Tag: Storytelling

The Primary Purpose of the Story in Your Appeal

Steven  |  Ask
everyone has a story

Last week I blogged on a type of story about the “toxic parent.”  It’s a specific story type from fundraising for children that reduces how much money an appeal or e-appeal will raise.

But the “toxic parent” is an example of a larger lesson to be learned in storytelling in fundraising…

What To Watch Out For

Watch out for anything in your fundraising that takes the reader’s focus off of what’s happening today and what the reader can do about it.

What To Do

In the story you tell, here are the most important elements, in order of importance:

  1. The problem your beneficiary faces
  2. What will happen if the problem is not solved
  3. What will happen if the problem IS solved

Notice that HOW the beneficiary came to be in the situation – how they came to have the problem – is not even on that list!

I realize this is super conceptual, so here are some examples…

Example Time

You see a story like the following all the time in fundraising for refugees.

  • “There was an amazing couple in Syria.  They were both doctors.  But because of the geopolitical situation, the bombings started.  One parent was killed, the other escaped with the children and an uncle. 

  • Their town was turned into dust and rubble, the color of sandstone at sunset.

  • Their months-long journey to the refugee camp was arduous.  They had to leave with only what they could carry.  Though one of the things they carried was the key to their house – because they dream of returning home someday.

  • They are living in a refugee camp.  Will you please send them aid like medicines and clean water?”

It’s an incredible story… but it’s not the right story to tell when asking the donor to send them medicine and clean water. 

90% of that story is about how the beneficiary came to be in the situation.  Precisely 0% of it is about how the beneficiary needs the donor’s help today. 

The Primary Purpose of Your Appeal Story

  • The primary purpose of the story in your appeal is to establish the need for whatever the donor can do today.

Of course, telling a story has other purposes, too.  Getting the reader emotionally involved, for instance.  But if your story gets the reader emotionally involved but doesn’t establish the need, you’re losing money and donors.

The story above is a good example of that.  It doesn’t establish the need for medicines and clean water.  It focuses on the part of the story that the donor can do nothing about.  That means it’s the wrong story.

Or more precisely, it’s the wrong part of the refugee family’s story.

Here’s what would raise more money: focus the story on the family’s need for medicine and water now.  For instance, talk about the Uncle’s heart condition and how he can’t get his regular meds – but the donor can help provide them.

Or focus the story on how the kids keep getting sick from the contaminated water in the refugee camp – but the donor can provide clean water. 

What To Do, Part II

Go scan your fundraising.  Look at the stories you tell.  Do the stories you tell focus on the need that a beneficiary is facing today?

Or are they focused on how the beneficiary arrived in their current situation?  Or are they focused on something that the donor can do nothing about?

If any of those are true for you, focus the story in your next appeal on the need being faced right now. 

This might feel like you’re telling the wrong story.  Or that you’re only telling part of the story.

But you’ll be focusing on the part of the story that the donor can help.  You’ll be illustrating what needs to be done today and how the donor can do it.  And you’ll be thrilled by how much more money comes in! 

Outline for newsletter stories

Steven  |  Report
newsletter.

Here’s the outline we follow for newsletter stories.

It’s remarkably simple, and it does two powerful things:

  1. It makes your newsletter easier and faster to write, because you have a model to follow
  2. It makes sure each story helps you achieve the purpose of your newsletter

Sounds pretty good, doesn’t it?

Simple Newsletter Outline

PARAGRAPHS 1–2

  • Summarize the situation the beneficiary was in
  • Tell the donor the situation changed because of them
  • Summarize the positive situation the beneficiary is in today

PARAGRAPHS 3–5

  • Tell the beneficiary’s “story” as above, but go into more depth

FINAL PARAGRAPH

  • Thank the donor for making the transformation (from “before” to “after”) possible
  • Thank the donor for caring about the beneficiary enough to take action to help

Note: most newsletter stories are between 150 and 250 words. So the number of paragraphs will vary depending on the length of the story.

The Power of This Approach

When you use this approach, your donor doesn’t have to read more than the first paragraph to get your newsletter’s main message – that the donor’s gift made a meaningful difference in the life of one person or for your cause.

At Better Fundraising, we assume that 80% of the people who open your newsletter will only read the headlines, picture captions, and a paragraph or two. For those people (4 out of 5!), you want to do everything you can to ensure they still get your main message.

Other nonprofits will make their donors wade through tons of words to find out whether the donors’ gifts made a difference. Sometimes the donor will never find out. I’ve seen newsletters where the donor is never even mentioned.

But by following this model, you and your organization will communicate your main message to almost every person who opens your newsletter. That’s a huge win!

Repeat This Formula in Every Story

When a donor opens your newsletter, you don’t know which story (or stories) they’re going to read. So you want to use this formula for every story so – whatever they read – they get the message that their gift made a difference.

This approach will feel repetitive to you – since you see every story. But most of your donors won’t read every story.

It will feel repetitive to your staff and core stakeholders (like your board) because they’re far more likely than most donors to open every newsletter and read every story.

