Research and Case Studies
Recent research into what works in fundraising appeals shows that a powerful story about a single individual moves donors more than general information or even stories about more than one person.
One of my favorite articles on the power of nonprofit storytelling, “I Want You to Meet Joe: How a Riveting Story Can Get Your Message Across,” appeared in the Stanford Social Innovation Review.
More Storytelling How-Tos
Watch a keynote presentation by Andy Goodman, a leader in helping nonprofits see the value in storytelling.
Check out the quick primer on nonprofit storytelling by Nancy at Getting Attention.
TechSoup offers eight tips for telling your story digitally.
Network for Good offers seven ways to improve your storytelling.
How can you inject storytelling into your day-to-day communications? Here are ten specific examples of ways nonprofits can use stories.
1) Include a story about a real person in every speech you give. Talking to potential volunteers? Tell a story or two about a real volunteer and the difference she is making in the lives of others.
2) Turn a story into a how-to article for your newsletter. Using the first person (”How I . . .”), have someone on your staff, a board member, or a volunteer explain how to do something, based on his own experience in learning how to do it.
3) Include testimonials in your event marketing. Ask people who attended your workshop to provide testimonials about how they personally used what they learned at the event in their own work.
4) Single out one person you are helping in your next fundraising appeal letter. Instead of talking broadly about the need for low-cost childcare in your community, talk about the plight of just one single mom.
5) Use serial storytelling on a campaign blog. Hook in readers with frequent updates about a particular person, animal, or item. Environmental and humane groups use this tactic effectively all the time (e.g. tracking a particular whale’s journey — “Will he evade the evil whale hunters?” — or a dog that has been badly abused, but is now on the mend after being rescued — “Will she live? And walk again?”).
6) Give each board member at least one good story to use, and have them practice telling it. Your board members should be advocating for your organization at all times. Give them real stories they can use that will put your organization in a good light with potential donors, volunteers, community decision-makers, etc. Make time on your next board meeting agenda to learn the stories and to practice telling them.
7) Lead your next press release with a story. The media loves real stories, so use them as angles in your press releases. If you can make the real person in the story available for interviews, that’s even better.
Incorporate a story into a training session. Who do you train? Volunteers, new staff, community members, others in your field? Incorporate a good story into your next training session.
9) Add stories to your annual report. They can take the form of personal profiles, first-person accounts, or short testimonials, but include stories about real people in your annual report to reinforce the narrative about your accomplishments and activities.
10) Rotate stories on your website home page. Collect stories about specific people related to your organization and rotate them on your home page.
ood stories about your nonprofit’s work may be your single most valuable asset in marketing your nonprofit to new supporters and in keeping your current supporters interested in your work.
But what makes a good nonprofit story? How do you put a good story together? You’ll learn how in this on-demand e-course. Work on it whenever you want, wherever you want, for 30 days when you register a la carte or for as long as you want when you purchase an All-Access Pass.
This e-course currently includes five lessons with video screencasts, articles, recommended resources, and exercises. It’s constantly changing as I add new material.
Please feel free to send me any questions you have via email. I’m here to help! I’m also available to work with you on drafting your stories for an additional fee. Please email me to learn more.
~ Kivi Leroux Miller
The Course Outline
1. Getting Started
Introduction: Why Stories Work So Well for Nonprofits - Watch the Video Lesson (Length: 8:48)
Where to Find Examples of Great Nonprofit Storytelling Online (Article with Recommended Links)
More Research and Resources on Nonprofit Storytelling (Article with Recommended Links)
2. Writing the “Challenge” Story
Writing the Challenge Story - Watch the Video Lesson (10:42)
Download the Challenge Story Worksheet: Word | PDF
3. Writing the “Creativity” Story
Writing the Creativity Story - Watch the Video Lesson (9:04)
Download the Creativity Story Worksheet: Word | PDF
4. Writing the “Connection” Story
Writing the Connection Story - Watch the Video Lesson (11:08)
Download the Connection Story Worksheet: Word | PDF
5. How and Where to Use Stories in Your Work
Questions to Answers with Stories describes the five questions that new supporters will have about your organization and how you can answer them with stories, including links to nonprofit examples.
