Nonprofit Communications

Photo by RaeA

If you’ve been waiting for me to make the recordings from the Nonprofit Marketing Guide webinar series available, wait no more. The following titles are now all available when you purchase an All-Access Pass.

For $97, you’ll get to view all of these webinars and any I add in the next twelve weeks. You also get to attend any and all live webinars I host for the next twelve weeks, at no additional charge.

Nonprofit Storytelling: How to Write Your Nonprofit’s Best Stories
Recorded May 14, 2008.

How to Connect with Generation Y
Recorded May 7, 2008. Featuring Sam Davidson.

What Do Baby Boomer Donors Want from Your Nonprofit?
Recorded May 1, 2008. Featuring Jeff Brooks.

Online Writing: Dos and Don’ts of Writing for the Web and Email
Recorded April 24, 2008.

How to Write a Press Release Reporters Will Love
Recorded April 17, 2008. Featuring Claire Meyerhoff.

Branding for Nonprofits: What Is It and Should You Do It?
Recorded April 10, 2008. Audio only, featuring Nancy Schwartz.

Converting Your Print Newsletter into an Email Newsletter
Recorded March 20, 2008.

How to Write a Four-Page Nonprofit Annual Report
Recorded March 13, 2008.

Can We Find You on Google? Keywords and Search Engine Optimization for Nonprofits
Featuring David Westbrook. Recorded March 6, 2008.

How to Make Your Nonprofit Brochures Pop! - The Crash Course
Recorded February 27, 2008.

What Should We Write About? Storytelling Ideas for Nonprofits
Recorded February 13, 2008.

Getting Reporters to Cover Your Nonprofit: Tell Your Story So They’ll Tell It Too
Recorded February 6, 2008. Audio only, featuring Claire Meyerhoff.

Yes, it’s a ton of great training at a very reasonable price. Ready to get your pass? Register now.

A couple of weeks ago, I spoke at a conference in Nashville for Neighborhood Networks, a HUD program that supports nonprofits who run technology centers in and around public housing projects. The session was on nonprofit marketing, and I gave my talk on nonprofit website basics. On the panel with me was David Zermeno, executive director of Operation P.E.A.C.E., a Neighborhood Network center in Boston.

David shared several great stories about how simply being nice to people and providing really good customer service had created wonderful opportunities for his organization - perhaps more so than any other traditional marketing tricks. I asked David if he’d be willing to share one of his stories here and he agreed.

Here’s David’s story in his own words:

One day Gloria, a senior citizen, came into my center saying, “What’s this email thing all all about? My daughter-in-law keeps asking me to take a computer class and get an email account so we can communicate throughout the day. She won’t get off my back, but I hate computers. I’m so afraid of them. Do you think you can help me?”

The first thing I did was make sure she felt welcome the minute she walked in the door. “Thank you so much for coming in, Gloria,” I said. “Don’t be afraid,” said the other seniors in my computer class for seniors. “We all had the same fear when we started.” “You see that?” I said. “I’ve never met anyone who I couldn’t help. So have a seat; I’ll have you up and running with email in no time.” As I starting teaching her, I just tapped her on the shoulder and focused on her quick progress.

With her new email account, she became a regular in my computer class for senior citizens every Monday morning where they listen to jazz music and use my class as a community of hip seniors who have access to technology.

Shortly afterwards, Gloria told me her daughter-in-law was very happy and impressed with my computer program for senior citizens. Having an ability to communicate as a family throughout the day, their emails had brought them closer together and had clearly strengthened their relationship.

One day her daughter-in-law called to personally thank and inform me of a grant that was intended to serve community programs like my program for seniors. She strongly encouraged me to apply and gave me a lot of important information. She also informed me that she was also on the panel and would make sure that the trustees knew what a difference my programs were making for families like hers. I couldn’t have a better person as an advocate for my proposal. It was valuable marketing that money could not buy.

