How to put storytelling at the heart of fundraising

The basics of storytelling

According to a study by Scientific American, 65% of our conversations are based on storytelling. We are telling a lot of stories. But that does not mean our stories are told well.

What constitutes a good story? The best place to start is by mapping out five essential elements of a story. Below we will consider characters, plot, setting, conflict, and resolution to help charities think about the stories they might tell and how those stories might look.

Charities do not need to cover every element mentioned below – and most stories focus more on some, less on others – but it will be hugely beneficial to keep the different parts in mind.

Characters

The characters are the individuals that your story is about. These are likely your service users, your staff, your volunteers, or your donors. These individuals will carry the story forward, facing and overcoming challenges, and showing the impact of their work.

Good stories show characters in action. And they also tend to show character development – the audience wants to see characters grow, change, fail, succeed. That likely means showing how they face challenges, how your charity helped, and the progress they’ve made.

Think also about perspective. That means thinking about which character is telling your story. Is the charity the narrator? Or perhaps a member of staff? Or can your service users tell their story, as we’ll discuss below? There are so many possible options, all of which could make great stories, but always consider the emotional connection that characters can create.

Setting

The setting can be anywhere. But it is likely that your stories occur where your charity is working. That might mean centring around the office – looking at what staff are doing – or it could be out working with your users – looking at how your charity is helping on the ground, or perhaps exploring the challenges that service users are facing.

Some stories, particularly written stories, do not need to be set in specific locations, but can allude to various locations where the story might occur. If you are a conservationist charity, for example, you might reference some of your early struggles, the absence of funding, then explain how you found your feet supporting conservation in various places.

Plot

The plot is the events that occur during your story. That means taking a wider view. Telling great stories is dependent on establishing your history: understanding what happened in the past, what is happening now, and what may happen in the future.

The past and the present can both work well to generate an emotional connection. Showing struggles can capture your audience, generate sympathy, and allow them to identify with your cause. The future is where potential donors can make a difference.

You want your audience to know that, with a donation, they can dictate how the story ends. Remember that fundraising is often the promise of a happy ending.

Conflict

Every great story has a conflict to solve. The conflict for charities is your mission. Everything you do, all the work you’ve done, is based around the conflict you want to resolve.

So, for example, charities supporting the homeless face the conflict of the lack of support for homeless people. Their mission is based on trying to resolve that conflict. So, define the conflict, show some examples, then explain how you are aiming to overcome the challenges.  

Resolution

Resolution is the act of showcasing your impact. That means the work you’re currently doing to solve the conflict and, importantly, the success stories you’ve already seen. Stories should show how lives have been improved, new paths have been forged, and brighter futures have been created – then double-down and show that, with support, you can go much further.

Charities do such amazing work in their communities. And one of the biggest mistake they make is failing to showcase that work effectively. Charities face huge challenges, but many also overcome those challenges, and they need to show users those happy endings.

The mediums for storytelling

Once you’ve considered the above, you need to think about how to tell your story. A story can be told in any medium and at any length, as long as you follow the basics of storytelling that we will cover below. Let’s start by looking at length.

The length of your story

Stories can be only a few words long, as with the famous example given by Nobel-Prize-winning author Ernest Hemingway:

“For sale: baby shoes. Never worn.”

In six words, Hemingway’s story provokes a huge amount of empathy: for the presumed parents, for the presumed child, for everyone involved.

The length of your story depends on the scope of the story you want to tell. If it’s a short success story about how you’ve helped a service user, perhaps the story can be confined to a 600-word article with a call to action to raise funds, or a social post, or even a short video.

If, however, you are telling the story of your charity from start to finish, all the good you’ve done over many years, then that may require an in-depth article upwards of 5000 words, or a 10-minute video, or even a recorded explanation embedded in an article.

Finally, the length of your story will be dictated by the medium you choose.

Defining the medium by the audience

There are so many ways to deliver your story. You can write an article, record a podcast, host a webinar discussion, or film an in-depth video. Or you could think outside the box, creating infographics, or drawing comic books, or perhaps even writing an entire pamphlet. Or you might want to keep it small, just producing a snippet or a short social media post.

