If your organisation is struggling to explain what it does, the problem is rarely a lack of information. More often, too much feels equally important. We usually see this as a hierarchy problem before it is a writing problem. Clearer communication starts by deciding what people need to understand first, then adding the detail in the right order.
Clear communication makes the most important thing easier to understand first, then builds the detail around it.
Charities, CICs and other organisations doing meaningful work can be complicated. You may have several services, programmes, audiences, partnerships and funding streams. Internally, each matters.
The problem comes when they are all given equal weight. Programme names appear before the need they address. Delivery methods come before outcomes. Internal terminology appears before the reader has enough context to understand it.
Instead of asking: “What do we need to tell people?” start with: “What do they need to understand first?” That shift can change the way the whole message is structured.
Start with Problem > Outcome > Service
A simple way to create that hierarchy is:
Problem: What situation or need are you responding to?
Outcome: What should become better or different?
Service: What do you actually do to help create that change?
Organisations often start with the service because that is what they spend their time delivering. Someone outside the organisation may first need to understand why that service exists and what difference it is trying to make.
Problem > Outcome > Service is not a rigid copywriting formula. It is a way of deciding the order in which understanding should be built.
Keep one core message across different audiences
Your organisation may need to speak to service users, referrers, funders, commissioners, partners, volunteers and supporters. They do not all need the same information.
A person looking for support may need to know whether you can help and what to do next. A funder may want to understand the need, your approach and the evidence behind it. A partner may want to know where collaboration fits.
The emphasis changes, but the core meaning should not. A clear central message gives those different communications something to come back to. Without it, the organisation can gradually start sounding different depending on the page, proposal or person explaining it.
Clear language should still say something
Simplifying your message does not mean replacing complex language with vague language. Phrases such as “empowering communities” or “creating positive change” may sound purposeful, but on their own they do not explain who you help, what you do or what changes as a result.
Clear communication should make your work easier to picture. This is also good content-design and accessibility practice. GOV.UK guidance recommends starting with user needs and helping people quickly find what they need to know or do. W3C guidance recommends clear, familiar words and explaining jargon or acronyms when they are needed.
Try the Grinning Graphics Clarity Check
Take the main description of your organisation from your homepage, proposal or presentation.
First, answer three questions without using your existing copy:
What problem are we responding to?
What outcome are we trying to create?
What do we actually do to help?
Then compare those answers with your current message. Are the important ideas obvious, or are they buried beneath programme names, jargon or organisational detail?
Finally, give the message to someone who does not know your organisation well. Can they explain who you help, what you do and why the work exists? They do not need to repeat your words. They do need to understand the meaning.
Sometimes the wording is not the real problem
If your team cannot agree on who you help, what matters most or what people need to understand, rewriting a few sentences will only take you so far.
Sometimes unclear copy points to a deeper issue with messaging, priorities or positioning. Those questions need resolving first. The aim is not simply to make the wording better. It is to make the value of your organisation easier to recognise and understand.
Make your organisation easier to understand
If people struggle to understand what your organisation does, Grinning Graphics can help you identify what they need to understand first and build a clearer message around it.