Community-centered outreach starts with a simple promise: we won’t waste people’s time. The residents we serve — and our volunteers, partners, and sponsors — are already carrying full plates. Whenever we ask for their attention, we should strive to make it worth their while.
A value map is a simple tool for ensuring there’s a little something for our audience in every outgoing message. Instead of sharing information solely because we think it’s useful or important, value maps help us focus on how that information addresses real-life needs for the people we’re trying to reach.
For many small organizations vying for awareness, it’s easy to get tangled in internal goals, programs, and accomplishments. But what pleases a Board often lands as irrelevant outside the operation. A value map helps us get out of our own way and into closer alignment with the people we serve.
What’s a Value Map?
People don’t arrive at our messages as blank slates! They’re parents, workers, caregivers, students, neighbors, community members, each navigating a mix of hopes, pressures, habits, and constraints.
A value map gives shape to this awareness. By breaking down our audience’s everyday reality into tasks, goals, and frustrations, we can find ways our intentions overlap. Then we can craft our message so that it speaks directly to what our readers genuinely need in that moment.
Mapping What Matters
We’re all more receptive to information when we can get something out of it, when it makes our life a little easier, somehow. A value map is a quick shortcut to this sweet spot where our message has the best shot at connecting.
By defining four key points, we can easily plot out our most effective approach.
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What people are trying to do (jobs, tasks, needs)
Everyone we’re reaching out to is already in the middle of something. People are rushing between obligations, seniors are managing appointments and routines, small business owners are juggling deadlines, and residents are navigating life’s daily complications. Understanding what our audience is trying to accomplish is the first step in making our message relevant.
Ask:
- What task or responsibility is this person trying to complete?
- What information would genuinely help them move through it more easily?
- What clarity would feel like relief?
- What outcome are they hoping for — even in a small way?
These questions shift our mindset from announcement to assistance.
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What makes that task harder (fears, frustrations, barriers)
No matter how straightforward something seems from the organization’s side, people experience a range of quiet challenges when it reaches them. Maybe a process feels intimidating. Maybe timing is unclear. Maybe the cost is a concern. Maybe they’re afraid of making a mistake or signing up for something they can’t maintain.
Ask:
- What might slow someone down or discourage them from participating?
- What might they be unsure, anxious, or frustrated about?
- What assumptions are we making that they may not share?
- What barriers — emotional or practical — can we soften or remove?
This is where outreach becomes an act of empathy.
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What they’re hoping to gain (benefits, outcomes, savings)
Every communication contains an implied promise. Sometimes that promise is small — save five minutes, avoid confusion — and sometimes it’s bigger, like learning a new skill or joining a welcoming community space.
Ask:
- What positive outcome does this person hope for?
- What would make them think, “I’m glad I saw this”?
- What would make this information feel like a gift instead of an obligation?
- How can we help them feel capable, included, or supported?
With our audience’s hoped-for outcomes in view, we’ve gathered the full set of insights we need. Now it’s time to look at what we want this communication to do!
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What we bring to the table
Keeping in mind all our insights about who our message is aimed at, we can suss out how to square that with what we seek to accomplish.
Ask:
- What specific thing are we trying to achieve with this communication?
(Recruit vendors for a tabling event? Encourage volunteers? Promote a meeting? Increase survey responses?) - Which members of our target audience would benefit the most from this?
(Parents? Vendors? Seniors? Youth? Business owners?) - Which of their goals can we address directly?
When our organizational intention aligns cleanly with our audience’s reality, the message feels more like a mission, than corporate branding. This kind of thoughtful communication invites trust, gratitude, and belonging.
Value Maps in the Wild 👀
How does value mapping actually work in the real world? Let’s say you’re a local horticultural organization trying to increase participation in your children’s programming. On paper, the audience seems obvious: parents!
Parents have a job: raising children — which includes keeping them entertained, engaged, and learning. From that lens, it might seem sufficient to copy and paste your website text into an email blast.
But parents are also contending with practical realities. They’re balancing budget, timing, transportation, and the fear of committing to something they can’t consistently attend. So your most effective outreach isn’t about how wonderful your programming is — it’s about how easy, flexible, and affordable it is for parents to take part.
The information hasn’t changed. The presentation has just been reoriented toward what matters in the rhythm of someone’s day-to-day life.
💡PRO TIP: Bring an Audience to Life with AI
Most local organizations have a strong, intuitive sense of their communities. But sometimes it helps to visualize an audience more vividly — especially when we’re juggling multiple programs or reaching unfamiliar groups. That’s where tools like avatars can be surprisingly useful.
Avatars help turn broad audiences into real people with names, routines, hopes, frustrations, and motivations. They make tasks, barriers, and outcomes easier to imagine — and easier to design for.
AI tools like ChatGPT can support this process by:
- generating realistic audience avatars based on our notes
- identifying common tasks, needs, and barriers for that group
- pin-pointing ways our messaging provides support
- testing our message (“How might this avatar respond to this announcement?”)
Avatars don’t replace our community knowledge — they expand it. Paired with a value map, they help ensure our message reflects the lives of the people reading it. (Read more about avatars here.)
A Kinder Way to Communicate 🤝
Most outreach fails for one reason: it doesn’t reflect the reader’s reality. A value map changes that by making communication an act of generosity rather than a distribution task. When messages feel useful — when they save people time, remove friction, or offer reassurance — they earn attention instead of competing for it.
🎁 If you decide to try a value map for an upcoming project and want a second pair of eyes, we’re always happy to help. Whether you build one with us or on your own, the goal is the same: clear, thoughtful communication that feels like a gift, not another obligation.
This blog is powered by East Falls Media, where we help small businesses, nonprofits, and local governments communicate with clarity and purpose.
