Most fundraisers know that telling stories is an important part of successful fundraising.
But telling a story isn’t a magic ticket to great results.
Many fundraising stories completely fail to improve results. When your story doesn’t work, the reasons are usually one or more of these:
- Your story has to be relevant to your donor. Think about what your donors care about. Does your story feed into that, or is it aimed at insiders?
- Your story has to be understandable to your donor. Does your story make sense to non-experts? Is it full of insider jargon and concepts?
- Your story needs to have a story arc that’s meaningful to your donor. Does your story go somewhere that connects with your donors life and values?
Jeff Brooks has been serving the nonprofit community for more than 35 years and blogging about it since 2005. He considers fundraising the most noble of pursuits and hopes you’ll join him in that opinion. You can reach him at jeff [at] jeff-brooks [dot] com.
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