The Mikuska Group  

Storytelling: It’s not about you

I had the pleasure of attending the first Nonprofit Storytelling Conference on Nov. 6 and 7 in Seattle. It was a terrific  if exhausting two days and reinforced for me the importance of telling the right stories – so that you can raise more money!

  • The right stories aren’t about you, the organization. They are about “you”, the donor.
  • The right stories don’t talk about thousands or millions of people. They talk about individuals.
  • The right stories put the donor at the centre, fighting the good fight. The donor is the hero.

According to Tom Ahern, one of the experts at the conference, the first gift you ask of a donor is their attention. You do that by trying to get “mental nods.” As in, “Open this now if you’re a true believer in saving hummingbirds!”

After that, you tell them about the problem and how they, the hero, are going to help solve it. Not by using statistics. By writing like your Aunt Ruth. Plain spoken and right to the point.

And you ask for their gift.

I recently contrasted two direct mail letters to show a good letter and a really ugly letter. At the end of that post I let you in on a truly great resource from Jeff Brooks: The Fundraiser’s Guide to Irresistible Communications. Jeff also spoke at the conference, and he says:

  • Donors give because of who they are, not because of who you are.
  • Donors give because they are awesome, not because you are awesome.

And the sooner you get that, the sooner you’ll get to raising more money with storytelling.

Julie Mikuska.

P.S. Check out Jeff Brooks’ blog, Future Fundraising Now.

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