Having A Powerful Why: Using Storytelling to Encourage Generosity
Christopher James Greicius. Do you recognize this name? You might not and that is okay! Christopher James Greicius was a 7-year-old boy battling Leukemia who wished of becoming a police officer. In 1980, his wish was granted when his local community in Phoenix came together to make his wish come true. Does this sound familiar now? It is the origin story of the now Make-A-Wish Foundation. How did you feel when reading that story? Did you feel empathy, sadness, perhaps you felt a drive of generosity? What you are feeling now is the core to storytelling and the reason you should give your fundraisers a powerful why.
Storytelling is the center of the Fundraising Cycle: Cultivating genuine relationships, asking donor involvement and advocacy, stewarding through gratitude, and repeating the cycle with renewal and referrals.
Cultivate
Develop a culture of cultivating genuine relationships with new or returning supporters. More times than not they too have a story of impact as to why your organization is meaningful to them. To improve fundraiser retention within your organization, take the time to listen to their stories, and with their permission, share them!
Ask
Utilize your bank of stories to ask for donor involvement and advocacy. Your stories should encourage generosity and invoke empathy with a clear call to action.
Stewardship
Go the extra mile when you thank your donors and fundraisers. If you can, provide context to how their donation or fundraising efforts are making an impact and tie it back to the original story utilized when originally making your call to action. In short, make your donors and fundraisers the heroes of the story!
Repeat
As you steward your supporters, be prepared to cultivate a relationship with them. Ask them their stories and use their experiences to refer and attract new potential supporters!
Noah Downs, @MyLawyerFriend on Twitter, shares a compelling story about his own battle with cancer and why it drives him to fundraise for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. He tweets, “For anyone concerned — I’m ok for now! I’m lucky to have one of the best doctors in the world and he’s keeping my outlook positive. The work [St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital does] every year helps fund research that can be lifesaving and life-preserving.” Noah’s story is a powerful why, and his why helped drive generosity within his Twitch community to raise over $22.1K.
How can you tell stories like Noah’s and provide your supporters a powerful why? Create a narrative with an identifiable victim. Statistics only tell a part of the story, but putting a name and an identity to those statistics can provide an identifiable and relatable narrative. When drafting your story, find a single opportunity to make a difference with a clear call to action; donations, enlisting fundraisers, encouraging volunteering opportunities, etc. Ensure that your stories stay honest and genuine and ask yourself, does this story make me care? Good examples of stories can highlight a struggle, before and after, or the experience of a conflict.
Charities Beware! There are some uninspiring stories out there and you do not want to fall victim to writing them. Avoid presenting issues that feel impossible to resolve, also known as a “hope gap.” An example would be providing a statistic about the amount of plastic that resides in the ocean. Instead, tell a story about how a local harbor is making changes to clean up and help in reducing plastic in the ocean and provide the direct impact that occurred. Your stories should bring your mission to life and provide that powerful why. So, what is your powerful why?
