What did one arithmetic book say to the other?
I really have a lot of problems.

When my youngest daughter was six, she came in and began reading jokes to me just like this one out of a book.

In many contexts, the most reaction these jokes would garner would be a groan or some raised eyebrows. To prove my point, here are a couple more examples:

How do messy students write their reports?
With their pigpens.

Who’s your best friend at school?
Your princi-pal.

However, I noticed was that these jokes were made significantly funnier because they were being read by a six-year-old little girl who giggled immediately after delivering the punchline. The fact is, jokes like these can be made a lot better depending on who’s delivering them.

When we think about foster care advocacy, there are a lot of different audiences each of us is trying to reach:

-pastors
-potential foster parents and adoptive parents
-organizational leaders
-donors
-local business leaders
-state administrators
-county social workers

If you’ve found that response to the message has fallen a little flat in certain circles, you don’t necessarily need to change the message. You might just need to change the messenger:

-Ask an adult adoptee or foster care alumni to talk to potential adoptive and foster parents
-Ask a respected public child welfare veteran who loves the Lord to help you speak to local workers
-Ask a pastor passionate about foster care to share with other pastors
-Ask a current donor to share with other business leaders why your work is a wise investment

Because sometimes, delivery makes all the difference.

A version of this post previously appeared in our Foster Roster e-newsletter which is delivered each Friday. We keep it short and sweet and fill it with practical articles, videos, blog posts and other tools for leaders like you working to help kids and families in foster care.  To sign up, go to http://bit.ly/1rwn6eO.