Baking with Purpose: Telling Your Why
Why do you do what you do? What gets you up in the morning? Why—when you could get paid more and work less—do you come to work each day at a nonprofit? I KNOW there’s a reason.
These are the questions I think we should be reflecting on more as nonprofit fundraisers and leaders.
But can I tell you what someone told me recently when I asked “Why do you do this work?” They said “because 2,000 people return from incarceration back into our community each year, and we want to make that transition easier.”
Okay, yes, that’s a good reason. Lots of people to help and support. But WHY?!? Why people returning from incarceration. There are also lots of elderly people or young children that need help? There are other great causes that impact even more people…so is it the number of people in need that determines your WHY? No, I don’t think so.
The reason you do what you do? I know there’s a story behind it, not a number.
And that’s what your donors want to hear. Not the stats (though the stats are helpful when sharing the sheer volume of your impact). Not the systems analysis (though the systems analysis is helpful in getting them to understand how you work). No, donors want stories.
WHY? Because stories are how we build relationships. We build relationships by being authentic and vulnerable. So if we want to build relationships with our donors, we have to tell them stories.
Think about it this way. You’ve met someone interesting at a networking event. You invite them out to coffee to get to know them better. What do you want to hear from them and share with them? The number of social media posts you each put up last year? The number of books you each read last year? The process by which you make your bed each morning?
No! What you want to exchange is information about WHO you are, and we learn who people are by hearing their stories.
Let me tell you about another client. I asked the same question, “why do you do what you do?” The answer, “I had a friend that taught at a school for kids with speech and communication disorders. He asked me to come teach a beatboxing workshop. I thought that sounded like fun, so I did it. But the way those kids lit up…kids who had struggled to communicate all of their lives found a way to use their voice in a way that expressed their deepest feelings. I saw them free themselves. It hit me so profoundly. I thought every child should have the opportunity to express themselves and be understood. I just couldn’t stop after I saw the power this tool had.”
WOW! So who inspired you more? The client that is aiming to serve 2,000 people per year or the one who just told you the transformative power of teaching kids how to beatbox? I bet you can tell which one sent a shiver down my spine and which one got met with me saying “okay, but WHY?!?!”
We have to tell stories to connect with our donors. I know that’s easier said than done, so here’s a who, what, where, when, and how to story gathering for campaigns.
Who do I gather stories from?
Anyone who knows your nonprofit can tell the stories that your donors want to hear. Now, if you are working with young people (under 18) or clients whose stories are sensitive/traumatic, I want you to scroll right down to the “how” part of this because HOW you do it will be key.
But otherwise, anyone can contribute stories! Sometimes we think donors only want to hear client stories…well that’s tough when you’re an advocacy organization that doesn’t do any direct service! That’s okay. One of the most successful fundraising emails I ever sent came from a grassroots organizer telling our donors what a legislative win meant to her personally (it was a beautiful story about saving her family’s ancestral land).
Volunteers can tell stories. Staff can tell stories. Board members can tell stories. Everyone has stories. You just have to ask for them.
If you work on systems-level work, those also make for fascinating stories if you’ve got the right audience. (If you do system-level advocacy work, shoot me an email if you struggle with stories. I can help you find them in even the wonkiest, brainiest work.)
What stories should I tell?
Again, let’s make sure we’re doing this ethically (scroll down to the HOW), but as long as you are telling them ethically, there are lots of stories that donors will resonate with.
One of my favorite fundraising emails came from a friend of mine who worked in climate change advocacy. He told the story of how he adopted his dog, which he rescued from a hurricane-ravaged area. He tied the crisis in which he found his dog directly to his advocacy work on climate change. It was a thing of genius…and allowed him to promise more puppy pictures to anyone who donated to the climate advocacy work he was doing. It was such a good story.
One of the best received fundraising campaigns I ever wrote was the story of a building. No joke! I wrote a fundraising campaign as the building a nonprofit was trying to save…telling donors what it was like to be so abandoned and to have the hope of being restored and re-visited. Donors went nuts for this campaign. Even a building has a story…if you look for it hard enough.
Where do I gather stories?
Again, anywhere and everywhere. They are all around us.
But tactically; for easy stories that people are happy to share, you can send emails, you can send surveys, and so many other quick and easy ways.
If you want stories in the form of video, might I refer you to my friends at MemoryFox that can make gathering stories in video format a breeze for you. (I do not get a kick-back when I refer you to them, just love what they do!)
For more sensitive stories, I recommend meeting with people in person. There’s important rapport building and human contact that is critical. (Again, see below the HOW section).
You can also look for stories in the newspaper. Maybe you’re just starting your nonprofit and have no direct impact to point to. Find stories about people in the paper that could have been served by your nonprofit. Or ask similar nonprofits who you might partner with in the future to provide you with some stories…and then you can tell stories about what would be different in your community. (I have two client organizations that work on reintegration after incarceration…one is 10 years old, one is brand new. The older one has been willing to share stories and lessons learned with the new one to help them get going because they are in two completely different geographic areas. Teamwork makes the dream work, right?)
And of course, you can always tell your own stories. They are yours, after all, as long as you protect the identity of anyone else in your story or have their permission to share.
When should I be gathering stories?
Always! The problem I see with a lot of nonprofits is that they don’t think to gather stories until they need the stories, and then its a mad dash to gather them before a fundraising campaign or event.
If you’re a fundraiser that’s generally isolated from your program staff, I highly recommend you start building your relationship with your program staff so that you hear their stories more regularly.
If you’re a nonprofit CEO, gather stories from board members as they join, and annually after that. Asking them “what about your life inspired you to join our board?” You’ll get a story. Asking them “what about our work in the past year made you the most proud?” You’ll get a story.
Make story-gathering a regular part of your work flows. Think about processes that can make it systematic and simple.
Here’s the big one: How do I tell stories (ethically)?
While you should absolutely be gathering an telling stories regularly, you do need to do it with care. If your mission isn’t a sensitive one (saving a historic building, protecting the environment, animal adoptions, etc.) then this is easier. Ethical storytelling 101 is enough for you: make sure you have the permission of the person the story is about before you share it and give that person as much control as possible over the way the story is told.
That means ask for stories, but don’t give rewards/prizes for getting stories (beyond compensation for or demonstrating value for someone’s time). This means showing the storyteller the final product before it’s shared (in plenty of time for them to give feedback or ask for it not to be shared).
These are ethical storytelling 101 tips though. There’s so much more out there these days.
If you need a primer, let me direct you to MemoryFox’s Ethical Storytelling Report. I was honored to be asked to be a contributor, and the contributions from other experts knocked my socks off. Get your hands on it if you can; it’s a quick read that is jam packed with tips.
If you need a deeper dive, check out the work of my good friend Maria Bryan. Her podcast “When Bearing Witness” is a tremendously valuable resource, as is everything else she puts out. She is a nonprofit marketer and fundraiser, so she knows that you need to tell stories and helps you do it in a way that is safe, trauma-informed, and healthy for all participants. Love her work. If you are a nonprofit that needs a lot of help and support with storytelling because the issues you work on are sensitive or traumatic, she’s who you need to follow.
Your Homework Assignment
Identify one story. Think about and write one story that demonstrates why your organization matters.
It could be your own story of why you do the work. Or it could be as “out there” as the story of the building that I used as an example. But what is a story you can tell that will let donors understand the deep WHY of your work: why does this work matter?
What’s the one story you can tell to answer that question? I want you to write that story today.