Specific Ways to Use Storytelling in Your Work is a quick list of ways to inject storytelling into your overall communications and organizational management.
FAQs about Writing Your Stories and Using Your Stories. These Frequently Asked Questions come from participants in my storytelling trainings. Please add your questions!
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.
Look no further than these websites for some great nonprofit storytelling. Tell me about your favorites and if I like them too, I’ll add them to the list.
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.
Don’t see your question here or here? Email me and I’ll add it to the list.
What is the difference between a story for the media and one for a grant proposal?
There may not be much difference. It really depends on what you’re trying to convey. The press will love stories told in any of these three plots, but especially the Challenge and Creativity plots in more newsy reporting. You’ll find all three plots, including the Connection plot, in more feature-oriented reporting, like you see in magazines or the Living or People sections of newspapers.
And you’ll use these same kinds of stories in your fundraising materials. You’ll probably focus more on the stories that demonstrate the need and how your work, your solutions, are addressing those needs.
Don’t see your question here or here? Email me and I’ll add it to the list.
Which plot do I use for my story?
Just as three witnesses at an accident will give three different accounts of what happened, you can tell any of organization’s stories in many different ways, depending on what particular elements of the story you want to emphasize and what impression or point you are trying to make with your audience.
If you aren’t certain which plot to start with, try to identify the most important or memorable part of the story in your mind - what’s the hook that you think is critical to the story’s meaning? What makes this story really stand out in your mind? And what’s the second most important point in the story? Now look at the different elements that you need for each plot, and see how closely what you have identified as the central points of your story match up with what’s on the “what to look for” lists. Select the one that feels like the most natural fit and work from there.
Can I mix up the different types of plots?
Yes, by all means! Though one plot will probably be dominant, it’s very common to see elements of the other plots blending into a story. Treat the different plots as the threads on which you string your beads until you have the full story.
How do I actually write the story? What comes first and last?
To get started, use the “what to look for” elements in the order they are presented. Write a couple of sentences for each story element and use that as your first draft. Read what you have out loud a few times and then make adjustments until it sounds right to you.
How much detail do we need?
Enough to make the story feel real, but not too much that you lose your audience in the details. You don’t want them to get stuck on some tangent, like forgetting who the story is really about because you spent too much time perfectly describing the place the character lived. Keep your stories short, clear, and straightforward. You don’t want to make people have to think too hard about the message that you’re trying to give them.
How much creative license do we have to change the facts in our stories?
It’s essential that your stories sound authentic. That doesn’t necessarily mean that they have to be 100% true as told.
It’s OK to borrow elements from several different true stories and blend them into one, as long as it’s clear in your telling that this is an imaginary case. For example, you might start a story with “Imagine you woke up one day and found . . . ” and then tell a story that pulls in elements from several different true stories from your clients. Don’t make it too fantastical - your story has to still seem possible in the listener’s mind.
You can also tell a true story about a person, but change some of the identifying characteristics to protect the person’s privacy. If you are telling the story verbally, at the end, you can say something like, “I’ve changed a few details to protect Jane’s privacy - including her name - but her story is true.” If your story appears only in writing, you can put a footnote at the bottom that says, “Some details in this otherwise true story have been changed to protect our clients’ privacy.”
How do we go about capturing the stories in our nonprofit?
Get in the habit of listening. Listen for the various nuggets that you can string together. Lots of times, you’ll be having conversations with your staff, with people that you serve, or your partner organizations, and they’ll mention something that sounds like a story in the rough. What you need to do is start asking questions to uncover the real gems and polish them up.
How long is too long for a story on a website?
When in doubt, start with 500 words online and adjust from there. If you go longer, it’s important to includes good subheadings in the story, because people do skim when reading online. Your subheadings help guide readers through your story, sort of like chapter titles for a book, except you use a subheading every few paragraphs in an article or story.