That experience taught me some important lessons when it comes to marketing:

1. Treat everyone well and make sure that each person feels welcome.

2. We are all connected, so never underestimate anyone. This senior citizen was the best connection I could have asked for.

3. People are going to talk about you. This is direct marketing. So make sure that you treat people well and give them a reason to promote you with a positive image.

It’s Kivi talking again . . .  this is just one of the stories David shared. He has many more just like it. Be nice. It works.

In preparation for tomorrow’s webinar on how to write your nonprofit’s stories (registration is open until 1:30 p.m. Eastern on Wednesday 5/14/08), I’ve been updating my list of good storytelling examples on nonprofit websites and thought you’d enjoy reading them too.

I mentioned some of these in my earlier post on Five Questions Nonprofits Should Answer with Stories, but if I repeat them here, it’s because they are that good.

National CASA is my current favorite. The video vignettes on the homepage with both children and volunteers are incredibly powerful, in a very short amount of time. The site also features some written stories, and while still good, they aren’t nearly as moving as the videos.

Interplast. Their blog contains wonderful stories about how their teams are repairing cleft lip and other birth defects around the globe. Lots of great before-and-after photos that really take you into the lives of the people they are helping.

Covenant House California, a homeless shelter for youth, features multiple success stories right on the home page. Each story explains the specific challenges the teens faced and how Covenant House helped them regain control over their young lives. Covenant House clearly inserts itself into each story, but leaves the teen as the central character, as it should be.

ONE Northwest, a nonprofit that helps other nonprofits with technology needs, shares several client stories. While these don’t fall into the “touching” or “inspirational” category like those above, they do clearly show the difference they are making for the organizations receiving their assistance. If you do capacity building or provide services to other organizations, rather than individuals, you’ll find yourself telling stories like these.

DonorsChoose obviously has great material to work with — who doesn’t like helping little kids learn? — but I especially like the way that this organization offers both short case studies and quickie testimonials.

Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Local Funding Partnerships website shares stories from a variety of community-based organizations that have received foundation funding. The foundation paid for storytelling training with Andy Goodman, so you’ll find some really well-developed and crafted stories here.

Heifer International uses stories throughout its website. I especially like their founding story.

HSUS also uses lots of stories and is quite skilled at taking the plight of one animal and using it to illuminate greater institutional injustices, whether its factory farming or puppy mills.

Read my other storytelling posts and check out my storytelling training.

New donors, volunteers and other potential supporters have questions that they want answered before taking the next step with your organization. These five simple but universal questions that people will have about your organization are best answered not with statistics or wonky program statements, but with stories. Your website is the perfect place to answer these questions.

1) What Do Other People Think About This Group?

Answer with Testimonials. When someone is learning about you for the first time, they’ll be curious what other people think about your organization, your staff and your effectiveness. You can talk about how great you are, but that’s not nearly as convincing as testimonials from other people who aren’t on your payroll (or even on your board). Testimonials are short quotes — little mini-stories — that offer insight into why someone is happy to be associated with your organization in one or two sentences. Gilda’s Club Seattle includes testimonials and photos at the top of nearly every page on its site that instantly convey how important the group is to its supporters.

2) Are People Here Like Me?

Answer with Profiles. When someone donates time or money to your organization, they are joining a virtual community of people who believe in the same cause. If someone is not quite sure if your nonprofit is a good fit for them, showing them that they fit in with other supporters can help overcome that barrier. Profiles of clients, donors, volunteers, members, and other supporters are a good way to show the different kinds of people who are involved with your group, making a newcomer feel more comfortable that they are in the right place. Iraq Veterans Against the War lets members write their own profiles as part of the open, online membership directory.

3) Does This Work?

Answer with Success Stories. Do you get the job done? Are you going to make a difference with the money I give you? Success stories show donors (and potential new donors) exactly what it is you do and how you do it. They can be full-length articles or shorter vignettes like those on the National CASA website. The multimedia stories on the home page show the children they serve and their adult court-appointed advocates speaking about the benefits of the CASA program. These stories end with this simple statement: “Children with a CASA volunteer are less likely to reenter Child Protective Services.” Does it work? Yes, it does.

