The power of language

Lucinda and Emily are joined by Hatty Evans, head of brand and marketing at Magic Breakfast, and Georgie Howlett, managing director of Stand Agency, to discuss the importance of language in appealing to donors and service users.Hatty explains how Magic Breakfast, which works to end morning hunger in schools, takes different approaches in its messaging to teachers, parents and donors, emphasising food insecurity, child poverty and academic attainment, respectively.She stresses the importance of centring the experience of children and families in storytelling and avoiding portrayals of shame, which, although often striking a chord with donors, are isolating and disempowering for parents.Georgie explains how the incorrect use of language can create unwanted siloes between a charity’s donors and service users, missing opportunities to deepen engagement and build supportive communities. She describes how the use of simple, humanising and equalising language has opened up access to mental health services in recent years by removing the stigma around mental illness.Charity Changed My Life features the story of a service user of One in Four, a charity that provides counselling support to survivors of child sexual abuse, violence and trauma.Do you have stories of people whose lives have been transformed for the better thanks to your charity? If so, we’d like to hear them! All it takes is a short voice message to be featured on this podcast. Email [email protected] for further information.Read the transcript.Tell us what you think of the Third Sector Podcast! Please take five minutes to let us know how we can bring you the most relevant, useful content. To fill in the survey, click here. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.