice your slide deck” in a variety of ways to include certain elements for one audience and then leave out pieces that aren’t important for others.

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Diana L. Reid, Conscious Communications

Brochure

Similar to your website, the purpose of your brochure is (most often) to quickly educate current and potential stakeholders on the mission, values, purpose and progress of your organization – and to do so in a clear, concise and decidedly “portable” fashion.

And, depending on your strategic plan and current organizational objectives, you may have additional or different reasons for developing a printed brochure. Some of these may include the need to promote a specific project or fundraising campaign, a lack of Internet access for key audiences (and thus, no access to your website), your organization’s participation or attendance at a conference or event, to serve as a recruiting tool for new employees and/or board members, an upcoming direct mail campaign, or any number of other activities where a brief printed piece will help get your message across (without losing your audience in the process).

Brochures, like any other piece of marketing collateral, can be expensive to develop. So, before you get started, make sure you understand the exact need and purpose for the brochure -- and where and how it will be used. Sometimes you can get away with a 4x6” one-sided flyer or post card, and other times you will need a full 8.5x11” tri-fold brochure (or more) to tell the full story. Most often, the ideal brochure will be a small subset of your website (and then you’ll lead people back to your website by providing your URL in the brochure for more information).

The easiest and most powerful information to include in a brochure is your organization’s mission statement and core purpose; description of your key programs, products, services and/or constituents; a brief history of the organization; brief results and accomplishments; information on how others can donate their time, money or additional resources to help you achieve your mission; and of course, your organization’s contact information. Bios of the management team are useful if space permits, but not a requirement in such a brief document.

Photos, charts and graphics that depict the mission and the successes of your organization tell an even more powerful story than any text can, so use these liberally and keep the brochure design, voice and style consistent with your website and all other materials. (Yes, I’m a broken record on this one!).

For brochure design, consider again bartering services or finding a local design student to help you without breaking the bank. And, if at all possible, use the same designer you’ve used for all of your other materials to ensure consistency. If this isn’t possible, make sure your designer has copies of all materials, guidelines and logos to ensure design alignment and brand integrity.

Print as many copies as you can afford to print at one time (once you’ve analyzed where, when and how you’ll use the brochures) as printing just a few can be significantly more expensive per copy than printing several thousands. However, before your print large quantities, consider the "shelf life" of your brochure content. If you have prices, quantities, dates or other highly dynamic data in the brochure, you may want to either print smaller quantities or consider putting often-changing information into some other sort of document or brochure ‘insert’ that can be rapidly updated and inserted into the brochure on an as needed basis.

In terms of print shops, FedEx Kinko’s can do a great job for you on the fly, or you can also find professional quality business printing firms in your area that may offer you significant volume discounts and high quality results. To ensure your money is well spent and the final brochure is top notch, make sure to get pre-production samples and to proofread the brochure not once, but at least 4 or 5 different times (ask board members, volunteers and others to help so you have multiple reviewers!), before you say “go” at the printer.

Finally, as with your business cards, be liberal in distributing brochures, without being wasteful. Sometimes you can’t be in all places at once and/or there’s just no way you can talk to every single possible constituent or contributor, so providing brochures that tell your story can extend your organization’s reach and provide a compelling reason for stakeholders to further seek you out (directly or via your website).

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Diana L. Reid, Conscious Communications