To choose the best medium, think carefully about the message and the audience you want to target. Picking your medium based on your message is important, because you need to ensure everything remains appropriate. Publishing a story on TikTok about the devastating impact of war, for example, could seem a little crude. So think carefully about your message and decide on the most appropriate medium to convey that message.

Then you need to start thinking about audience. Think about how different generations consume media and the target audience for the story you wish to tell. According to reports, for example, Gen Z consumes more online video than other generations, so you may wish to target them with video content. They also like video games, which suggests interactive elements might work well.

In addition, according to a Deloitte report, 50% of Gen Z listed social media as their favourite source for news and content updates. That means that, if they are your target audience, you should focus on stories in a medium that is shareable and social-media friendly. 

Millennials consume content through different media types. According to a Collage Group report, Millennials particularly like tuning in to content while they do other tasks, such as working, studying, and doing chores. So podcasts, webinars, and oral histories may work well.

Or simply embed a recording of a written article above the article, which will increase the reach of your story, easily allowing you to traverse various mediums without much effort.

Gen X are slightly more complicated. According to a global study conducted by Global Web Index, Gen X spend at least 40 minutes more each week on social media compared to millennials, which seems surprising. Their overall social media activity was once confined to Facebook but seems to be branching out in recent years towards YouTube, Instagram, even TikTok. That means that videos might prove appealing to Gen X, as well as Gen Z.

Resources to help define your audience

The above insights are only the tip of the iceberg. Your charity should do more research, keeping abreast with the latest demographic and consumption trends, as well as the latest digital and consumer trends, and always keeping them in mind when producing stories.

Here are some websites and forums that will help:

• GlobalWebIndex: GWI regularly publishes important research that helps organisations better understand their audience. It provides deeper insights, supports digital decision-making, and gives organisations access to a huge wealth of data
• We Are Social: The We Are Social digital report, published in partnership with Hootsuite, looks at a variety of themes and trends. It provides data on digital from different countries, including data on the use of mobile devices, the consumption of social media, and much more
• Ofcom Communications Market: The Communications Market Report allows users to interrogate data from Ofcom, consumer research, and selected third parties, covering digital usage, the mediums that are being used, connection speeds, and much more
• Nielsen Digital Insights: Nielsen releases reports that highlight the behaviours and attitudes of consumers. The reports tackle individual subjects in detail, which will be particularly helpful if you’re looking for more information on specific digital trends
• For charity-specific trends relating to digital, check out some of our friends, including Cast, Catalyst, The NCVO, and many others. And, of course, check out the Charity Digital website for lots of informative articles, videos, webinars, podcasts, and more

Think carefully about the best medium to deliver your message and think about the best medium to reach the audience you want to reach. Then you can start to better develop the actual story you want to tell, using some of the essential devices of storytelling.

How users can tell your story

Your users will likely be characters in your story. But they can also be narrators, dictating the story from their own perspective. We’re talking about user-generated content, which has become a significant content trend in recent years. Let’s dig a little deeper.

Defining user-generated content

User-generated content is original content created by customers and users, often published on social media or other popular channels. User-generated content can come in many forms, including images, videos, reviews, testimonials, and so on.

User-generated content is an easy way to tell the story of your mission. It allows you to centre the user, rather than the charity, with a level of authenticity and personality that can boost the emotional connection.

The benefits of user-generated stories

The benefits of user-generated stories are many. As mentioned above, stories with users front and centre tend to feel more authentic. Indeed, according to a Stackla survey, consumers tend to view user-generated content as 2.4 times more authentic when compared with other content. That’s particularly important in the charity sector where authenticity is key.

Authenticity also engenders trust, which is important. Public trust in the charity sector has improved since the pandemic, according to government reports, but the trust still remains low. The mean trust in charities is 6.4 out of 10, which is a massive improvement on 5.5 out of 10 that we saw in 2018 but still lower than the levels of trust from a decade ago.

User-generated content acts as a trust signal by allowing your viewers to skip all the pageantry and get right to the crux of what’s happening. It’s essentially a short window into the lives of users, which helps the audience feel more involved and gives them an immediate sense of loyalty.

The focus on authenticity and increased loyalty tends to also help donor retention. People who already donate to your charity will see the user-generated content and feel a sense of ownership and feel their donations have already started to improve lives.

