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Fundraising Tuesday: Where does your nonprofit keep its stories?

July 11, 2017 by Dennis Fischman Leave a Comment

storybankThe judge shook his head in disbelief. Before him stood a bank robber, arrested for the fifth time. “Why do you do it?” he asked. “Why do you keep on robbing banks?”

The robber looked at him in pity. “Because that’s where they keep the money!”

A good story you can tell your donors is like money in the bank for your organization. Where does your nonprofit keep its stories?

If you want to tell stories that will touch your donors’ hearts and move them to give money, you need a place to keep the stories. You need a story bank.

Collect Your Nonprofit Stories

You get to work in the morning and realize it’s time to send out an appeal letter. Naturally, since you know it will dramatically increase the number of people who read your letter and give, you want to include a story.

What do you do? Do you start emailing and leaving voicemail for your frontline staff? How long does it take for them to get back to you? How much of what you hear from them is actually a story (as versus a dry timeline)?

Collecting your stories as you go solves all these problems. When you need one, it’s right there–and you’ve already figured out the story arc that will make it stick in the reader’s mind.

What is a Storybank?

“A storybank is a mechanism for capturing and sharing stories in a variety of media,” says Wendy Levy of the National Alliance for Media Arts and Culture.

  • Written–by the person who knows the story
  • Oral–notes from the story’s source, or a recording of them telling it
  • Photos
  • Videos
  • Quotable quotes

Elizabeth Prescott has good advice for how to start your story bank. Begin by

collecting the low-hanging fruit–those stories that your colleagues already know well and routinely share with each other (or with donors) to illustrate the
importance of what you do.
Then, ask (or even require!) staff, Board members, and volunteers who help you carry out your mission to report a good story every month. When something special is going on, make sure that someone is assigned to take photos and someone walks around interviewing people about their history with your nonprofit. Put it all in your story bank.

Tools to Have Stories at Your Fingertips

You could use tools specially designed for storybanking. Prescott likes TrackVia. Others have spoken well of Zahmoo or WuFoo. It’s certainly going to be helpful to be able to share the information you collect online, and no spreadsheet or word processing document can do that.

tools they can useThe problem with new technology is that often, the people in your organization won’t use it.

Learning a new tool feels like one more thing to do, on top of a pile of things to do that’s large and constantly growing (in every nonprofit I know!).

So, you are probably better off using tools that are familiar to people in your organization. Do you have a shared Google Drive?  Use that. How about a wiki, or a Dropbox? Use what people are used to.

If you have to, assign one person to be the address for the storybank and have everyone email their stories, photos, etc., to that person. It’s better to have a bank of stories that’s low-tech than not to collect those stories at all!

Tips for Banking Your Nonprofit Stories

  1. Think ahead about how you will use these stories. It’s possible to use them many different ways–and it’s a good idea! But if your sources can picture their stories–in print, or on your Facebook page, or on YouTube–they’re more likely to share them and shape them for an audience.

2. For each story, track dates, demographics and times used.
This tip comes again from Elizabeth Prescott, who says, “It may not seem as important when you only have a few stories, but the bigger your bank gets, the more you’ll wish that you had some good search terms so that you could find just the right person to speak about a particular topic or from the perspective of a particular social group.”

3. Make sure you have permission to use names and photos. Having a standard release form for people to sign is a good idea. In your story bank, keep notes (or copies) of the permission given. Even then, though, double-check. It’s better to use a slightly less vivid story than to make a client or a supporter feel bad about your organization.

You be the judge. Is storybanking right for your organization?

 

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Who’s That, Asking about Your Nonprofit? How to Find Out

July 10, 2017 by Dennis Fischman Leave a Comment

who are you speaking with

Why should this specific person care about your nonprofit? Here’s how to figure it out.

You’re having a conversation, at a party or business networking event, and you mention that you’re on the Board of Good Cause Inc.

“Oh, that’s interesting,” someone in the room says. “What is Good Cause Inc.? What does it do?”

It’s natural if your first response is to think hard about what you should be telling them about your organization.

(And in the last couple of weeks, we’ve talked about how to give an elevator pitch that invites more questions–and how to get out of the question-and-answer format and have a real conversation.)

But really, what you should be telling them is less important than what you should be finding out.

Two BIG Reasons to Ask More, Tell Less

Finding out who you’re talking with is just as important as actually answering their question, for two reasons.

beautiful friendshipOne: This could be the beginning of a beautiful friendship. If you succeed at having a real conversation, then pretty soon you’ll want to invite that person to an event, send them information that’s useful to then, or ask them to give time or money.

