Once your nonprofit receives a major gift, it’s your job to maintain that relationship by showing appreciation and communicating the donor’s impact. You might steward major donors by sending program updates, inviting them to VIP events, and publicly recognizing their support. All of these efforts are effective, but you can make them even more impactful by incorporating storytelling.
Telling stories is vital to successful nonprofit communications, even in the stewardship phase. Use these strategies to fine-tune your approach and improve major donor relationships through the power of storytelling.
Follow the 3 R’s of Nonprofit Storytelling
Before exploring new ways to steward major donors with storytelling, let’s review some general storytelling best practices to help you sharpen your skills.
Beyond the basics of telling a true story with a beginning, middle, and end, what can you do to tell stories effectively? How can you ensure your storytelling is not only targeted and impactful, but also genuine and ethical? Meyer Partners’ guide provides a framework for meeting all these needs called the three R’s of storytelling:
- Resonance: First and foremost, every story your nonprofit tells must resonate with your audience emotionally. Stories need to pull on major donors’ heartstrings by appealing to positive feelings like compassion, connection, hope, and empowerment. Use humanizing details and true, inspiring beneficiary stories to do so.
- Relevance: Stories that are clearly relevant to an individual donor’s gift are much more impactful than generic ones. Choose stories about the specific programs or initiatives they donated to and make the donor’s role in the story clear. Use donor-centric language, like “Thanks to your gift, Maria’s dream of attending college came true.”
- Respect: Every story should respect both the reader and the constituent the story is about. This means telling stories honestly, without embellishment or exaggeration. It also means you don’t try to evoke negative emotions in the reader, like fear, guilt, or false urgency.
Following these three R’s will help your nonprofit tell stories that touch major donors’ hearts and deepen their connection to your cause. This framework will also point you in the right direction when choosing the stories that will appeal most to specific major donors.
Tell Stories That Align With Major Donors’ Interests
Let’s zero in on the relevance aspect of effective nonprofit storytelling.
As with any donor stewardship, the strategies that work best for deepening major donor relationships are highly personalized. This means focusing on stories that align with each major donor’s unique contributions, interests, and history with your nonprofit.
For instance, you might tell the story of someone who participated in the program they funded or an individual who now relies on the services of the community center the major donor’s gift helped build. Find someone directly impacted by their donation and invite that beneficiary to tell their story.
You should also consider each major donor’s core interests and motivations for giving when telling stories of their impact. For example, say that a major donor named Sally is a former board member who was involved in the launch of your nonprofit’s after-school program. You know she continues to give after retiring from the board because she wants to empower young girls to succeed like she did. To appeal to Sally’s interests, you might tell the story of a former program participant who’s now thriving in a similar career field thanks to the program.
Pair Stories With Personal Messages From the Storyteller
Make your stories even more powerful by including personalized, genuine thanks from the storyteller. Instead of only sharing a video or sending an email that tells the story of a beneficiary they impacted, take it a step further to truly show your nonprofit’s and the beneficiary’s appreciation.
You might do this by:
- Asking beneficiaries to write a handwritten thank-you note to a major donor.
- Having scholarship recipients write personal messages of thanks when they share their stories with you.
- Recording a video of a beneficiary or program volunteer thanking a major donor by name.
- Asking program participants what the program means to them and what they would like to say to the people who made it a reality.
- Many of your constituents would be happy to spend a few minutes thanking someone whose donation positively impacted their life. For the major donor, these personal messages will add another layer of meaning to their contributions, deepening their connection to your cause and boosting the chances they continue giving in the future.
Leverage the Storytelling Power of Direct Mail
It’s not only a story’s content that determines how impactful it is—the medium you use to tell the story also plays a role. Ideally, you should mix up the communication channels you use for storytelling throughout the stewardship process to leverage the unique benefits of all of them. However, if you have to focus on one, consider choosing direct mail.
Direct mail is uniquely suited to telling compelling stories because it’s versatile, tactile, and one-of-a-kind. In fact, one study found that at least 38% of people believe direct mail is better at telling compelling stories than email.
To make your stories stand out even more when sharing them via direct mail, use the following tips:
- Condense the story down to its most impactful parts. You only have so much room on a letter-sized paper or postcard, and that’s a good thing! Donors have limited attention spans, and the restricted space helps you hone in on only the most impactful parts of the story.
- Include direct quotes and testimonials. Your beneficiaries’ own words are often the most powerful. Highlight quotes throughout your direct mail stories, emphasizing that these stories wouldn’t have been possible without the major donor’s help.
- Share impact data within the story. Back up your stories with hard data to lend them even more credibility. For instance, pair a story about one high school senior’s college acceptance with the percentage of all program participants who got into their top schools.
- Enhance the story with visuals. Include a photo of the beneficiary whose story you’re telling to put a face to the name. If you want to add any other visuals or graphics, Top Nonprofits recommends ensuring each graphic has a clear purpose and will truly enhance your message.
Offer to Tell Major Donors' Own Stories
Stewardship isn’t just about communicating impact—you should also aim to get the donor more involved with your nonprofit beyond donating. One way to do so is to invite major donors to tell their own stories.
If a donor is interested, you could interview them about their experience with your nonprofit, their personal connection to your cause, and what contributing to your work means to them. You might share their story in your monthly newsletter, on social media, or at a donor appreciation event. You could even give major donors the opportunity to speak at an event or your building’s grand opening.
Telling their own stories can help major donors feel more connected to your mission and remind them that your organization values them as people, not blank checks.
Using Storytelling to Steward Major Donors
With these storytelling strategies, you can deepen major donor relationships and bring new joy to this part of the donor journey. As you try them out, note which strategies and stories resonate most with major donors so you can replicate them in the future.
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