Turning Your Top Donors Into Storytellers For Your Nonprofit

A compelling storytelling gives birth to a successful fundraising strategy; stories evoke emotions and actions. Be it visual or verbal, effective storytelling helps your organization expand its cause and increase its audience. Fundraising for nonprofits is so much more than just raising funds, it largely involves constant communication. It is usually assumed that narrating the story of your nonprofit and its mission is the responsibility of the in-house team alone. However, that is not entirely true. This article explores three different ways in which you can encourage and turn your donors into major storytellers for your organization. 

The Story On Display

In order to get your top donors to talk about your nonprofit, you need to be worthy of the attention and the buzz. This simply means that a quick check within the organization is necessary – what are you showcasing on your communication emails, one on one conversation, social media and your website? What you show should inspire your donors to do the same. 

• Include testimonials on your websites and other online platforms. Your major supporters should want to be a part of it. 
• Infographics are a great way to show what you are building. These are easy to share and pass around as well.
• Use of graphics that tell a story of love and generosity will inspire your top donors to do more than just donate.

Isolation Of Storytelling

Let’s begin with an example – when you hit the gym and wish to build a specific muscle, you isolate that muscle and focus strongly on it until it starts to show results. In the same way, you need to isolate storytelling like a muscle that you want to work on. It all begins with you and your team requesting your donors to talk about your nonprofit within their circle or on social media platforms. Make sure that these donors are well versed with the details of your organization. Not all of your top donors will be good at the art of storytelling, therefore you need to be prepared for that as well. 

• Help build the confidence of your donors. Offer them the opportunity to learn about your nonprofit’s narrative directly from one of your staff members. 
• Since board members can also be among your top donors, you can host a workshop where board members can hold conversations and gain more confidence to talk about your mission in public.
• Make use of article or video examples to show your top donors how they can be great storytellers. 
• Get to know your donors and where their weaknesses and strengths lie when it comes to narration and storytelling. 

Cultivate And Nurture

Building strong relationships with your donors can be a beautiful process. Everybody has a reason to connect with a specific nonprofit organization, so will your donors. Fundraising for nonprofits involves emotions and matters of the heart. Get to know the reasons why your top donors keep coming back to your organization – is it the mission? Did a friend or family member tell them about your mission? Why is your organization important to them? These questions may seem simple but the answers can become a hook, a way to really involve them into telling the story of your organization.

Cultivate a personal connection by talking to your donors directly and go for an in-depth conversation. Remember that their perspective can become the basis of their future storytelling path. The honest and first hand experiences of your top donors combined with your organization’s history, initiatives and fundraising goal can become the story you’re looking for. 

Conclusion

As you make efforts to turn your top donors into storytellers for your nonprofit, do not view them as a savior but as a partner in your work towards a mission. Let your donors know how big their help means to the organization and that together you can achieve more.