An Elevator Pitch is a very short summary of why your group or project deserves support – what it does and what difference it makes. A pitch is useful in many situations – fundraising, networking, or just to help you organise your thoughts.
The idea behind it is that you are in a lift with a very rich person and you have one minute to persuade them to give you some money. You can’t waffle, you can’t give loads of detail; you need to really focus on why what you do matters.
A really great Elevator Pitch is three sentences long. That may be too much to aim for but if you go over 6 sentences you need to do some serious editing! Think about what a stranger who knows nothing about your project needs to know. This might mean leaving out some detail that really matters to you or that you are really proud of but that won’t matter to someone else.
This is also no place for jargon. Use plain language and terms that everyone can understand.
First sentence; what’s the problem?
Where are people now? What are they facing, what don’t they have access to? What is happening as a result?
“Post-covid, young people are facing serious mental health issues to a level never seen before”
“X disease isn’t widely known about, so people with this diagnosis experience serious issues that stop them leading normal lives but they get little or no support from health services, employers and their community”
Second sentence; what do you do/will you do to fix this?
What activities and actions will you take to help people and communities overcome the issues they face?
“we give young people mental health support virtually and face-to-face. Someone is there to talk to 24/7 “
“X disease sufferers have come together to make some noise about their needs, including running a national information campaign”
Third sentence; your impact
What’s the impact of your activities and actions? How does what you are doing help to fix the issues outlined in sentence 1?
“we’ve helped 320 young people find a positive way forward; going back to education, rebuilding connections with family and friends, getting therapy”
“Our message has already been featured on several major news sites and health podcasts, resulting in our members already feeling more confident talking about what they are experiencing and more able to ask for help”
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