Nonprofit Storytelling: How to Inspire Connection & Support

It’s no secret that stories are powerful tools for nonprofits. For years, nonprofits have used storytelling to acquire new donors, inspire existing ones, and communicate the impact made possible by their generosity. To rally people around your cause, you need to gather and tell stories that spark empathy and bring them closer to your mission.

If you’re ready to build more meaningful connections with your donors through nonprofit storytelling, we’ve got you covered. In this guide, we’ll walk through how you can incorporate stories into your marketing and fundraising strategies. We’ll discuss:

• The Benefits of Storytelling for Nonprofits
• How to Gather Nonprofit Stories: Questions to Ask
• Tips for Effective Nonprofit Storytelling
• Top Nonprofit Storytelling Examples
• Collecting Compelling Impact Stories with StoryCause

80% of donors indicate that they need to see proof of an organization’s impact to continue supporting it. With the right stories at your fingertips, you can illustrate everything you’re able to accomplish with donations and more—crafting donor experiences that keep them invested for the long term.

What Are the Benefits of Storytelling for Nonprofits?

Before you can share attention-grabbing stories related to your nonprofit’s impact, you first have to compile them. There are many types of stories your nonprofit can collect, from the perspectives of beneficiaries to volunteers to donors. Through reaching out and listening to your donors, your organization can benefit by:

• Producing more complete donor profiles. Learning about when a donor is retiring, selling a business, getting married, or sending a child to college can inform how you approach them for support. Gather insights into each donor’s current priorities, connection to your cause, and the areas of your mission that they care most about. Then, develop personas around these details to tailor your outreach and appeals.
• Understanding donor motivations. Donors may be more motivated to support some programs over others. Talk to them about what’s important to them. What kind of change are they passionate about creating? What aspects of your mission do they resonate with most? Use what you learn to guide how you craft your fundraising messages to various segments of your donor base.
• Enhancing content creation. To keep your nonprofit’s community engaged, you need to consistently produce high-quality content for your email newsletter, social media pages, and website. Capturing donor stories allows you to accumulate a wealth of compelling materials to pull from. However, remember to ask permission before sharing a donor’s name and photo with your audience to respect their privacy.
• Identifying major and planned giving prospects. By meeting with your donors in person or over the phone, you can pinpoint which individuals are interested in making a bequest or a larger gift to your nonprofit in the future. Moving forward, you can focus on these donors to deepen your relationship over time.
• Increasing donor retention. At StoryCause, we’ve found that simply engaging your donors in story interviews can lead to retention rate increases as high as 4%. One-on-one interviews, combined with interactions with donors through their preferred channels, can capture authentic stories and make donors feel like an important part of your organization.

Your donors are people—not ATMs. Thanks to modern technology, it’s easier than ever to record conversations, document donor details, and unearth trends to enhance the donor experience and boost their passion for your mission.

How to Gather Nonprofit Stories: 6 Questions to Ask

When donors agree to an interview, they’re committing their time to help you understand more about their motivations and involvement with your nonprofit. To make the most of these opportunities, come up with clear and concise questions about their relationship with your organization. For example, you might ask:

• Can you share a little about what motivated your first gift? Was there an influential person or event that sparked our relationship? Open the conversation by bonding over what inspired the donor’s initial interest in your organization.
• Where would you like your giving to have the most impact? It can be helpful to provide donors with a list of options that align with your strategic objectives to learn which key areas of your strategic plan motivate donors the most.
• Do you feel like your giving currently has an impact? This question allows you to understand whether the donor feels “heard” by your nonprofit and how you can better report your impact to your donors going forward.
• Where does our nonprofit stand in your philanthropic priorities? Use this question to better understand how much of a priority your mission is to the donor. Are you at the top of their list, or are there several other nonprofits that they’re committed to supporting?
• What preferences or plans do you have for future giving? For example, a donor might share that they’re interested in giving through donor-advised funds (DAFs) or a family foundation. Additionally, you might learn specific communication channels they want to hear from you through. However, be sure you’re actually prepared to adjust your giving options and outreach according to the preferences they share.
• Many donors like you will name a nonprofit they care about in their will or estate. Is this something you have ever considered with us? Uncovering previously undisclosed bequests and identifying future interest is essential to any planned giving strategy. If the donor answers “yes,” invite them to elaborate and share how they want to make a lasting impact on your mission.

Each donor’s relationship with your nonprofit differs depending on their giving capacity, preferences, and commitment to your cause. Whether they decide to contribute as a recurring monthly donor or a major donor, taking the time to understand what they’re looking for in their experience with your nonprofit can go a long way toward securing their enduring support.