4) What Difference Can a Single Person Make?

Answer with Personalized Giving Options. Big problems are overwhelming. If you swamp people with the enormity of the need, they are likely to tune you out and move on to something that feels more manageable. One way to overcome this problem is to focus on the difference that a single person can make and clearly demonstrate through storytelling that a new donor, as a single individual, can bring about change by supporting your organization. Tying donor actions or gift levels to specific results is a great way to do that.

Kiva and Donors Choose are the shining stars in this category. CARE’s “I Am Powerful” campaign also makes a clear yet less direct connection between individual donors and the people they are helping.

5) Can I Come Along?

Answer with Personal Chronicles. For your supporters to fully engage with your nonprofit, you have to be willing to share what’s really going on. A small but important segment of your donor base won’t be happy with the level of detail they get in your newsletters. They’ll want more and you should give it to them. Blogs are a natural way to provide this kind of ongoing, detailed, behind-the-scenes narrative about your work.

The Humane Society of the United States’ dispatches from the Canadian seal hunt are riveting (although brutally graphic). It’s one thing to ask supporters to put a “Save the Baby Seals!” bumper sticker on their car — it’s another to invite them to tag along virtually with the HSUS’s Rebecca Aldworth as she chronicles the bloody devastation on the ice floes day in and day out. A more heart-warming example can be found on the Interplast blog, where doctors chronicle their efforts around the globe to repair birth defects like cleft lip.

In both cases, these nonprofits are taking their supporters to places they would likely never physically go themselves, showing them in detail both the need for their support and what can be done with their donations and advocacy. By bringing your supporters along day in and day out, you can make them feel like they really are part of your team.

While storytelling is a wonderful tool for nonprofit marketing, it only works with a specific goal in mind. What point are you trying to make? Or in these cases, what question are you trying to answer? Without a goal behind your story, the words may be interesting or amusing, but the point will be lost on your supporters. Know what question you are answering before you start telling your story for maximum impact.

Learn More Here: Nonprofit Storytelling: How to Write Your Nonprofit’s Best Stories

. . . if they don’t see themselves in them.

I just read this interesting article by Tom Neveril called “Consumers Ignore Ads that Don’t Tell Their Stories” in Advertising Age. The first part of the article talks about some market research for a new beverage targeted at surfers and then analyzes what happened with Tide to Go’s MyTalkingStain campaign. The SuperBowl commercial was ripe for spoofs, so Tide set up a site where people could submit their own spoofs — stories about their own talking stains, putting themselves into the narrative. People liked the commercial because they could imagine a stain on their own clothes talking.

The bottom line is that people don’t really care about the rational claims they hear in ads, or about stories about other people not like them (or people they admire or can otherwise relate to). If they can’t connect in some personal way, they ignore it.

Can your supporters relate to the stories you are telling? They don’t have to be in the same situation as the person you are telling the story about, but can your donors share an emotion with that person? Is there some common human experience they can latch on to? Can they see themselves helping that person through your organization?

The second part of the article has some helpful how-tos that nonprofits can use to conduct ethnographic research (listening to people talk in their own environments, where the stories will flow from them much more naturally) and then use those stories in your marketing.

– Trigger memories through senses

– Know how to identify a good story (protagonist - antagonist conflict)

– Add an element of surprise

– Focus on the markers of a good story

Want to learn more about telling your nonprofit’s stories? Check out the webinar I’m hosting on May 14.

By Guest Blogger Claire Voyant

Storytelling. As marketing and PR professionals, we know storytelling works, but sometimes it’s hard to convey that to our clients (you nonprofits out there). After all, our clients are serious people doing serious work. Just the word sounds a little “light” doesn’t it? Storytelling. Like a group of children sitting around granny, quilt on her lap, eyeglasses perched on the tip of her nose.

