I have a strong belief in creating community among a nonprofit’s donors. I also believe in sharing stories and giving donors a window into the work being done to accomplish the mission. Now, creating community and sharing stories about the work are more important than ever.

Preparation is key to giving a great speech. Practicing your presentation helps ensure you’ve planned the right content for your audience. It also helps you internalize what you want to say so you feel confident going on stage. Here’s advice for how to practice your speech.

Very few of us get invited to speak based on our name alone. You’re invited to speak because you know something. You have experience with a topic, and maybe you’ve spoken about it before.

Once the general topic or subject of your talk is nailed down, get to work answering these three questions:

Small businesses and especially nonprofits should take a page out of Madeline’s book and remember that a heartfelt thanks from a real person goes a long way. So often these personal touches are reserved only for the big spenders, and that’s a mistake. Take the time to give genuine thanks to the people who support you. All of them, even the ones that make one small purchase or donation. They matter, and they’ll come back.

My husband and I were driving my parents back to the airport and laughing hysterically at the story my mom was telling. In an effort to have some fun conversation during our last hour together as we drove down I-5 that morning, I began a storytelling game I like to play based off a fun exercise shared in Matthew Dicks’ book, Storyworthy. My mom went on to tell us that a neighbor saw their tin can tree, got competitive, and decorated his tree with paint can lids.

Your audience wants to know only what is relevant to them. And they want to understand it quickly and easily. They don’t want to climb through the irrelevant or the complicated to understand how you can help them.

The only way to give the audience what they want is to follow the advice I share with every person I help:

Be ruthless.