Tag: impact

Three Stories that Move Donors to Give

Chris Davenport  |  Repeat
Stories for action.

The following is a hand-picked guest post from Chris Davenport.  Enjoy, and you can read more about Chris below.

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A simple (and kind of genius) framework to help your donor feel amazing — and keep giving

Donor communications can feel like a grind.

Whether you’re writing an appeal, a thank-you, or a report — you’re constantly trying to find the right words to keep people engaged, inspired, and giving.

And if you’ve ever thought:
“How many ways can I tell the same story?”
“What do I even say in this update?”
“Does any of this actually matter to the donor?”

You’re not alone. And you’re not doing it wrong.

The truth is:
You don’t need endless stories.
You don’t need a brand-new emotional angle every time.
You just need a simple rhythm your donor can feel—and respond to.

You don’t need a million stories.
You just need three.
And they follow a simple, powerful path.

And yes — it works whether you serve people, protect ecosystems, fund the arts, or fight for policy change.

Maybe your organization protects forests. Or fights for clean air. Or keeps art alive in schools.

You might not think of your cause as having a “beneficiary,” but you absolutely have something (or someone) at stake.

The key is to treat that thing — whether it’s a river, a painting, a policy, or a species — as a character in your story.

  • What does it need?
  • What threatens it?
  • What changes if the donor steps in?

If a wetland is about to be bulldozed…
If a coral reef is hanging by a thread…
If a mural is being erased from a neighborhood…

You have a story.
You just need to frame it like one. And once you do, these 3 stories become your new go-to.

And once you do, these 3 stories become your new go-to.

1. The Story That Asks

What your donor’s gift WILL do

This is where the donor steps into the story — not as a bystander, but as the person who can change everything.

You share a real, unresolved situation. The stakes are high. The outcome is not yet written.

And the donor? They’re the missing piece.

Example (Human story):
“Right now, Mia is 7 years old and skipping school — not because she doesn’t want to learn, but because hunger makes it impossible to focus.
With your $25 gift, you’ll place a hot meal in front of her tonight.”

Example (Environmental):
“Right now, ancient trees that house hundreds of species are days away from being cut down.
Your gift will help protect this forest from permanent destruction.”

This is the story where their gift WILL do something powerful.
It’s full of urgency, emotion, and possibility.

2. The Story That Thanks

What your donor’s gift IS doing

Now zoom in on the moment of impact.

This isn’t a receipt or a vague “thank you for supporting our mission.”
This is a snapshot. A sigh of relief. A small-but-holy moment the donor made possible.

Example (Human):
“Mia sat down in the lunchroom with a hot meal on her tray — just like you provided. She picked up her fork, looked up at her teacher, and whispered, ‘Tell them thank you for me.’”

Example (Environmental):
“Right now, your gift is fueling a team of rangers patrolling the forest line — keeping the chainsaws out and the wildlife safe. Because of you, protection is happening today.”

This is where your donor feels the impact of their gift IS in motion — right now.

3. The Story That Reports

What your donor’s gift DID

Now you complete the loop.

This is the victory lap — but it’s not just celebration. It’s an invitation. You show what their gift accomplished and what still needs to be done.

Example (Human):
“Because of you, Mia is back in school and smiling again. She hasn’t missed a day in weeks. But this morning, a new child walked in late… head down, stomach growling.
Will you give again so they don’t have to sit through class hungry?”

Example (Environmental):
“Your gift saved this forest. You kept the chainsaws out — and the birds, the trees, the life here?
They’re still thriving because of you.
But the destruction didn’t stop. Just down the road, another ancient grove is marked for clearing.
Will you step in again?”

This story reminds them: You gave. It helped. Want to do it again?

Why This Works (and why it feels so good)

These three stories follow a rhythm that donors love — whether they realize it or not:

  • The Ask Story shows what their gift WILL do
  • The Thank You Story shows what their gift IS doing
  • The Report Story shows what their gift DID

That framework — WILL, IS, DID — comes from Steven Screen at the Better Fundraising Company. And once you start using it, you’ll never go back.