Popular types of user-generated content

There are so many ways to create user-generated content. You can do almost anything, ranging from interviewing users on a podcast, creating a video following their stories, or just asking for a written guest blog on your website. These are all strong options.

But there are some forms of user-generated content that are broadly considered more popular. We will look at some of these below and give a little advice on the creation of each.

Take advantage of imagery

That might mean asking users to send in pictures and captions that tell the story of their lives, or even creating a hashtag that is dedicated to a particular cause. Perhaps the images will show the challenges users are facing, with reference to how the charity might help.

Alternatively, you could showcase the work of volunteers, asking them to submit photos that show some of the progress they are making. You can use these photos to create a story,

You may not even need to ask for content. Many users, volunteers, and staff will tag charities, which means all you need to do is re-share. Alternatively, you can search locations and hashtags on socials and see if anything relevant and shareable pops up.

Conduct interviews

You can conduct interviews with your users, which you can publish in various forms. You could perhaps publish it as a podcast. Or you could simply transcribe the interview for readers, presenting it verbatim or in the style of broadsheet interviews.

Alternatively, you could film the interview and present as a video. You could use snippets from the recording to post on social to pique other people’s interests. All of the above options should centre on the user, forming an emotional connection and a glimpse of their lives.

Video diaries

A video diary can come in many forms. It could be part of a longer video, with a written script, that details the life of users, shows why your mission is so valuable, and shows the impact of your work. These are quite typical videos for charities, but often require a higher budget.

An alternative is a more authentic, low-budget version. You can present something close to ‘a day in the life’ of a user, showing some of the obstacles and challenges they face, showing how your charity supports them. Or, perhaps, a simple livestream would prove effective.

Social media takeovers

The final – and perhaps most well-known – form of user-generated content is the social media takeover, which has become popular in recent years. Various charities have already taken part in social takeovers, including:

• Scope: Scope handed over their Twitter account to Sam. Sam proceeded to explain to users what it was like being blind, aiming to raise awareness and spread understanding about some of the barriers people with visual impairments face every day
• CARE France: CARE France chose seven women living in poverty from different countries to post stories about their life on the CARE France Instagram account. The campaign was meant to give followers a glimpse into the women’s lives and how they could help
• Mencap: Mencap gave their Twitter account to Dennis, their pony volunteer, and asked followers to ask whatever questions they wanted – and, unsurprisingly, there were many

There are many other charities using content takeovers. They are an easy and effective way to immediately draw attention to some of the issues that are facing users, demonstrate your impact, while keeping an emphasis on local, authentic, and engaging content.

How to connect storytelling and fundraising

Remember, whether presenting user-generated stories or your own, that the goal is to demonstrate your impact, raise awareness, and ultimately raise funds. One of the biggest mistakes that charities make is to create brilliant content, but then neglect the user journey, making it difficult for potential donors to become real donors.

To effectively fundraise, charities need to give potential donors the best chance to donate – and that means providing lots of options, ensuring no digital exclusion, and making the process fast, simple, and easy.

The choice of fundraising option will depend partly on the medium and partly on the nature of the donation. But charities should rely on the following:

• Donate buttons
• Text to donate
• Online fundraising platforms
• Social media fundraising options

The above basically covers any content you want to publish. You can also direct your audience to donate during the story, with links placed in articles, at the bottom of videos, or even mentioned in your webinar or podcast. Always ensure there is a ‘call to action’ at the end, asking your audience to take the next step once the story finishes.

There are myriad options for digital fundraising. You simply need to pick the one that works best for your charity and do your research to ensure the user journey is easy.

In conclusion

So you’ve thought of your story, considered the emotional connection, ran through the basics of storytelling, created the story with users in mind, picked the best medium, and ensured that the fundraising option was easy-to-use and quick.

Using those simple steps, you can create brilliant stories that drive forward your campaigns, demonstrate your impact, and ultimately raise more funds.

At Charity Digital, we have loads more information on creating great content for fundraising, including videos, podcasts, webinars, events, and, of course, the written word. We also have advice on how to market those stories, from email marketing to social media, and beyond.

Check out the site for further information and pop a comment below if you have any questions. Thanks for reading and good luck creating your stories.