But Remember

Your newsletter is not for you, your staff, or your core stakeholders. It’s a communication vehicle to show the remaining 95% of your donors that their gift made a meaningful difference.

Why is showing donors that they made a meaningful difference so important?

So that they can trust that giving a gift to your organization makes a real difference

So that they’re more likely to give you a gift the next time you ask

So that they’re more likely to keep giving to you year after year

So that they’re more likely to become a major donor

So that they’re more likely to leave you a gift in their will

So no pressure… but make sure your newsletter shows each donor that their gift made a meaningful difference. And one of the most powerful ways to do that is to write the stories following this outline.

Read the series:

Fundraising and Storytelling

Steven  |  Report

Hey! I just made this short video for you because I was working late.  I’m preparing for the best fundraising conference out there – the Nonprofit Storytelling Conference next week in San Diego. Click here to watch the video – and I hope to see you at the conference!

10 Great Questions to Help You Collect Better Stories

Jonathan Steck  |  Ask
questions

As I wrote in my last post, Make Your Story a Memorable One, storytelling in your fundraising can be very effective. A good story will help to support your fundraising offer and connect your donor to what your nonprofit does.

There’s good reason for this, too. Telling stories is what humans do best. Ever since we were drawing pictures onto the side of rocks, storytelling has been our go-to form of communication. With a good story, we’re able to share our passions, our hardships, and our joys. It’s often the best way to explain how things work, how we make decisions, how we persuade others.

For us fundraisers, a good story is vital to engaging our donors. A moving story, if told simply and well, will invoke emotion and motivate her to give. But putting a story together is not always easy. Especially when you’re dealing with beneficiaries who may be embarrassed, shy, or reluctant to share about the difficulties they’ve faced.

So how can you collect the information you need to tell a compelling story in your fundraising communications?

To collect a good fundraising story (including emotional quotes that you can use to help the donor feel something) you need to first see several sides of the beneficiary. And one great way to do that is to interview a beneficiary in person, over the phone, or via email.

But it’s not just a matter of asking them to “tell their story.” You need to ask specific questions that are worded and framed correctly. Do this, and you will get the responses you need.

To help you get started, here are 10 interview questions I’ve used to get great responses from beneficiaries. If you end up using any of these questions, make sure that you adjust the wording to suit your cause and your nonprofit.

  • Tell me your first memory of (what your nonprofit prevents or supports)?
  • What did you find most challenging about (the cause)?
  • What was the best/worst thing to happen?
  • What would someone be surprised to know about you?
  • Tell me how you first got involved with (your nonprofit)
  • What did you think when you first met (your nonprofit)?
  • Tell me how (your nonprofit) helped you
  • If you hadn’t met (your nonprofit) what do you think your life would be like?
  • What does your future look like now?
  • If you had the chance to say something to those who have helped you, what would it be?

You can also pepper any answers with follow up questions like, “What makes you say that? Can you give me an example? How did that make you feel?”

Stories inspire us to act. So whatever it is that your organization does for others – providing food, clothing, safe housing, safety, or spiritual support – capturing and then telling a beneficiary story can support your offer and help you raise more money.

Happy Fundraising!

Make Your Story a Memorable One

Jonathan Steck  |  Ask
Group sitting on a sunset

How often do you find yourself telling other people what you do for a living?

Be it at a dinner party, a random event, walking the dog, or even at the grocery store, I’ll share what I do for a living at least once a week. And because it happens so often, I’ve had to find a way to tell that story in an exciting way.

Ever asked someone, “Oh, and what work are you in?” – only to immediately regret it?

The last thing you want to hear is a jargon-filled, boring explanation. It’s for that reason that I learned that the best way to tell my story was to make people feel something.

For example, I could tell people that I’m a fundraiser. That may get an interested grunt or two, but more than likely it will kill the conversation. Instead, I might say that I write letters to thousands of people every week. If nothing else, this would make someone curious and get them asking some questions.

Try applying this same philosophy to your next fundraising appeal: focus less on what your organization does, and more on making the donor feel something. Because we know that when a donor is emotionally involved, they are more likely to give a gift.

Make sense?

A great way to get our donors feeling something is to tell stories. Stories have been with us from the beginning of time. They help us learn. They inspire us. They move us. And they help us remember.

And when we use stories to communicate with our donors, whether through appeal letters, newsletters, or reports, they immediately become emotionally involved. Because just as people who ask you what you do for a living aren’t looking for a boring job description, donors aren’t looking for a laundry list of what your non-profit does.

For example, if you’re an animal shelter sending an appeal to cat lovers, then focus on the story of a cat that needs help. In your letter, explain the problem that the cat is having and what will happen if it doesn’t get help. And when you use a story to highlight a problem that the donor can solve with her gift, you position her as the hero.

Appeals work best when your donors are emotionally involved. And stories are a powerful way to introduce a problem and invite the donor to solve it.

7 Crucial Storytelling Tips to Help You Raise More Money

Steven  |  Videos

I make a lot of fundraising videos.

It’s a joy when a video helps a lot of people raise more money – and that’s exactly what this video has done.

