The secret ingredient for most-impactful storytelling

Storytelling in fundraising is not just a form of journalism, where you convey the action as completely and interestingly as possible.

It’s deeper than that.

Like most of the stories that transform us, the best fundraising stories are those where the storyteller explicitly invites us to join the story.

A great way to do that is to tell a “witnessed” story: A story told in first person by a person who took part in it or had up-close connection with it.

They not only tell us what happened, but they include their own connection and reaction to it.

Telling the story about someone who struggled with a serious illness could be strong and vivid. But it would be more so with comments like:

• “I wasn’t prepared for what Frank would look like after three months of illness…”
• “I knew it was serious, but Frank showed me it was far worse than I ever believed…”
• “I’m not a highly emotional person, but I couldn’t stop the tears when I saw Frank struggling to speak…”

Putting the narrator into the story and revealing how it impacted them moves the story onto a higher plane. More real. More persuasive.

It’s the way we tell stories to the people we’re close to. We never merely recite the facts. We enthrall them with “witnessed” stories.

When you need to tell a story that you signer wasn’t personally involved with, a next-best approach: Have them talk about how it felt when they first heard the story: “People send me a lot of accounts about their struggle with the disease, but this one from Frank really hit hard…”

Find ways to tell witnessed stories as often as you can.

More on Storytelling for Fundraisers.