Empowering Top Donors to Tell Your Organization’s Story

As a nonprofit organization, one of the best ways to expand your audience and attract more attention to your cause is through effective storytelling. While you and your staff can certainly offer potential donors and partners key information about your organization and your fundraising efforts, sometimes people need to hear the story from someone who doesn’t work directly for the organization. Your top donors are already passionate about your cause, making them ideal voices for your organization.

Today we are going to share some of the best ways to empower your donors to tell your organization’s story and assist with your community-building endeavors:

• Strengthening the storytelling muscle

• Cultivating your donors’ storytelling voice

• Showcasing the story

One important note to keep in mind: Avoid placing your donor as the sole focus or “savior” of your community, but rather an important partner in that work. While the story of their involvement with your organization is important to emphasize, always remember that your nonprofit’s mission and constituents (not donations) are the whole reason for your work. Truly effective storytelling strategies are anchored by this idea, showing donors how their role and potential impact fit into the broader, more important story of your mission.

Strengthening The Storytelling Muscle

Not all of us are natural-born storytellers, and this is one of the main reasons we see organizations shy away from asking their top donors to share the organization’s work. Developing a skill like storytelling is similar to strengthening a muscle, and practice makes perfect.

If storytelling is something they aren’t comfortable with, offer them the necessary support to help build their confidence, such as opportunities to learn about the organization’s narratives and programming directly from staff members. You even can host workshops during board meetings so that board members can practice their storytelling skills and connect with one another and the organization’s work while doing so.

Try to meet the donor where they are. Start small and build from there. Offer them resources that can help them learn how to talk about your nonprofit. Consider the article How to Use Storytelling to Build Community Awareness when looking to substantiate your conversation with donors about the significance of effective storytelling. You can also share examples of how other nonprofits’ donors tell their respective stories to help your donors get a sense of the storytelling role they can play. There are plenty of resources available online that provide relatable examples of powerful storytelling, such as Classy’s 3 Beautiful Examples of Compelling Nonprofit Storytelling and 6 Unique Examples of Nonprofit Visual Storytelling.

Try to empower your donor and encourage them to understand their imperative role in achieving your mission’s goal. What these examples of storytelling boil down to are creative and compelling marketing communications. It’s your task to strengthen the donor relationship and integrate the organization’s supporters into the overarching narrative seamlessly. Think of this challenge as an opportunity to connect further with your donors. They have a strong reason for generously being involved with your organization, and with a little guidance, they’ll be able to find the right way to share that passion with a wider audience.

Cultivating Your Donors’ Storytelling Voice

All of us have different reasons for connecting with organizations that matter to us, and so will your donors! It could be a past personal experience or a family connection. Maybe a friend invited them along. Regardless, they chose to support your organization out of all the nonprofits in their community.

Stewarding a meaningful relationship with your donor can look like: taking the time for a personal thank you phone call, asking for their feedback through a donor survey, gauging their interest when asked to volunteer, or inviting them to meet your nonprofit’s leadership. To cultivate their personal story and voice, talk with them directly to understand why they are so passionate about your cause. Make time to have an in-depth conversation and learn more about their experiences and what brought them to your organization in the first place. By getting to know your donors better, you’ll also naturally start to learn about their strengths and how they can enhance specific types of storytelling.

The memories and perspectives they share when speaking to you can form the basis of their future storytelling endeavors. These stories often are very personal and emotionally driven, which when directly linked to your mission, become powerful narratives in support of your organization’s work. Everyone has a unique life story to tell, so empower your donors to share their honest, first-hand experiences, and invite them to intertwine this with your organization’s history, fundraising goals, and program initiatives when telling their story.

Showcasing The Story

For your donors to effectively communicate your organization’s narrative, you’ll want to assist and empower them as much as possible. You can help them tell their story to a wide variety of audiences, ranging from small gatherings to large presentations. They should also be prepared to use the storytelling techniques we discussed earlier in one-on-one conversations, as ultimately, you can never know for certain who might be interested in contributing to your organization’s fundraising efforts.

Remember, storytelling doesn’t have to come in just one form. There are a variety of different storytelling mediums that are simple, yet impactful:

• Images or videos of donors volunteering with your organization or connecting with your mission at an event.

• A casual interview-style conversation between a donor and staff member about what inspires them or what supporting your nonprofit means to them.

• A series of slides that illustrates the connection between a donor, the nonprofit organization, and the work that you accomplish in tandem.

• Infographics that build community awareness of your nonprofit and enhance your nonprofit’s online presence with easy to share and straightforward data

The technique that you use to feature a donor’s story and cultivate their voice will be unique to each person. The challenge will be to establish a personal connection between the donor’s story and the audience even when not in a face-to-face conversation. Help their personality shine through, even when using written text and images. Some tips for doing so include:

• Link the story’s message to the bigger picture regarding the organization’s priorities.

• Provide a sense of shared purpose, identity, and community.

• Add emotional elements to practical statistics – make the information relatable to the audience.

  Balance “tell” and “show” against “ask” and “listen.” Create an immersive experience where the audience of the story has more agency to impact the story’s outcome or the character’s experience. Instead of being considered “audience” the reader can be a visitor or a player in the story.

With practice and experimentation, donors can find the medium that is right for them. Regardless of the mode of communication, your top donors’ networks offer you the chance to showcase how donations are being put to good use. They can act as an example of someone who contributed to the organization and noticed a huge change following their contribution. This is a great way to increase community engagement and build a new following for your organization. Challenge your donors to keep sharing their story and invite them to events and conferences to give them the opportunity to improve their skills. With your support and encouragement, they’ll continue to feel excited about spreading the word about your organization. Through the experience, they may even find that they’ve grown on a personal level, and even become more connected with their community.

Conclusion

As a nonprofit organization, it’s critical to bring forward a variety of voices who are eager to share the story of your organization. Good storytelling can help to cultivate empathy from a growing audience and connect your community to the emotional core of your cause. Encouraging your top donors to discuss their relationship with your organization is something we encourage everyone to consider regardless of your organization’s size as a useful facet of developing donor relationships. With the right guidance and support, you’ll find many donors are excited to share their story and assist you with your community-building efforts.