Tips for Effective Nonprofit Storytelling

If your nonprofit’s team is ready to become storytelling experts, use the following tips to guide your efforts:

• Choose your audience strategically. Your mid-level donors are the most logical focus from a strategic and return on investment (ROI) perspective. For most nonprofits, these donors account for over one-third of annual fund revenue. Investing time and energy into your mid-level donors allows you to identify your pioneers (donors who are ready to do more) and your settlers (donors who have reached their annual giving potential and need to be retained).
• Gather stories from multiple channels. As a nonprofit professional, you’re likely aware of the importance of interacting with donors on multiple communication channels. For every 1,000 email addresses, the average organization has 685 followers on Facebook, 208 on Twitter, and 160 on Instagram. Beyond phone calls and in-person meetings, encourage donors to share their experiences and interests in social media posts and online surveys to gain more insights into their behavior.
• Invite donors to call in. Remind donors that their voices matter and shape your programs for the better. At StoryCause, we’ve found that typically 4-6% of your donor population answer invitations to call in and share their opinions. This strategy allows you to pinpoint donors who care deeply about your mission and offers a convenient way to provide feedback. However, if you’re doing this in-house, it can take a bit of orchestration to dedicate staff to answering these phone calls.
• Include eye-catching visuals. Once you’ve gathered authentic stories from your donors and other key members of your community, such as volunteers or beneficiaries, you need to present them in a compelling way. Whether you’re including these stories on your website or in an annual report, use images and infographics to illustrate the impact that you’re making. Eye-catching visuals can immediately catch people’s attention and encourage them to read more.

Nonprofit storytelling can inspire both new and existing supporters to get involved. To make the most of the stories you’ve gathered, be sure to incorporate a clear call to action (CTA) when you share them. Doing so ensures that people know what next step they should take to help push your mission forward—whether that’s donating, signing up as a peer-to-peer fundraiser, or registering for your upcoming event.

Top Nonprofit Storytelling Examples

According to Give.org’s Donor Trust Report, 59% of donors consider accomplishments shared by an organization as a top signal of trust. Nonprofit storytelling can be a powerful way to communicate your nonprofit’s accomplishments and inspire empathy among your donors.

Let’s take a look at some nonprofits that successfully use storytelling to engage their audiences:

JSSA

Jewish Social Service Agency (JSSA) is dedicated to supporting mental health, helping people with disabilities land fulfilling jobs, caring for older adults, and providing comfort to hospice patients. To provide donors with a clearer idea of how they can help make a difference in the lives of people in need, JSSA added a variety of individual “Spotlights” to its annual report:

In these Spotlights, JSSA summarizes how the agency has created a positive impact on the community, using specific quotes and images of real people to humanize the stories.

Covenant House

Covenant House is a nonprofit organization that provides shelter and care to young people experiencing homelessness and survivors of human trafficking. To help supporters connect with its mission, the nonprofit has a dedicated website page that features stories from young beneficiaries, alumni, partners, volunteers, and donors.

On the page, visitors can skim through the names and short summaries of the featured stories, and then click through to read more. Each story is accompanied by a picture, and some even include a video of the person telling their story.

HonorHealth Foundation

HonorHealth Foundation is a community-based nonprofit hospital system with a mission to provide top-quality health care to local patients and families. Like JSSA, the nonprofit produced an annual report that donors and other supporters can peruse to learn more about the specific lives impacted by their contributions.

Toward the beginning of the report, HonorHealth dedicates several pages to share the story of a young patient who finally found an answer and a treatment for her medical symptoms after six years—thanks to HonorHealth and those who support it. When donors are able to see firsthand just how much of a lasting impact their contributions can make on a real person, they’ll be more likely to stay invested for the long term.

Collecting Compelling Impact Stories with StoryCause

Assembling and curating stories from your nonprofit’s community requires care, compassion, and patience. If your organization wants to tap into the power of nonprofit storytelling, this doesn’t mean you have to add more to your team’s workload. At StoryCause, our expert story guides are more than happy to lend our combined 50+ years of experience to connect with your donors.

Specifically, through our mid-level donor services, we will:

• Work with your development team to establish program goals, KPIs, and processes.
• Use phone calls to encourage two-way communication and immediate feedback from donors.
• Balance communications with welcome series, surveys, and appeals to create rewarding donor experiences on your nonprofit’s behalf.

We’ve collected more than 1.5 million stories to uncover insights about donor motivations and giving. To see firsthand how our story guides engage with donors, check out the following video:

Wrapping Up: Inspiring Action Through Nonprofit Stories

By gathering stories from your nonprofit’s donors, you can demonstrate how much you value them as individual members of your community—rather than just repeatedly asking them for more donations. These stories can go on to inspire other people to get involved as you share them through your website or other communications.

Over time, you’ll be able to better understand what donors are looking for in their experiences with your nonprofit and learn how to grow their support from year to year.

For more information on how to improve your fundraising efforts through storytelling, check out these additional resources:

• Mid-Level Donor Programs: Why and How to Establish One. By taking the time to strengthen your relationships with mid-level donors, you can secure more major and legacy gifts in the long run. Discover how to launch a successful mid-level donor program here.
• Grateful Patient Program: How to Inspire More Generosity. If your nonprofit is a healthcare organization, explore how you can build lasting relationships with patients and earn more for your mission with a grateful patient program.
• Impact Starts with Story. Download our free guide to learn about the impact that effective storytelling can have on your donor acquisition and retention.