Become the obvious choice.
The nonprofit sector is full of excellent organizations doing important work. What makes yours uniquely valuable to the
people who matter?
What makes your organization uniquely valuable?
As a strategist to nonprofits, this is one of the most fundamental questions I ask leaders. Yet very few have an answer. They do one of three things:
Recite their mission statement: “We’re focused on increasing access to opportunity so that communities can thrive.”
List their current programs and activities: “We just won a huge grant for our new ‘Accelerate Leaders’ program.”
Or name a string of successes: “We led the coalition that passed the state’s most important piece of digital privacy legislation to date.”
All these answers would be great, if I asked the question, “Why are you good at what you do?” But I didn’t. I asked a different question.
“What makes you uniquely valuable?”
Too many incredible organizations think that being good is enough to distinguish them. I hear it when leaders say, “If we’re doing important, effective work, our value should be evident. Our work speaks for itself.” I wish it were that simple. As of 2025, there are an estimated 60,000-80,000 issue-based 501(c)(3)s, with an annual operating budget above $1 million (a rough estimate based on tax data compiled by the Urban Institute). Now imagine you’re a funder staring down a stack of applications from just 10 of these organizations—all excellent, all similar, all worthy. No matter how admirable your mission or impactful your programs, the fact remains that you are one of many noble but interchangeable organizations, swimming in what I call the "swamp of sameness". To put it even more plainly: your work doesn’t speak for itself.
When you can’t state your unique value, it doesn’t just hamper your fundraising, as in the example above. It hampers your efforts to influence policymakers, to earn the trust of partners and collaborators, to project authority to the media. You can throw your weight behind more fundraising, more communications, or even another round of strategic planning, but more activity will not fix what is fundamentally a lack of clarity.
Being good at your work is not the same as being uniquely valuable. This is why the swamp of sameness is not a swamp of mediocrity. It is full of excellent, reputable, and high-performing organizations, who are generally respected but struggle to leverage their hard-won reputation into deeper or wider impact. They are stuck in the muck of greatness.
When people have multiple credible choices, they need a reason to choose you.
It’s time to question the question that has (directly and indirectly) animated so many grant proposals, communications strategies, and annual reports: “Why are you great?” Could it be that the emphasis is on the wrong word?
Maybe it’s not: “Why are you GREAT?”
It’s: “Why are YOU great?”
When you shift the center of gravity from the word “great” to “you”, the question itself shifts. Why you? What makes your greatness valuable? Who is it valuable to and why?
I can sense your skepticism rising. You may be thinking, “Okay, but there are five other organizations doing similar work to us. How are you going to manufacture my uniqueness where none exists?” And to that I say: it’s not enough to size yourself up against your closest peers and competitors and call that your unique value. You have to also take into account your audiences and the larger social and political forces affecting your work. It is a combination of what you bring, why it matters, and who it matters to. Your unique value exists as much within yourself as it does outside it.
To some of you, this may be starting to sound awfully competitive for the nonprofit sector. So let me be explicit: this is not a vanity exercise to answer why you are better than everyone else. On the contrary, when you get clear about where you offer the most value, you make it easier for like-minded organizations to figure out their own lanes and collaborate with you in non-competitive, non-redundant, and effective ways.
When you crack the “why you” question, you can finally climb out of the swamp of sameness. You emerge, no longer just generally respected, but specifically valued. You are no longer one of many. To the people that care, and in the situations that matter, you become the obvious choice.
Curious about clarifying your own unique value? Reach out to me here.