Because when your donor sees their gift in motion, it builds trust.
When they feel what they made possible, it builds joy.
And when they’re invited to keep going, it builds momentum.

This isn’t just better storytelling.
It’s better fundraising.
And it feels better to send, too.

Bonus Tip: Want more stuff like this?

You’ll love the QuickApply Library. [https://nonprofitstorytellingconference.com/quickapply-library/]

It’s full of fast, practical mini-guides to help you raise more money with better stories. These aren’t the same old tips — most of what’s in there is new, or at least totally re-framed to be easier and more effective.

No fluff. Just storytelling tools that work.

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Steven says: “Chris Davenport is the founder of the Nonprofit Storytelling Conference – the most practical and impactful fundraising conference there is.  Chris has trained thousands of Fundraisers to use story-driven communication to raise more money and build deeper relationships with donors.  Check out his ‘QuickApply’ library if you’d like to know more, and I hope to see you at this year’s conference!”

An Idea to Help Your Donor Acquisition

Steven Screen  |  Ask
Bright idea.

When you’re talking or writing to people who are not donors, and you’re thinking about what to say, here’s a truth to remember: 

None of them care about your organization, but some of them care about your cause or beneficiaries.

So, don’t start off your speech or letter by talking about your organization.  Attempting to start a relationship by talking about something you know the other person doesn’t care about is not a successful tactic. 

On the other hand, if you start off talking about your cause or beneficiaries, then the people who care are immediately interested in what you have to say. 

Now you’re ahead of the game.

Now, the people who are most likely to donate are the people who are paying attention.  And they already know that you care about what they care about.

In the very first moment, you’ve established common ground with the people who are most likely to donate.

And I have to add, the “holy grail” is talking about your cause or beneficiaries and tying it to a value to everyone believes in.  Think opening lines like:

“No one should have to suffer from a disease when the cure costs $100.  And now that you know you can massively improve a person’s life for less than the cost a nice dinner out, let me tell you how you can do it and why it’s important.”

Now everyone is paying attention. 

Or you could start by telling everyone what year your organization was founded.

How a Strong Fundraising Offer Changes Everything

Sarah Lundberg  |  Repeat
Can you help?

I used to be a Director of Marketing and Communications for a nonprofit where I had minimal involvement with fundraising.

But then the nonprofit I was working at needed me to start writing their direct response fundraising, and I discovered a whole new world of expertise. This experience challenged the beliefs that my nonprofit and I had for how fundraising worked. But we started raising a LOT more money.  Let me share my journey…

The first thing that made an impact was developing strong fundraising offers for our direct mail appeals.

This meant we started being clearer about what the donor’s gift would do or promising what would happen when they made a gift, like “your gift of $50 will provide a food basket for a child while they are on school break.”

For years, we had been sending out appeals asking people to give but we weren’t that specific about what their gift would do. We asked people to give to help children in a certain country get an education. Or give to help support a church planter.

It sort of worked. The donors who were close to the organization and the mission would respond. But people who didn’t know the organization as well just didn’t seem to respond to our direct mail appeals.

“If they understood how important this is, they would give,” was a common phrase.

But how to get donors to understand?

When I started to learn more about fundraising offers, I brought back some new ideas, and we started approaching our appeals differently.

We started digging into the line items of budgets.

We started asking our program team detailed questions about how many people were participating in different programs, and every last detail they could give us.

This research meant we could put a dollar amount to doing a specific thing. And we could ask the donor to give to do that thing.

Instead of “give to help children in (country name)” we now had “give $35 to provide a backpack full of school supplies for one child in (country name).”

Instead of “give to support a church planter” we now had “give $5 so a church planter can reach one person.”

And suddenly our appeals started to raise more money.

The main change was that we were showing donors the difference they could make for one person with a specific gift.

I remember the first appeal we sent out with one of our newly developed offers. It was year-end — not a time of year you want to fumble things. I was… worried.

I remember saying to my boss, “What if this doesn’t work?”