But . . . that’s just the point! I can SEE granny, spinning her tale, the small children listening, “…and then the mama bear . . .” Now, instead of telling you about granny, what if I said this:

“Every year, the Elder Helper program sends more than 250 senior citizens to over 50 low-income child care centers to read to at-risk youth.” Yes, we have the number. We have the buzz words. What we don’t have is a picture in our head.

Painting a Picture. That is the whole point of WHY storytelling works. But don’t listen to me — listen to the expert. His name is Donald Davis, and he’s one of the most beloved storytellers in the country. Fans pack the house when Donald is in town and he’s the headliner at all the major storytelling festivals from Pigeon Forge, Tennessee to Mariposa, California. This former Methodist minister also works with corporations and nonprofits who want to learn how to turn stories into action.

I called his home in Ocracoke, North Carolina, and first had a nice chat with his lovely wife, Merle Davis. She works with nonprofits, too, and said nonprofits really should tell their stories — because they have the best stories to tell. Then I got to talk with the Donald himself, who told me, “I’m not online . . . I’m on the road!”

I got right to the point and asked him why EXACTLY do stories work.

“Because stories paint a picture in your head,” said Donald. “You don’t HEAR a story — you SEE it. Then you feel what that person is feeling. Then you make the human connection to what they’re saying.”

I see that. In my head.

Then I asked him why EXACTLY numbers and jargon don’t work.

“Because numbers and jargon do not paint a picture. They don’t mean anything to the listener. If I say to you “capacity building” you can’t see it. What does “capacity building” look like?”

I don’t know what “capacity building” looks like. Does it have windows?

There you have it, from the Ocracoke-dwelling, bow-tie wearing, crowd pleasing, tale-spinning story man himself. Stories paint a picture in your head and make you feel. You want your audience to feel your mission, don’t you? So paint a picture — with a story.

From now on, when I want to tell a client why storytelling works, I’m going to tell them a story . . . about Donald Davis.

Claire Voyant is Claire Meyerhoff, a media and communications consultant based in Raleigh, NC. You can contact Claire at meymedia AT aol.com.

This post is part of Kivi’s participation in the Blogging4Learning Challenge, where she is writing various kinds of blog posts (including publishing a guest blogger) to share what she’s learning about storytelling for nonprofits.

Most nights I watch the NBC Nightly News and last night I saw two stories with interesting nonprofit marketing angles. They provide two great examples of how to create story hooks that are so enticing that the media simply can’t pass them up.

Lesson #1: If your point isn’t quite compelling enough, it’s OK to elevate a secondary point that is.

The first story was the massive beef recall, the largest in American history, that was based directly on an undercover investigation by the Humane Society of the United States. I used to freelance for the HSUS, so I’m familiar with many of their undercover investigations over the years. They always reveal truly disgusting behavior by human beings against animals — this time forcing sick cows to their feet with electric shocks and bulldozers, since the animals are supposed to be healthy enough to walk on their own to slaughter. As disturbing as this story is, I don’t believe it would have been near the top of the broadcast without this secondary hook: much of the meat went into the National School Lunch Program.

Americans who might otherwise turn a blind eye to exactly how low we humans will go as we turn cows into steaks suddenly get interested when it’s little kids, many of them poor, being served hamburgers made from cows too sick to stand. The HSUS very wisely turned this into more than a story about tortured cows. It became a story about what the federal government is feeding kids at school, and they got massive exposure as a result.

In fact, the HSUS contacted school officials directly in 36 states on January 31 warning them about the beef, well before the USDA forced the recall this week. It’s a great case study in public advocacy — directly connecting animal rights and human health — and also great message development. If you are a big meat eater, you may not care how a bunch of sick cows are treated, but it’s hard to ignore children being fed beef that’s much more likely to carry mad cow disease and other contamination.

