How to Tell Your Nonprofit's Story Effectively to Raise Funds
Telling your story in a compelling and powerful way is key when non-profits are looking to connect with potential donors to raise funds. By sharing stories that illustrate the impact of their work, nonprofits inspire others to get involved and support their mission financially. Let’s highlight how your nonprofit can effectively tell your story to raise big funds.
Identify: Start by identifying what your key message is and what you’re looking to convey to your constituents about the impact your organization has on it’s community. Think of it this way, why are you unique? Why are you the best at what you do? Why is your team the best? Once you’ve identified your “why”, you can start developing your story.
Personalize: Make it personal. We know that any good story connects because of the people or main characters within it. Share stories about individuals who have been directly impacted by your mission. This can include beneficiaries (those who actually receive the care or services), a volunteer (someone who believes enough to donate their time), or a donor (someone who donates their financial resources). This humanizes your work and gives you the ability to connect directly with potential donors.
Highlight: Make sure you’re highlighting the specific area you’re looking to support with philanthropic support. Are you raising money to feed more animals? Tell a story about donations making that happen. Are you looking to open a breast clinic to help survivors? Share a story of a survivor that would receive care in the space. Be specific to the area you’ve identified and personalized.
Establish Trust: show vulnerability and don’t be afraid of emotion and authenticity powering through your story. Powerful storytellers are those who can connect through their honesty.
Mix it up: use visuals, don’t just have one person speaking the entire time. Show renderings, have music involved, creating some infographics. Make sure you’re able to connect with the audience on multiple different levels as we all learn and connect differently.
Perhaps most importantly, do not let the moment of storytelling pass without a clear call to action: You’ve captured their attention, they’re in the feels, what are your desired outcomes in this moment? To JOIN YOU. You want to make a direct appeal for them to join your donors, to take action by giving financially to sustain or grow your mission.
So many times an organization crafts a beautiful mission with a compelling individual who does a phenomenal job of drawing the viewer in and getting them interested, and then, they don’t make an ask. The ask can be subtle, the ask can be bold, but the ask must be included. If the goal is to raise money by telling our story, you need to ask for money!
Have more questions on how to incorporate storytelling? Reach out to us! Facts tell and stories sell, and we would be happy to talk about how to better incorporate stories to drive revenue for your mission.