“You know… it’s possible it won’t work,” he said. “But let’s still try it.”

Having a boss who was open to trying things differently was a gift. (I know bosses don’t always respond like that!)

But what it came down to was this… we could keep doing things the way we had always done them and get similar results. Or we could take a calculated risk based on best practice recommendations from an expert and raise more money for our mission.

And when things are only “sort-of” working, taking a calculated risk based on expert recommendations is a smart thing to do.

My organization went from raising around $10,000 from our direct mail fundraising appeals to raising $30,000, 40,000, and even $50,000 from our direct mail fundraising appeals.

Change can be scary, especially when you’ve been doing something the same way for years. But if you can work through the fear with your team, Better Fundraising can happen for your organization as well (see what I did there?).

“Did my gift make a difference?”

Steven Screen  |  Report
Make a difference.

At Better Fundraising we have come to believe that a large number of your individual donors are wondering something:

Did their gift to your organization make a meaningful difference in the life of one of your beneficiaries?

We think donors are wondering that because when an organization shows & tells donors the specific differences their gift made possible, and uses stories about the individual lives of beneficiaries to illustrate the difference, the organization retains more donors and raises more money.

So as you look at your communications plan for your individual donors, do you show and tell them that their gift made a difference?

If you’re not already doing this, you’ll be surprised at how powerful it is for donors to read the phrase, “Your gift made a meaningful difference” and be told a story about one person that illustrates the difference.

Approach to Appeals

Steven Screen  |  Ask
Appeal.

This month we’re sharing the ideas and strategies that had an outsized positive impact on the nonprofits we serve. 

Today’s idea is that there’s an approach to appeals (appeal letters and e-appeals) that, in our experience, tend to work the best.

Here’s the simplest summary of what the performance data leads us to believe:

  • The most successful appeals tend to be about the help that your beneficiaries or cause needs now, and how the donor’s gift will provide that help.
  • The less successful appeals tend to be about help that the organization has already provided, and request support for the organization.

When organizations change their appeals to be about the help that’s needed, and how the donor’s gift will help provide it, two things happen.  First, each appeal raises more money.  Second, the organization retains more donors year-over year.

Put another way, they start raising more money in the short term and in the long term.

Of course, appeals like this are only one element in an effective donor communications plan.  And they take a lot of thought to create.  For instance, appeals like this only describe part of an organization’s work.  You have to choose which part of your work to talk about, and you have to talk about it in an accessible way.

But if you create appeals that follow this approach, you’ll start raising more money immediately.

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If you’re interested in what it would look like to have Better Fundraising write and design your fundraising, fill out the “get in touch” form on this page.  We’ll reach out to schedule a chat. 

And if you fill out the form before the end of the month, we’ll give you our 2024 pricing for all of 2025, a savings of $3,500.

The Messaging Tactic You Can Learn from Political Fundraising

Steven Screen  |  Ask
Prevent bad outcomes.

There’s a messaging tactic that small nonprofits can learn from the political fundraising this election season.

(And by the way, you’re probably as tired of political fundraising as I am.  But let’s separate our tiredness from a tactic we can learn from.)

The tactic is telling your donors what their gift will stop from happening.

You see this in political fundraising when you’re told that “a gift will stop the other party from gaining power.”  Or “you’ll stop some bad thing from happening.”  You get it.

This is a message that most small nonprofits don’t take advantage of enough.  We constantly talk about the things that the donor’s gift will make possible.  But we forget to say the things that the gift stops from happening.

Take child sponsorship for example.  Classic child sponsorship marketing tells people that their gift will provide an education for the child, provide food for the child, provide access to medical care for the child.  All of those things are outcomes that the gift will make possible.

But that misses a whole slew of things that the gift stops from happening that are powerful and motivating!

For instance, when a young girl is sponsored and stays in school, she doesn’t become a child bride.  Sponsoring a boy means he stays in school and doesn’t enter the drug trade.  Sponsoring any child means they stay under the eyes of loving adults and don’t get caught up in sexual trafficking.