Lesson #2: A simple, real, personal story drives home a point better than statistics.

Toward the end of the broadcast, we learned about how U.S. government aid is supporting a foster home and school in Uganda that takes in children whose parents have died of AIDS. Many of the children are HIV positive as well, and our aid pays for their anti-viral drugs. It’s a heart-warming story, but the hook that opened and closed the story really drove home the point.

The founder of the foster home had been asked by a prostitute several years earlier for some poison. The prostitute was dying of AIDS and rather than orphan her two small daughters, who would have surely been forced into prostitution themselves, she wanted to kill herself and them.

Instead this woman took the two girls home with her and started the foster home. Today the two girls are healthy young woman, with a bright future ahead of them, because of the generosity of not only this one woman, but also the U.S. government. The story opened and closed with the foster home founder talking specifically about the two girls.

No matter what issue you are discussing, you are much more likely to capture the media’s interest if you can put an actual human face on the story. A so-so story about U.S. aid to Africa becomes riveting when you introduce the painful past and hopeful future of these two real girls.

If you aren’t getting the kind of media coverage you’d like, apply these two lessons to your media pitches and maybe one evening Brian Williams will be talking about your good work.

I’ve been reading several books on storytelling, most of which were written for a corporate audience, in search of great advice and tips for nonprofits. I’ll share some of the best stuff during this Wednesday’s webinar, “What Should We Write About? Storytelling Ideas for Nonprofits,” and in future posts here. But for now, here is my quick take on three of these books, in case you’ve been considering a purchase.

As a whole, I haven’t learned much. The majority of the pages in these books are dedicated to (1) convincing the reader of the value of stories in influencing others and (2) helping the corporate reader accept the idea that good stories include emotional elements, even if the corporate landscape is normally devoid of emotion. Since I already believe in the power of good stories, and since I think most of the nonprofit sector doesn’t suffer from the same “business-only straight-face” corporate persona problem, I got very little out of big sections of these books.

“The Leader’s Guide to Storytelling: Mastering the Art and Discipline of Business Narrative” by Stephen Denning is probably the best of the bunch. It explains eight different types of narratives with explicit information on what elements should be included in each of the different types of stories in order to achieve the stated goal. For example, when using the “Motivate Others to Action” story pattern, you don’t want to include lots of details about the person or place in the story, because what you are actually trying to do is to have your audience members see themselves in the story. If you include too many details, you prevent your audience for placing themselves within it.

I like the way that this book helps readers see the various components of a story and how those can be emphasized or eliminated depending on the goal of the storyteller. I’m going to spend more time with this book to really consider the ways that these various narrative patterns could work in the nonprofit sector. Most of the chapters are not perfect matches for nonprofit marketing, but I think the important kernels are all there. If Denning would write this same book, but for nonprofits, I think it would be a huge asset to the community.

“The Elements of Persuasion: Use Storytelling to Pitch Better, Sell Faster, and Win More Business” by Richard Maxwell and Robert Dickman advocates following a basic story formula that includes the Passion, Hero, Antagonist, Awareness, and Transformation. They tell lots of interesting and entertaining stories themselves, but the how-to advice is too vague and one-size-fits-all. It’s hard to make the leap from the corporate stories to the nonprofit sector. Still, it’s a pretty quick read and it does include some instruction, so I’d give it a tepid thumbs-up.

“The Story Factor: Inspiration, Influence, and Persuasion through the Art of Storytelling” by Annette Simmons. This book was the least satisfying of the three for me because it really focuses on the broader concepts of why storytelling works without much how-to. It includes tons of meaningful stories, but it’s really short on how to identify your own stories and make them work in specific situations. If you aren’t convinced of the power of stories, this book will convince you. If you are already sold on the idea, it won’t do much else for you.

This post is part of my participation in Michele Martin’s Blogging4Learning Challenge. I’m blogging to learn more about how nonprofits can use storytelling in nonprofit marketing and communications.