In fundraising — and marketing of any kind when you get down to it — storytelling is the key.

It’s the key to engaging your donors.

It’s the key to inspiring and motivating your donors — to donate, to volunteer, to act in whatever way you’re asking them to.

We all love stories. It’s part our human nature. We’ve told stories before we had written language. They are an intrinsic part of who we are.

Donors don’t approach giving like they do investing

As much as we love to call major donors “donor-investors” and want to believe that these donor-investors will give us wads of money because they understand the good business sense in making positive change through our organization, that’s not the thing that does it.

People make donations because they have an emotional connection with your charity. And stories make that connection.

Our donors are smarter than that!

I know what you’re thinking.

“But our donors are smart, well-educated, reasonable, rational people.”

Yes, they likely are.

But that’s not why they make the decision to give you money or time or talent. That’s not why they invest in you.

They invest in you because they care. Because the cause you champion means something to them inside their squishy, mushy centers.

We have to convince them we’re awesome

“But our donors will only want to give us money if they believe we’re a good investment, that we use the funds well, that we know what we’re doing.”

Sure. But you can give them all of that knowledge and reassurance through stories. Stories about the good that’s been done because of donors like them.

Stories — moving, heartwarming stories — in fact, will convince them of those things better than anything else.

Things that don’t work (and do)

Bragging about children whose lives have been saved because of your organization doesn’t do that. (But thanking donors who have saved those lives does — along with a story about such a life.)

Promoting your latest piece of technology doesn’t do that. (But a story about the good it’s done that thanks donors who enabled its purchase does.)

Data on your productivity and ROI and how much you spend on administrative costs doesn’t. (But a story about how you helped someone with the money you don’t spend on admin costs does.)

Imagine this

Think, instead, of a story about a young girl. Her life was changed for the better, her adversity overcome, her hopeful future restored because of your donors. Donations paid for her surgery/the technology used in the surgery/the skilled surgeon. Or they paid for her therapy, or clothes, or education or whatever. It doesn’t matter.

What does matter is that her hopeful, rightful future was restored to her. Hope. That’s what your donors are investing in. Sell them that. In a story.

Last Tuesday, as I stood before a room full of folks at the Emerald Valley Development Professionals January lunch program, I realized what it was I wanted to tell them about storytelling in fundraising.

So, I told myself, “I’m excited! I’m excited! I’m excited!” (because that apparently works better to quell nervousness and do an awesome job than trying to calm myself down) and got on with it.

Turn to wonder

The non-profit I most recently worked for has a set of touchstones it asks employees to follow in their interactions with patients and each other. Among these are:

• Presume welcome
• Extend welcome
• Turn to wonder

There are few more that involve listening and other things. Seven or eight in total.

But “turn to wonder” is the one that matters right now. It’s about keeping some naivety in our outlook and being willing to let down our guard.

Journeys into communicating

When I first started writing as a professional, it was for a local weekly newspaper in North Carolina. It was a small town. We had one traffic light and if you missed it going South, the next one was in South Carolina.

I didn’t know anything about journalism when I first started. Fortunately, I had an excellent editor who taught me so much.

What I did know was how to tell a story. I knew how to draw people in, to hook them and keep them engaged.

It worked. Even if my approach was a bit unconventional.

Award-winning naivety

Early on during my time there, I wrote a story from the crime blotter. A guy was flashing women on the golf course in a nearby town. I talked to the Sheriff’s Department. I talked to a recent victim. And then a I wrote a story that won an award from the North Carolina Press Association for General News Reporting.

It went like this:

“It was a dark and foggy night. She looked up and there he was, stark naked in the picture window.”

The story went on to give all the facts, ma’am. A description of the incident, of the perpetrator and how the victim felt about it.

I never occurred to me that my take on the situation might possibly be offensive. Making light of someone exposing their genitals to unwitting women!

But no one got mad.

In fact, during my time at that newspaper, our circulation increased by 30%. I doubt it was because of the Sunday coupons. People liked being entertained.

Do you un-offend into boredom?

When you write to  your donors, do you worry about all the possible ways your message might be received?

Do you go through so many rounds of editing, your stories lose their life?

Do you censor yourself to the point of conveying emotionless copy?

I was fortunate to have an editor who recognized good writing and appreciated a little bit of quirk.

I went on to cover the school board’s shenanigans — all I needed to do was quote them accurately, as truth really is often stranger than fiction. And I had the pleasure of writing stories about local folks doing interesting and amazing things.

That’s what your donors want to hear about, too.

So forget every way you can possibly offend someone and tell a story that engages and keeps your donors’ attention. Wouldn’t you like an uptick in your “subscription rate”?

If you’d like to see it, here are the slides from the presentation. I’ll write more about it in depth next time.