Help donors see themselves in the story

Can your donors see themselves in your fundraising stories?

Are they one of the characters, key actors in the situation you hope to make them care about?

Or are you asking them to peer through a window at people they don’t know, and perhaps know little or nothing about?

That’s hard to avoid. Because the donor is seldom one of the “characters” in the stories of our organizations. All they do it give money. All the action is done by others — your staff and the people who receive services.

But that “small” part in what you do is important. Without that part, the other stuff doesn’t happen.

That’s why our job as fundraisers is to put donors into the stories we tell. To integrate them the action. To help them see themselves as part of the story.

Because they’re not just funding a project. They’re expressing who they are.

Your story should show them that they can enter the story when they donate. They literally help shape the story and give it a better ending that it might have had without them.

Yes, it’s about your cause. And it’s about the people helped.

But it’s also about the donor: their values and identity.

That’s why you bring the donor in. Address them by name. Talk about the theory of change you are asking them to make possible.

Say it like this: Your gift will [do this important action].

NOT: Send a gift so we can [do this important action].

And talk about the donors’ values and the kind of person they are. They are living, fully present human beings. Not walking bags of “funding.”

More on Storytelling for Fundraisers.