Make Room for More Storytelling

By Kelley Peterson 

Let’s talk about making more room for more storytelling, but first let me answer the question you may be asking, “Why do I want to do that?” Well, it’s because sometimes in spite of our best communication efforts, all donors see is… 

  • Blah
  • Blah
  • Blah

We’re not letting your donors see the forest for the trees. I’m not saying to do away with your remarkable impact numbers or your program listing. What I’m saying is streamline them and then add more emotional meat to those bones.

 

Facts Are Not Enough

People don’t connect with or remember bullet points. Talking points are only sticky when served up through stories and messaging that answer these key questions about your nonprofit organization. 

Who are you?
What do you do?
How do you do it?
And why should anyone care?
Dan Hill, the author of Emotionomics: Leveraging Emotions for Business Success says, “If you want to be successful at fundraising the more you make people think, the less they feel and the less they feel, the less they are motivated to give.” In my opinion, the best way to make people think less and feel more is through stories. Stories that donors can emotionally connect to because you’re sharing with them why they should care about your organization and how TOGETHER you can positively change the world. However, you may need to do some housekeeping to make room for this kind of storytelling.


 Streamline Your Outputs

By streamlining your outputs, you make room for more storytelling about your outcomes. Nonprofits, you’re notorious for being overachievers. Your list of programs and activities is so impressively long. However, those laundry lists of programmatic efforts are great as proof points for your grant reports to funders, but super hard on your donors’ eyes and don’t easily connect with their hearts. 

One way you can make room for storytelling is by organizing areas of service into three to five buckets. This helps donors quickly understand what it is that you do. For example, Friendship Home service areas are crisis services, emergency shelter, and transitional housing. 

 

Emotionally Tell Donors Why

Once you’ve simplified your outputs, you can start adding emotional storytelling elements to your messages that answer the questions Who are you? What do you do? How do you do it? And why should anyone care? Ideally, you want to share with donors how their gifts will impact your outcomes. In other words, how their dollars will help your organization make life better.


 Here are some examples from Friendship Home’s emotionally charged messaging statement:

“Friendship Home helps victims of domestic violence find physical and emotional safety offering possibilities to help change their lives when things are at their worst – to be hope they can feel.” 

This phrase shares who they are.

 

“Through crisis services, emergency shelter and transitional housing, Friendship Home helps victims gain insight into their trauma and guides them to use their strengths to rebuild their lives.” 

This phrase shares what they do.

 

“There is no judgment, no one telling anyone what to do. Friendship Home is simply about being there to help women and their children during these dangerous and uncertain times.”

This phrase shares how they do it.

 

“Here to be a hand to hold and an ear to lend, Friendship Home is a true friend empowering everyone who comes through their doors to achieve safety and freedom from violence.” 

This phrase shares why they do what they do. And it also articulates their ultimate outcome, which is empowering victims to be free from violence.

 

Positively Change the World

These are examples of how when you streamline your outputs you make room for more storytelling about your outcomes. Your stories don’t have to be lengthy or riddled with statistics, but they do need to make an emotional connection with your donors – telling them why their gift to your organization matters. Through great stories you can share how together, your nonprofit and its donors, you can positively change the world.


 If you need a hand in making room for more storytelling for your organization contact us and if you want to learn more marketing tips like these, go to KidGlov.com/nonprofit.

The post Make Room for More Storytelling appeared first on KidGlov.



source https://kidglov.com/make-room-for-more-storytelling/

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

3 Ways to Humanize Your Direct Mail

The key word in direct mail is “direct”. According to Merriam-Webster, the definition of direct mail is papers containing advertisements that are mailed directly to people’s homes. According to the US Postal Service, 98% of people check their mail daily and Americans spend upwards of 30 minutes with their mail on a single occasion. Many people, like me, love direct mail is because we can touch it, it comes to our homes, and it cuts through the digital noise that many of us experience while at work. Some even say that being able to touch and feel direct mail incites more human emotions than digital platforms do. It’s simple really. Anything you can do to make your direct mail feel like it was sent by a human vs. a robot, the better. Here are three ways you can give your fundraising appeals a friendly, human touch. 1) Humanize Your Direct Mail Through Personalization Using variable data printing is a great way to address donors and potential donors by name instead of the form letter...
Read more

KidGlov’s Katie Ripa Inducted into AMA Lincoln’s Hall of Fame

For anyone who knows KidGlov Vice President Katie Ripa , it’s no surprise that she was honored as the American Marketing Association (AMA) Lincoln’s latest Hall of Fame member. We’re not saying this to brag (okay, we’re bragging about her a little ), but simply put, Katie’s dedication to giving back is the stuff of legends. From her experiences as chair of Lincoln’s Young Professionals Group Leadership Council to traveling across Brazil with Lincoln Rotary Club 14, Katie exemplifies KidGlov’s value of courageously believing we can change the world. The KidGlov team was honored to celebrate her latest achievement at the 2023 Prism Awards in May. “Katie embodies what the AMA Hall of Fame is all about,” said Lyn Wineman , KidGlov’s chief strategist. “She’s an accomplished marketer who gives of herself to others, the marketing community, and the community at large. She was also the president of Lincoln AMA the first time the organization received the prestigious National Chapter Excelle...
Read more

Lincoln LOVs KidGlov

We love Lincoln! It’s why we set up shop here more than 11 years ago and why we were pleased as punch to be named one of its Best Places to Work in June. Lincoln’s Best Places to Work is sponsored by Woods Aikens LLP along with the Lincoln Human Resource Management Association and the Lincoln Journal Star . The awards recognize Lincoln businesses and organizations that have a proven track record of supporting and engaging with their employees. For the third time since 2017 we were honored in the small business category. “Culture has always been our key focus at KidGlov,” said Katherine Warren , our chief operating officer and head of culture. “Our manifesto focuses on giving our team the time and space they need to do the work they LOV for clients they LOV with a team they LOV.” Now in its fifth year, Best Places to Work administers an employee engagement survey to measure corporate culture to help pinpoint top workplaces. The survey, from Quantum Workplace, measures a wide range...
Read more