What is a Pitch Deck and Why it is important for NGOs?

Just like proposals are an essential tool to convince donors to support your organization, developing a perfect pitch desk is an equally important document used by startups to raise funds. Preparing for a donor presentation may be a daunting task for many NGO professionals, as they lack the necessary skills to develop a perfect pitch deck.  Considering there might be thousands of non-profits after the same set of donors, it becomes really important for you to have a pitch deck that stands out and creates an instant liking amongst the donors.

In this guide we bring to you everything that you need to know when you are developing a pitch deck for your projects and approaching potential donors to fund your projects. The following three sections of the guide will help you in acing your pitch deck.

1. What is a Pitch Deck?
2. Steps of developing the perfect pitch
3. Do’s and Don’ts while preparing the pitch deck.

1. What is a pitch deck?

A pitch deck is a presentation that is used to pitch your idea or company to investors/funders. It is considered to be one of the most important documents that your organization will develop during the process of raising funds.

The pitch deck should highlight your organization in a way that it attracts and inspires potential donors to learn more about your organization/project and ultimately support your project. Most often a pitch deck is created using PowerPoint, Keynote or Prezi and is presented either during face to face meetings or online meetings with potential donors, partners and funding agencies.

Experts suggest that the ideal length of a pitch deck should not exceed 20 slides and the total time for the presentation should not go beyond 20 minutes. Depending on the purpose of the pitch, the structure of your pitch deck may vary.

Before we get into the process of preparing the pitch deck, let us understand the purposes for which a pitch deck may be needed. Some of the most important functions of a pitch deck are as follows:

• To highlight your organization
• To enhance awareness about your organization
• Discuss a new project idea that needs financial support
• Raise funds for existing projects
• Introduce your organization to a new donor.

As an organization you are always on the lookout for fresh funds, investment, exposure or new partnerships and when doing this, the only document that can really make or break the deal is the Pitch Deck. Read further to improve your skills in preparing perfect pitch deck for your organization.

2. Steps for developing the perfect Pitch

While discussion about the steps involved in preparing the perfect pitch we shall divide the entire process into four main steps.

The four steps are:

1. Preparation
2. Content Creation
3. Designing and
4. Finalization

Step 1. Preparation

1. Know the Audience: It is important for you to know and understand your audience, before you start preparing the pitch deck. Your audience may be Foundations, Philanthropic Donors, Corporate Donors, Religious Organizations or Other Funding Sources. The structure of your pitch will largely depend on the likes, dislikes and requirements of your potential donor. The following questions need to be answered while you understand the target audience for your pitch.

• • The problems they (donors) care about
  • What are the goals of the foundation?
  • Their process for allocating funds or resources.
  • Basic demographics of their operations.
  • Organizations they have supported in the past.

2. Know yourself: It is important for you to have complete information about your organization. You should be well versed with its history, past projects, ongoing projects, board members, affiliations, awards, etc. Along with researching the prospects, you should also conduct in-depth research about your organization. Knowing yourself is as important as knowing the prospect.
3. Know your needs: Now that you are clear about your audience and also have enough information about your organization, you need to finalize the purpose/goal of the pitch. Setting the objective will lay down the framework for your pitch. While setting the objective, make sure that it clearly spells out what you want your audience to do (donating for a cause, funding a particular project, signing up for updates, training your team, attending workshops etc.)
4. Set up a team: Preparing the pitch without any support can be a difficult job, therefore setup a team to assist you in preparing the pitch. If you do not have the required support, you can hire a pitch deck professional to prepare your pitch in a professional and proficient manner.
5. Keep Enough time: Whether you choose to hire a professional pitch deck designer or prepare the pitch on your own, always keep enough time to work on the design, layout and rehearsal. Experts suggest keeping at least a week to prepare your final pitch.

Phase 2. Content Creation

1. See other pitch decks: Before you start working on your pitch deck take a look at other pitch decks. The moment you search the internet for “Pitch Decks”, you will see a list of pitch decks of various organizations. Looking at different pitch decks will give you an idea of the various layouts and formats of pitch decks being used by different organizations. While looking at the different pitch decks, consider the following:

• • Search for the keyword “ Best Pitch Decks”
  • Sector specific pitch deck templates
  • of slides being used by various organizations
  • Layout and structure

2. Structure your Pitch: Your pitch deck should have a proper structure so that it accommodates all the necessary content easily. Experts suggest that a good pitch deck has three sections viz. Introduction, Main Body and Wrap-up.

• • The Introduction: When starting with the introduction always start with something interesting, so that you immediately catch the attention of your audience. A strong introduction should only be about 30 seconds. Some ideas to develop a good introduction are:
    • State the value of your work
    • State a fact stating the impact you create
    • Describe who you are, what you do?
    • Use can use your organizations mission statement
  • The Main Body: As the name suggests, it is the part of the pitch that is the most important. Once your audience knows about your organization in the introductory slides, you will now explain to them what makes you different. Some of the points/questions that should be covered while developing the main body are as follows:
    • How is your organization different from others?
    • What are some of your flagship projects?
    • State facts related to your success/impact stories?
    • What makes your projects successful?
    • What kind of projects you have for future?
    • How are you making a difference in the lives of your project beneficiaries?
    • What are the problems you solve?
    • How you solve the various problems?
    • Who all are in your team?
  • The conclusion: Once you have described about your projects and organization in detail, you will have to wrap up the pitch by making the “ASK”. Always include the ‘ask’ in your pitch so that the audience knows what you are looking for.