Any of those “asks” will go better if you’ve done your homework first. Start your prospect research now.

Two: Answer the question they’re really asking right now. Every time a person asks, “So, what do you do?”, the underlying question is “Why should I care?” And the key word there is “I.”

Different people care about what you do for their own specific reasons. Think about the supporters you already have. Different issues, different populations, even different service delivery methods get some of your people excited…and leave others cold.

The person who is asking about your nonprofit for the first time might fit into any one of those categories of supporters. But which? It’s up to you to find out, so you can address exactly the thing that matters to them the most.

Using Donor Personas to Figure It Out

You can’t read the mind of the person who asked you about your nonprofit. True. And you aren’t going to get to know them intimately all in one conversation, either. But there’s a shortcut you can use when you’re figuring out how to answer their question.

Donor personas are portraits of the typical supporters of your organization. (Some people call these “marketing profiles,” but the idea is the same.)

Most organizations will find their supporters falling into at least two different profiles.

For example, if you’re a community-based environmental organization:

personas

  • Jan might thrill to the way you get her grandson involved in after-school activities for a good cause.
  • Keri might think of you as the place that runs the community garden where she spends all her time.

As you start answering their question, remember that you have a mystery to solve: Is that new person you’re talking to a “Jan” or a “Keri”?

Finding that out won’t tell you precisely who that is, asking about your nonprofit. But it’s a really good step in the right direction.

 


Do you need help creating donor personas for your nonprofit? Could you use expert assistance crafting the questions that will tell you who you’re talking to?

At Communicate! Consulting, we help your nonprofit win loyal friends–starting with the first conversation! Email us to get started.

 

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TY Thursday: Open the Doors to Donors

July 6, 2017 by Dennis Fischman Leave a Comment

opening doors

Should you invite your donors to visit your programs? How open should the doors of your nonprofit be?

We’re not talking about a donor appreciation event here, or another fundraising gala. The question is, should you give the person who has donated to your organization the chance to see the organization at work, and how?

Yes, Invite Them In

Tina Jepson of Causevox has suggested:

Allow donors to get to know your organization on a more personal, intimate level by offering a behind-the-scenes look at your nonprofit operations with a tour, lunch and learn program, etc.

(This is #13 on her list of 20 thank-you ideas your nonprofit can try. Check out the whole list!)

Ann Green thinks holding a donor open house is a way to “do something special for your donors.” And F. Duke Haddad of the Salvation Army agrees.

In truth, the only way you can receive 100 percent feedback and emotional ties is by having someone visit your organizational facilities to meet the cast of those in your organizational orbit.

I have to agree, too. Donor appreciation events are fine–and they give the donors the chance to meet one another, so they double as networking events. That’s a tangible way to say “thanks” to your donors!

But appreciation events are separate from the daily life of your nonprofit. Attending those events won’t let the people who support your organization see their gifts in action.

And seeing that is what will motivate them to make that next gift.

Not So Fast!

Before you rush to propose to your organization that you open the doors, however, think about it from the program staff point of view.

Bringing donors in to observe the program could disrupt what you’re supposed to be doing with and for the clients that day.

It could thrust staff into a role they haven’t prepared for and don’t feel good about performing.

It could be a liability issue, if there’s any chance the donors could harm or be harmed. Or it could backfire. Let’s be honest: not every day in the life of your nonprofit is something you’d like donors to carry around with them when they think about their donation dollars at work.

At the very least, it’s going to create extra work. So, if you’re going to invite donors to visit, the way you bring them in is crucial. There needs to be something in it for the staff and the program participants, too!

How to Open Your Doors and Be Happy

Here’s one of the best suggestions I’ve heard for how to bring your donors to the programs: Have a volunteer day.

Figure out something that actually needs doing (not a make-work project). Invite donors to pitch in along with staff and clients to get it done. Give them chances to relax and just talk together.

You, the development officer, should circulate, make introductions, and answer questions as they come up. Take a moment somewhere along the way to thank the donors for what they have already given and what they are giving today, by showing up.

If you have a client who wants to tell his or her story, give them a chance. But please, don’t micro-manage the event. The donors are not there to see you. They’ve come to see what a good organization they’re supporting, and feel good about themselves.

Have you already invited your donors to volunteer at your organization? What advice would you share about planning ahead and making the day a happy one?

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