Why Your Year-End Campaign Isn’t Working: The Gulf of Inaction

Note: It was fun to be featured in the December issue of the Foundations Today newsletter by the National Association of Education Foundations. If you find that this resonates with your organization's latest campaign, let's chat!

Every year, education foundations enter the holiday season with a sense of purpose. Their needs are urgent, the impact is real, and the campaigns are built with care. 

Yet far too many year-end appeals underperform because an unseen barrier sits between the message and the donor. I call it the “Gulf of Inaction,” or the space where a foundation unintentionally creates emotional distance between its mission and the donor. 

Clarity in a High-Context Environment

In my work marketing education foundations, I’ve seen how rapidly in-crowd language evolves. The intent behind it is pure: to protect participant dignity and emphasize community nuance.

This context-specific verbiage helps win grant applications and connect your mission to corporate social responsibility. Those audiences are tuned into the evolution of language in your space.

But many of your community supporters, including essential donors and volunteers, are not part of those evolving conversations. They haven’t observed the growing community need or the impact of your work, but they are the lifeblood of your mission.

Donors respond to emotional appeals to meet their community's needs. When you use insider terms, you’re unintentionally shifting into high-context communication, which requires context that most donors simply don’t have. 

Instead of connecting emotionally, you’re talking past them.

When they hear terms like “housing insecurity” or “food insecurity,” they don’t picture the vulnerability of our neighbors. When you say “classroom resource limitations” or “capacity-building professional development,” they don’t feel the urgency that teachers face.

While precise, institutional language unintentionally sanitizes the humanity from our mission’s impact. To close this gap, we must embrace plain language for real-world problems and bring donors back to the table.

Kids Can’t Learn When the Real World Intrudes

Everyone in the world of education understands a simple truth: students cannot fully engage with learning when their basic needs are unmet.

If a child is hungry, tired, or unsure where they’ll be sleeping tonight, the best curriculum in the world won’t capture their attention. If classrooms lack essential supplies, teaching becomes improvisation rather than instruction.

If we want consistent, equitable access to opportunity, we must help clear these real-world barriers at the source. To do that, we must call them what they are.

A Lesson from Government: Plain-Language Improves Accessibility

Ten years ago, when I was working in government, forward-thinking agencies began reforming around plain language. At the time, they were framed as accessibility improvements: making sure the public could actually understand essential information and take action.

It works through an ongoing audit to:

• Understand what the public wants to do.

• Replace jargon with everyday phrasing.

• Test whether an average person can understand and take action.

Remarkably, these audits improve usability and satisfaction, while decreasing the need for customer support. They don’t “dumb down” complex content – they simply remove the need for technical translation. When successful, the public could act with confidence.

That same exercise would transform education foundation fundraising.

Education Foundations Should Do Plain-Language Audits Too

While it may be too late for this year’s holiday campaign, here is a strategy that every foundation should embrace heading into 2026, with the goal of increasing the efficiency of your community building.

Before your next appeal, ask:

• Does this message instantly resonate with your community?

• Does this language create clarity or cognitive load?

• Did we give a solution they can act on?

If the message requires interpretation, it’s adding friction that diminishes support.

Plain-language audits are a practical way to close the Gulf of Inaction. They ensure your marketing collateral, website, social posts, and appeal letters speak to your donors in terms they already understand.

Make it Easy to Support Your Mission

Psychology is clear: people make decisions quickly. They respond to clarity, emotion, and stories that feel familiar. They tend to scroll past messages that require effort.

You only have 3 seconds to:

• capture attention

• communicate a need

• create urgency

• and invite someone into your mission

If your language is high-context, donors won’t reject your cause; they’ll simply move on before they understand it.

The Path Forward: Speak in the Language of Your Community

Education foundations sit at the intersection of need and generosity. When you speak plainly about the challenges that students, families and teachers face, while giving donors a hero’s path forward, you drain the Gulf of Inaction.

Messages will land faster. Gifts will come sooner. Volunteers will step up. Community trust deepens and campaign performance improves. It’s not because the community changed, but because you spoke in terms they can act on.

In 2026, give your community the gift of clarity, where every message is unmistakably plain about the need, the urgency, and the impact. You won’t just close the Gulf of Inaction, you’ll open pathways for your community to rise and meet your vision.