3. Create Content: The structure of the pitch helps you to collect relevant information and accordingly create the content for your pitch deck. The following outline can be used for creating content:

• • Introduce your organization: When describing your organization it is important for you to quickly describe your organization by stating the mission and vision statement.  When mentioning about your organization also outline your history, awards and other significant milestones your organization has achieved, this helps you to show that you organization is credible and trustworthy. Remember to keep it short and interesting.

• • What are the problems you solve? Describe about the major challenges that your organization solves. Highlight important facts that strengthen your argument and makes the audience believe in your cause. Using facts also helps you to build trust amongst the audience as they see you as a well informed and serious contender. The main purpose of this slide is to show that the problem you will be solving is real and you need support to tackle the problem.

• • What is your solution? Once you have mentioned about the problem and shown how it affects the local community, you should describe your project ideas to solve the given issue. Mention about your project idea and how it can solve the given problem in the most efficient way.

 

• • Project Activities: Describe the key activities that will be part of the project. Do not go into minute details, but just describe the major activities that will be required to successfully complete the project.

• • Project Timeline: Use a chart to show when your project will commence and how the various activities will be undertaken during the project duration. You can use a graphical representation or a table to show the timeline.

• • Is your organization Competent Enough: After you have described both the problem and the solution, now you will have to demonstrate the value of your organization. This can be illustrated by showing your past work, the donors that support your work and past awards etc.   You can also show success/impact that your past projects have resulted in.

• • How will you manage the project? Another important aspect of your pitch deck is to illustrate that you have a competent team to implement the project successfully. Be sure to have a slide to highlight everyone’s role, their past experience and skill set. Answer the following questions while preparing this slide:
    • Who are the people in your team?
    • What is the expertise and past experience of your team members?
    • Who are the people in your board and advisors?

 

• • Project Impact: For any donor, the most important feature of a project is to see the impact the project has created. To ensure that the donor feels confident about your project, describe briefly the impact your project will create.

• • How they can help or your “Ask”: This is the most important part of you pitch deck, as now you will be making the “Ask”. Depending on the purpose of your pitch you can request the audience for supporting your organization in different ways.

• • Keep your Budget Sheets Ready: When seeking funds from a donor, you should always be ready with your budget sheet. This should include the activity wise expenses along with a detailed excel spreadsheet with budget narratives, assumptions, projections, etc.

• • Summarize: Your last slide should capture the entire pitch in one or two sentences. You should clearly talk about the value you are offering and about the mutual benefits that the relationship between you and the donor would generate. Reiterate about the “Ask” and also mention about how they can contact you in future.

Phase 3. Design your Pitch Deck

Once your content is ready you can start designing your pitch deck. The following aspects should be considered for the design of our pitch deck.

1. Include Data: Your presentation should contain data and statistics to provide context to the problem that you want to solve. These facts can be from data that your organization has collected or can be from research articles, government reports, news articles etc. Make sure that the data you quote is up to date and is from a credible source. Avoid using data if it is outdated and you are not sure of the source. You should highlight the data by the following ways:

• • Bold
  • Bigger fonts
  • Colors
  • Italicize

Make sure to emphasize the most important facts and figures and information that will create a lasting impression on the minds of your audience.

2. Use Images: When making the pitch deck, always remembers to include real photographs. Depending on your project and pitch objective, include moving images from your field to reflect real life stories. Using images in the presentation creates an immediate emotional appeal to the audience and enhances the effectiveness of your pitch deck. The following things should be considered when using images:

• • Real and natural images
  • Images with high resolution
  • Images which create an emotional appeal

3. Professional Layout: Always use a modern and simple layout for your presentation. Your pitch deck should have a design that appears polished and is able to draw the attention of the audience. Some points to keep in mind while designing the presentation are as follows:

• • Always go for a professional layout
  • Use simple layout
  • Do not clutter the slides
  • Have separate slides for highlighting important information
  • Use a simple font that is easy to read
  • Font size should be such that it is visible even from some distance

Some important tips that should be remembered while designing the presentation are given below:

Phase 4: Finalize the pitch deck

Now your pitch deck is almost ready, you just need to make the final touches and you are ready to go.

1. Review: It is always a good idea to get your pitch deck reviewed by your colleagues/board members etc.  Many organizations also get their presentations reviewed by a cold reader (a person who was not involved in the pitch preparation). Go through the comments given by the reviewers and accommodate their suggestions, criticisms and correct errors and omissions suggested by them. The review helps in improving the effectiveness of your pitch. Key points to remember while getting your pitch reviewed are:

• • Reviewer should be familiar with your organization and project idea
  • Involve a cold reader for the review
  • Address the comments that would enhance the effectiveness of your pitch
  • Be true to your idea
  • Don’t blindly accept all the comments and suggestions

2. Revise and tune it: On receiving the feedback from reviewers and colleagues, revise and fine tune your pitch deck. Also remember to update your pitch deck as and when required.
3. Practice:  Practice your pitch multiple times to fine-tune your delivery. Some important things that you should remember while rehearsing include:

• • Clarity of words
  • Clear sentences
  • Remember facts and figures
  • Body language
  • Know your slides

The four stages of developing the perfect pitch deck

3. Do’s and Don’ts

We summarize the most important do’s and don’ts you need to remember when developing your pitch deck.

You can now develop the perfect pitch deck for your organization and seek funding from various donors. Remember to update your pitch as and when required and keep practicing it. With time and practice you will master the art of making the perfect pitch and will be pitching like a pro.

Happy Pitching!!