I made it with Jeff Brooks and Chris Davenport.  It’s called 7 Crucial Storytelling Tips to Improve Your Fundraising. 

You’ll learn Jeff’s best tip for how to start your stories, my advice on the best stories to tell in appeals, and why repetition is so important to successful fundraising.

It’s a long one – 20 minutes – but if you watch just the first couple of minutes you’ll leave with a tip that will help you raise more money the very next time you send a communication to your donors. I hope you’ll watch it and raise more money!

The #1 Story that Raises the Most Money [VIDEO]

Steven  |  Videos

I think it’s the most helpful video I’ve ever made.

If you’d like to know how to:

  • Tell stories in your appeals, e-appeals and events so that more donors will respond
  • Tell stories so that your donors become more bonded to your organization
  • Tell stories so that you raise more money
  • Say what’s needed when sharing this thinking with the people in your organization who don’t like powerful fundraising

It’s all in there.  Watch the video!

Q&A: Donor-delighting, money-raising newsletters

Steven  |  Report
Newsletters can be part of the fundraising process.

I’m going to list a handful of questions I get all the time about donor newsletters.

My answers are going to be super-prescriptive, meaning I’m going to eliminate the gray area and just tell you what I would do.

Every answer has been tested to work better than (i.e., raise more money than) whatever approach was used previously. In most cases, the answers have been tested and found more effective hundreds of times.

Let’s get to it!

Questions & Answers

“What should the newsletter be about?”

It should be about your donor, and the effects of her previous gift. It should not be about your organization.

“What should the stories be about?”

Roughly 2 out of 3 stories should be about a single beneficiary. If you don’t have beneficiaries, then 2 out of 3 stories should directly show and tell your donor the impact her gift made.

“Should the stories all be about one thing?”

Yes. In our experience, newsletters that are themed – all the stories are about one portion of what your organization does – will raise the most money.

“What should I do to make my newsletter raise money?”

The back page of your newsletter should feature what we call a “story of need.” Describe a current need your organization or your beneficiaries are facing, and how the donor’s gift today will help meet that need. (Many donors would like to make a gift after hearing that their previous gift made a difference, and this story gives them a reason to make a gift now.). Additionally, your newsletter should also include a separate reply card and reply envelope.

“What should my reply card look like?”

It should look like a standard appeal reply card. The “action copy” that describes what the donor’s gift will do should tell the donor that her gift will meet the need that’s mentioned on the back page of your newsletter.

“What grade level should I write at?”

Around 7th or 8th grade. Writing at this grade level has nothing to do with the intelligence of your readers, or how intelligent they will think your organization is. It has everything to do with how fast and easy it is for them to understand what they’re reading.

“What will people be most likely to read?”

Your headlines, subheads and picture captions. Make sure that if a donor reads only those elements she will receive your main message: that her gift made a meaningful difference. Be sure to devote the appropriate amount of time to these elements; they are the most-read parts of your newsletter, so you should spend more time on them than you do on the stories themselves.

“What is the purpose of the donor-centric newsletter?”

Primary purpose: to show and tell your donor that her previous gift made a difference. Secondary purpose: for the donors who are now inspired to help even more, to make it easy for them to give a gift today.

“How often should the newsletter mention the donor?”

She should be mentioned in every story. You accomplish this by using the word “you.” In most stories she should be mentioned at least twice.

“Am I writing to all donors?”

No. Write as if only one person is going to read it.

“Who should I send this to?”

All donors who have given a gift in the last 18 months.

“Can I send it to our volunteers / lapsed donors / non-donors?”

You can, but it’s a waste of your money. Newsletters are empirically lousy at turning non-donors into donors (we’ve tested it). And if you include content in your newsletter for volunteers, your newsletter is less effective for donors.

Want More?

Those answers will help your newsletter start raising more money immediately.

If you’d like help taking your next newsletter from blank page to a donor-delighting, money-raising newsletter, take the Newsletters webinar I created with Chris Davenport (the founder of the Nonprofit Storytelling Conference).

You’ll see our super-simple template for your newsletter. It makes it as easy as possible for you. And I’ll walk you through all of the steps.

We received one quote that made my month: “Thank you so much for the webinar series – the best training $$s I’ve spent in the last 5 years.”

The type of story that raises the most money [VIDEO]

Steven  |  Videos
Telling a story on how to raise money.

There’s a type of story that works incredibly well to raise money…

…an incomplete story with a current need.

Here’s a video I recorded last Friday with Chris Davenport from the Nonprofit Storytelling Conference that explains what I mean.

There are two reasons this video is helpful:

  1. We talk about why telling “incomplete” stories is so successful when Asking your donors for gifts
  2. I share how to tell an incomplete story, with a specific example. Chris posted the video just yesterday morning, and he’s already getting feedback on how helpful the example is.

Watch the video! It’s 11 minutes long, but it goes fast. And the ideas I share will jumpstart your fundraising this fall!

One final thing to mention: I’ll be speaking at the Nonprofit Storytelling Conference this fall in Orlando (October 15 – 17). And you can save $400 if you take advantage of the Early Bird special going on for the next few days.