What is a Persuasive Problem?

Every day you find yourself needing to persuade someone of something, both in your personal life and in your professional life.

In the context of your organization, you need to persuade a number of different audiences: your clients, your donors, your board, granting agencies, local civic agencies, professional groups, and local community groups.

Sometimes you know you need to persuade these groups about something, but you're not sure what it is.

Sometimes you know exactly what your message should be, but you don't have the resources to produce the message.

Sometimes you have the message and the resources to produce it, but locating your audience, and the best ways to reach them seems difficult or impossible.

Sometimes you may know the content of the message you need to send, but you need more information about the audience before you can craft the message.

These are all examples of the kinds of persuasive problems our class has addressed in the past.

We'd like to help you develop solutions that work for your organization, given the constraints, mission and audience that guide your work.