Cultivating Giving Part 1: Telling your story
It is truly hard to believe that it is that time of year again. Giving Tuesday is fast-approaching and year-end giving campaigns will begin in the blink of an eye.
The Cultivating Giving series will help you prepare an environment for giving. Each Tuesday for six weeks, we will bring you new insights to help you prepare your own efforts for success. So let’s dig in!
Telling your story
Over the past decade, we have been fortunate to work with dozens of nonprofits and socially-focused organizations at different stages of their lifecycles. During this time, we have seen how critical purpose is to the work being done, but also to how these organizations go about telling their story and sharing it with the world.
To set your organization apart, you must be willing to take your story and shout it from the rooftops. Storytelling increases engagement, attracts donors and funders, and drives your purpose forward.
Want to get started? Download the Storytelling Workshop.
Focus on one person
The world is filled with big problems that need to be tackled, but it is also filled with brilliant and altruistic leaders who have their own take on how to improve our world. We must tell these inspiring stories to motivate our communities.
As humans, we are drawn to stories, we are enthralled by recounted chronicles or elaborate fables. Our brains respond to stories, pulling us in and allowing us to experience them as though we are part of them.
Messages of sorrow can feel ever-present and overwhelming; it can be hard for an individual to connect with a cause if they don’t have a personal experience with it.
By telling the story of one person, one animal, or one neighborhood that you have served, you are putting a face to your work. You are allowing us to experience the story. We can empathize with the people and visualize their journey, develop a connection, and feel gratitude to those who supported them.
By sharing this story, you are also giving a voice to a person. You’re giving that person the space and time to share their experience with the world.
See how Siskin Children’s Institute did this with their Knock-it Out of the Park campaign.
Showcase your staff
Now, more than ever, we are craving connection. People are looking for ways to support their communities and finding organizations to which they can attach. They are looking for stories that ignite passion and inspire action.
Founders, staff members, board members, volunteers — all of these people are critical to your work. Your beneficiaries have likely become attached to at least one member of your organization, but likely more. They believe in not just your organization, but you. They support your work and know that you will create greatness into the future.
Just look at Patreon, a platform where creators get paid by their fans each month to create the work that inspires them. These fans pledge funds each month because they believe in the person creating the work and want to support them.
Showcasing your staff can be a powerful approach, especially for recurring supporters or those familiar with your work. This glimpse into the lives of founders and staff reminds your supporters where they are investing their money.
See how Make a Mark showcases their personality and their founders.
Channel what makes you unique
We’re all unique, even though we may be serving the same audience, we all have our own approaches, beliefs, philosophies, and life experiences that frame our humanitarian efforts.
Let’s talk numbers. The average person sees up to 5,000 branded communications a day! 5,000! A day! How are you supposed to stand out from the crowd with those numbers? Clean, unique communication is key to making your organization’s message stick.
Embrace the novelty of what you do. Maybe you’re a shelter for women, but also a social enterprise that helps provide those women with a livable wage. Maybe you’re a summer camp for children and families with disabilities, but you also have an event space for those same families and the rest of the community. Don’t think you’re unique? You are.
In the humanitarian sector, we’re often too humble to brag, but we should! We’re helping to tackle some of the toughest issues in our cities and our towns. Now is the time to tell anyone who will listen so we can continue to serve those most in need.
Grace Church isn’t your average church, and their fundraising isn’t either.
Connect the ask with deliverables
If people are investing any amount of money, they are probably wondering where it is going. In your fundraising, help your audience understand who will be benefitting in what ways. For example, by donating $20, you are feeding a family for a week. Or by donating $250, you are sponsoring a student for an entire year in an after-school program.
This goes back to your first point, you are putting a face to the money donated. The donor can imagine Jessica learning and growing in that after-school program or a family all settled in around a dinner table, laughing and enjoying a meal.
Every organization has a story to tell. The reason for your existence, the tales of success and failure, and the experiences of growth and change each add chapters to your story, creating a completely unique and captivating narrative.
Beds for Kids uses clear messaging and imagery to help you envision where your money is going.
In action
Take some time to complete the Storytelling Workshop over the next week and reach out if you have any questions!
Next, we will cover determining your audience. Let me know if you have any particular questions or prompts for this topic.
Need some extra help preparing your campaign? Give our Cultivating Giving Package a look. We’ll walk you through some of the exercises in the course, provide our guidance and strategy, and even create some deliverables like social media templates.
Cultivating Giving was prepared by Purpose Craft, an empathetic approach to design, marketing, and event planning. We believe in leveraging the power of creativity and technology to make something impactful for your organization.