Each of those is highly motivating to donors.  And I think you can see how using this messaging tactic would make for fundraising that more people would respond to.

So I ask you, in addition to telling donors what their gift to your organization will make happen, do you tell your donors the negative things that their gift stops from happening?

When you do, you will have given your donors additional powerful reasons to give a gift today.  And in my experience, that has two powerful results:

  • Donors have a better picture of your organization’s work and what their gift accomplishes.
  • You raise more money.

Mr. Rogers and Fundraising After a Hurricane

Steven Screen  |  Repeat
Helpers.

Mr. Rogers used to tell a story about something his mother would say:

“When I was a boy and would see scary things in the news, my mother would say to me, ‘Look for the helpers.  You will always find people who are helping.’”

That little story always comes to mind after disasters like Hurricane Helene and Hurricane Milton. In the pictures and videos you’ll see rescue workers and volunteers who are helping.

It’s also when we Fundraisers play a small role in thousands and thousands of regular people who become “Helpers” – the people who see the news or read our appeals, stop what they are doing, and help by making a gift.

The way humans generously respond to needs will never cease to thrill me.  I hope you have the same experience.

Of course, I would prefer that there never be another disaster, large or small.

But when they happen, I’ll appreciate and rejoice in the generosity every time.

PS — If you’re a small nonprofit, and you need extra/emergency money due to hurricanes Helene or Milton, please read this post for our offer to (for free) write an emergency email for you.

Spidery Handwriting and Responsibility

Steven Screen  |  Ask
Responsibility.

The note from the donor was scrawled in spidery handwriting at the bottom of the appeal:

In case that’s hard to read, here’s what it says:

“I strongly suggest you remove this statement.  Never imply obligations to donors, or make us feel responsible for what might happen if we don’t give.”

Though I’m sorry that the letter caused the donor to feel distress, she perfectly expressed one of the reasons that fundraising is so powerful for our society:

Fundraising reminds us that we are responsible.

Each of us bears some responsibility for what happens when we give.  And each of us bears some responsibility for what happens when we don’t give.

At Better Fundraising, we believe one of the functions of fundraising is to “remind people who care that there is work that needs to be done.”

That’s not the only function of fundraising, of course.  Fundraising should show the power of beneficiaries to triumph, show how the world can be made better, and show all of us what’s possible.

So in addition to reminding people that they have responsibility, fundraising also reminds people that they are good and they have power.

But the fact remains: if what your organization is working on is important, make it visible.  Remind your donors what’s needed and what’s at stake.  (Our world isn’t very good at solving problems that it can’t see and doesn’t know about.)

You’ll get the occasional comment like the one on the letter above – because humans don’t always like being reminded that they carry responsibility.  But at the same time you’ll build an army of devoted donors who love “doing work that needs to be done” with you.

Why ‘Having Access’ Isn’t a Compelling Reason to Give

Sarah Lundberg  |  Ask
Access.

There’s a phrase I see used in direct response fundraising that always has me scratching my head.

Having access.

For example: Your gift will make sure a child has access to healthy meals.

Or your gift will help a cancer patient have access to treatment. Or your donation will make sure a student has access to education.

I’m not sure why this language is so enticing to organizations, but “having access” doesn’t provide a compelling reason for a donor to give. And it’s just not language that regular people use in their everyday life.

If you put on your donor hat, here’s something to puzzle over:

Would you rather give $30 so a child has healthy meals to eat, or give $30 so a child has ACCESS to healthy meals?

Would you rather give $100 to help a cancer patient get treatment, or give $100 to help a cancer patient have ACCESS to treatment?

Would you rather give $75 to help a student get a great education, or give $75 to help a student have ACCESS to a great education?

When we start to think like a donor, giving to provide access to something… just doesn’t measure up to providing the thing itself.

So when you’re writing your next appeal or e-appeal, try writing without using the idea of “having access” to something. Your writing will be stronger, your appeal will be easier to understand, and your donors will have a more compelling reason to give.