Have you ever felt your eyes slowly glaze over while reading a report or case study because it sounds impressive but is too difficult to understand? The minute you move on to the next paragraph, you’ve promptly forgotten what was said in the previous paragraph.
For many professionals, working within a specific industry means you often default to the use of technical terms and buzzwords in your everyday professional communication. Using technical, industry-specific terminology is perfectly acceptable within these small, insular groups. It helps you demonstrate your expertise to your peers, signaling your credibility and belonging in those spaces.
Within the nonprofit and international development sectors, much of our jargon is inherited from donors, institutions, or policy spaces—to signal alignment with donor priorities and position our work to gain visibility. This in and of itself is not bad.
However, jargon quickly becomes ambiguous and difficult to understand when used outside of these spaces, like when communicating impact to non-technical audiences. Using obscure, technical terms, especially without context, means you end up confusing and alienating your audience. Your audience cannot connect with your story and mission if they cannot understand the who, what, and how of your work’s impact.
How jargon undermines trust and storytelling
One of the most effective ways to communicate impact is through storytelling. A good story is easy to understand, emotive, and stirs action. Jargon only stirs confusion and disconnection with the audience we are trying to reach. Think about the last time you read a report that actually stayed with you. Do you remember it because it was comprehensive and filled with technical terminology? Or do you remember it because it clearly showed what changed, for whom, and why it mattered?
The use of technical terminology is antithetical to storytelling. Some might even argue that it obfuscates the true nature of our work, leading to an erosion of trust. When language is difficult to understand, audiences will disengage. The more difficult it is to understand a message, the less believable it becomes.
Before you draft your next piece of impact communications, take the time to audit your framing. Scan through and identify one or two buzzwords that you can replace with words that are simpler and easier to understand. Try a simple rewrite like the one below:
❌ Jargon-heavy version
The program strengthened women’s economic resilience through capacity-building interventions that enhanced entrepreneurial competencies and facilitated access to sustainable livelihood opportunities.
✅ Plain-language rewrite
The program helped women grow their businesses and increase their incomes by teaching practical skills and connecting them to income-earning opportunities they could sustain over time.
Notice how this rewrite shifts from big, abstract concepts to plain language that is specific and easy to understand. It is specific about what was done, how it was done, and who benefitted as a result. When language is clear, impact becomes real, relatable, and measurable. It can be understood, questioned, and remembered. Clear communication allows people to see themselves in the work, to understand what changed, how it happened, and why it matters.
Clear communication should not be dismissed as simplistic. It is not a dilution of expertise, it is evidence of it. The ability to deeply understand complex work, and explain it plainly, is what distinguishes effective communicators. Prioritizing clarity means respecting our audiences enough to invite them into the story and not burden them with language they shouldn’t have to decode.
Related reading
For a concrete example of how context-specific communication improves climate outcomes, see The importance of indigenous communication for global climate action.