“Once Upon a Time” by Paul Lagasse | Advancing Philanthropy, Summer 2016

The subtitle of this article is “How storytelling can motivate donors to support your nonprofit without being asked”. Quoting fundraiser and author Ken Burnett, Lagasse distills a breadth and depth of storytelling resources into a handful of opportunities fundraisers can employ when working to motivate donors. Of particular interest may be an idea that turns upside down the default story narrative of charities, that of extolling the virtues of the organization. 

Donors want to read about themselves. 

There are three possible characters in a fundraising story; the charity, the recipient, or the donor. Most often organizations write stories that establish themselves as the hero of the narrative. If an organization creates an alternative to this common storyline, they will often replace themselves with the recipient. Now the beneficiary becomes the hero. But it is rare for organizations to make the donor the hero of their stories. Quoting Burnett, Lagasse writes that the purpose of stories to is motivate donors “to leap to their feet, passionate, angry, impelled and determined to make change happen.” In a list of suggested approaches, Lagasse leads off by suggesting charities write stories “about the reader, not the cause.” 

Donors don’t empathize with an organization, because donors aren’t organizations. Donors can sympathize for those in need, but the donor is not in their situation. But the donor who reads a story about another donor making an impact, a person living out his or her values, is inspired. The narrative is aspirational. And if the story is authentic and well crafted, the fundraiser is well on the way to creating opportunities where donors self-identify as supporters and the fundraiser’s need to craft a formal “ask” takes a back seat.

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