Even if you’ve never heard the term before, you’ve probably used the power of fundraising storytelling during your events, campaigns, or in interactions with parents, friends, or supporters.
Sharing individual success stories, anecdotes, quotes, and other narrative forms is a tried-and-true fundraising strategy that can contribute significantly to your group’s efforts. In fact, recent reports show that 64% of nonprofits leverage storytelling in their engagement efforts. When used intentionally, storytelling can make your campaigns and communications all the more compelling.
Organizations like yours can leverage the emotional power of storytelling to connect with members, parents, supporters, donors, and sponsors alike. Not only does storytelling increase fundraising success, but it also builds trust and garners higher volunteer involvement, personal investment, a sense of community, and local awareness.
Keep reading to learn how to tell your story for even greater earnings.
Before you begin your fundraising story, consider the elements that create a compelling narrative.
What is the problem or need your organization is facing? While the first few pages offer a peek into a new world, a story truly catches the reader when it presents a conflict or challenge that must be overcome.
Who are the characters in your fundraising story? This could include organization members and volunteers—the wizards behind the curtains—and those who will benefit from the fundraising and why. Consider zooming in on specific, named individuals rather than summarizing a demographic. This will add authenticity to your narrative.
What are your tangible goals? What solution or outcome can you identify to solve the challenge? What tools or resources do you need to do so?
Why is your story important? Who will resonate with it most? Consider what your main characters will achieve and how they will benefit from a successful fundraising campaign. How does fundraising storytelling connect to the core values and goals of your organization?
The combination of storytelling and fundraising isn’t intended for a passive audience. Allow your audience to become characters in your narrative and feel that they have a role in the story—because they do. Without your audience’s involvement, your story won’t make a real difference for your campaign.
To show your audience how they’ve impacted the story, consider pivoting to the practical.
Include the financial details on how their past donations drove the quest forward: What did you purchase with the funds raised? How many participants were helped, and in what way? Sharing a specific summary of prior fundraising efforts can help your audience feel more connected to the end results.
A nonprofit leader shared on Reddit that when the roles were reversed, and she was in the donor seat, she wanted to know: "Who are they helping? What's the impact? I don't particularly care about how much money you raised or who your other donors are. I want stories from your work."
Fundraising storytelling is an art backed by science. Studies have shown that people are as much as 22 times more likely to absorb and retain facts presented as part of an effective story.
Stories can literally spark neurological connections that improve how our brains process information when they inspire:
To achieve these results, make storytelling a group effort. Leverage those on your team with writing and persuasive speaking skills, and devote time to brainstorming, drafting, and workshopping stories that:
Another step to effective fundraising storytelling is understanding the difference between HEA (Happy Ever After) vs. HFN (Happy For Now) endings. While readers of romance novels often prefer HEA conclusions, successful fundraising storytelling is an HFN game. This type of story offers audiences a positive result without communicating that the quest is over.
Instead, the audience (or donors) continue to occupy a critical role in working toward additional positive outcomes. When the storytelling ends, you want your audience to be uplifted and committed to picking up the next tale in the series rather than putting the book down for good.
Once you craft your story, it’s time to share it with your intended audience. Depending on the medium, you can tell it in a complete arc or break it into bite-size stages, rely on text, or translate it into a progression of images. You don’t need to duplicate it exactly, but rather adapt it to fit:
You can also take the storytelling structure to the next level with a literal picture book, as this nonprofit manager on Reddit describes:
“Last year, we created a book to send to our largest donors that was personalized with letters and pictures of people impacted by their generosity. We had people handwrite the letters, and then we scanned them, which made the book look really cool and personal! They loved it!”
Consider incorporating images and leveraging creative text formatting to highlight:
To keep your storyline moving forward, blend structured events and campaigns with year-round, passive fundraising methods like RaiseRight.
RaiseRight partners with schools, churches, and other nonprofit organizations to help their members raise funds without spending extra time or money.
With RaiseRight, participants can earn simply by using physical or eGift cards or shopping online to pay for goods and services already in their budgets. Raise funds by purchasing everything from groceries and gas to family travel, clothing, and entertainment through your RaiseRight fundraising program.
Here are some next steps to get the ball rolling:
If your organization is already earning with RaiseRight, you just need your enrollment code to create an account and begin fundraising right away.