The one-sentence theory of change.

Clarify your fundraising message with this mega one-liner

Portrait of Kevin Brown, Co-founder & CEO of Mighty Ally

KEVIN L. BROWN

A confused mind never funds. And your donors might be lost in translation. Because there’s a critical gap in most nonprofit communications:

Theories of change often change — into donor repellents.

What should be a simple tool to explain your work becomes a jargon jungle for funders.

The most common donor grievance we hear (by far) is that they can’t understand what you actually do. Even those nonprofits with a theory of change on paper can quickly lose funders with all the assumptions, arrows, and academia.

So here’s a formula to help. It’s just six pieces. And while it’s not official copywriting or an elevator pitch, this formula can clarify and summarize your theory of change in a single sentence.

Because (WHY), we work (WHERE) to help (WHO) (WHAT) (HOW), in order to (WHEN).

And here are four Mighty Ally client examples (plus our own!), based on the complete theory of change.

Sabre Education

Because 90% of a child’s brain develops before age five (WHY), we work in Ghana (WHERE) to help the early childhood education sector (WHO) provide the best possible early childhood education (WHAT) by partnering with government to implement play-based learning at scale (HOW), in order to achieve SDG 4.2 by 2030 (WHEN).

African female teacher teaching a group of enthusiastic learners with their hands up.

Justice Defenders

Because there can be no peace without justice and no justice without peace (WHY), we work in Uganda, Kenya, and The Gambia (WHERE) to help defenseless communities (WHO) get a fair hearing in court (WHAT) through legal education, training, and practice (HOW), in order to elevate one million people in conflict with the law within 10 years (WHEN).

Man speaking to a crowd of male persons who are incarcerated in East Africa.

Transform Schools

Because poverty could be cut in half if all children completed secondary school (WHY), we work in India (WHERE) to help secondary school system actors (WHO) improve learning outcomes for children (WHAT) through co-designed learning enhancement programmes and capacity building (HOW), in order to reach 20 million children by 2030 (WHEN).

Two Indian boy students in school uniforms running a race in a crowd of peers.

Peek Vision

Because those with unmet needs remain invisible to health systems (WHY), we work in Africa and Asia (WHERE) to help eye health program providers (WHO) strengthen systems and service delivery (WHAT) with a software and data intelligence platform (HOW), in order to prevent 1.25 billion people from untreated vision loss by 2050 (WHEN).

Mighty Ally

Because only one in 1,000 nonprofits grow beyond a small business (WHY), we work in the Global South (WHERE) to help early- and growth-stage nonprofits (WHO) build brands that maximize funding (WHAT) through consulting, training, and Brand Bootcamp (HOW), in order to catalyze 5,000 bold brands with 50 reaching $50M in size by 2035 (WHEN).

In summary.

Sure, it’s a long, clunky sentence. But it’s not supposed to be public-facing messaging.

Instead, this one-liner — which consists of your problem statement, people, mission, interventions, and 10-year target — is meant to drive focus and strategic clarity.

So if your team struggles to nail down this one sentence, you’ll struggle to pitch and struggle in fundraising. But if you get it right, you’ll capture attention and leave funders wanting to learn more.

Remember:

Your mission: vital. But your message: vague?