After a brief hibernation, the NYC chapter of NTEN’s 501 Tech Club [came roaring back last Wednesday night when nearly 40 people came together to meet their nonprofit techie peers. The draw? The chance to hear Farra Trompeter of Big Duck, Simon Moloney of Confer Analytics and Rebecca Willett of Planned Parenthood Federation of America discuss “Multi-Channel Fundraising: Strategies and Tools to Engage Donors through Integrated Campaigns.” It’s a fancy title that boils down to one question: are you telling a consistent story to your donors?
Think about your favorite nonprofit and why you support it. Odds are, it isn’t just because it has a well-written mission statement. Successful nonprofits realized long ago that no matter how important their causes, donors don’t connect to abstract needs. Instead, nonprofits share stories and pictures of people whose lives are made better by the work they do and how that work is made possible by your financial support. Good storytelling is at the heart of successful donor relationships.
Nonprofits need to remember this fundamental truth as they expand their donor communications to online channels. It’s easy to become overwhelmed by the myriad of online options – email, Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, YouTube, et al – and learning the technical aspects of how they work. But what is often forgotten along the way is that each of these is simply a tool just like direct mail and phone solicitations. What’s important is to focus on the story and adapt it to each channel.
Does this scenario sound familiar? Development sends a letter, the program staff posted a video of their latest project, and the intern has started a Twitter account. Donors may see the output of all three, but without a unified story the result is a disjointed approach that often leaves them confused at best, annoyed at worst. To avoid this a consistent story must be told across all donor touch points. This presents a wonderful opportunity because every time a donor interacts with your organization it is a chance to share another aspect of your story and reiterate the work they make possible.
If your organization currently doesn’t have a unified story it’s not too late to start. In fact, with the end of the year quickly approaching this may be the best time. Because many people make their annual contribution at the last-minute a unified appeal on December 30 may be just the tickler they need to make a gift.
What experiences have you had in trying to have a consistent story in all your donor communications?
Thomas Negron is a guest blogger for the Duck Call. He is a fundraising associate at United Way of New York City and co-organizer of the 501 Tech Club NYC.
Tags: fundraising, messaging, nonprofit technology, nptech, social media
Good advice. It’s easy to have the message get fragmented when crossing all the available channels. What a nonprofit needs to do its attack communications from the side of the story first and then adopt tools and channels that best allow them to tell their story.
Absolutely spot on with these comments. I’ve just started pro bono consulting work for an NPO and the first thing that struck me is their inability to tell their story in simple, emotive, human terms. They do fantastic work in conflict zones around the world; unfortunately, the way they convey it is in very high-level, strategic and process-oriented terminology, leaving the potential donor nothing to empathize with at all. There seems to be a delibertate ‘matter-of-fact’ approach (rational mind) at the expense of affective storytelling as if the latter were in contravention of professional principles. Anyway the voyage of discovery has just begun, so thanks for the timely and relevant post.
You make a very crucial point that gets overlooked when nonprofits start diving into new communications tools. Too often a nonprofit looks at social media like it’s its own strategy, when really it’s a new tool for moving your story to stakeholders.
The only caveat I might make is that development is work is only one side of the nonprofit business. You may, in fact, want to reach different audiences with different stories over different channels (or maybe through different accounts on the same channel). What you say to organize volunteers or an advocacy action might be different than what you tell your high level donors.
Unify your message to donors across different channels: absolutely. But don’t forget to ask volunteer recruiters, advocacy & public policy, HR, and other departments how they think these tools can be used.
Thanks for the thoughtful comments!
@Lon, if I could build on what you’re saying, nonprofits should do research as to what tools their donors are using. It doesn’t have to be a time intensive effort, but asking a few simple questions of several people can make all the difference. Facebook, Twitter, etc. get all the mainstream attention and are often the first tools an org thinks of trying, but there are many smaller sites that are popular based on geography or interest that may be a better channel to communicate with its donors.
@Phil, it sounds like you may be encountering a situation where management 1) responds to that type of data and assumes others will as well and 2) believes the numbers make an obvious case for why people should make gift. It can be difficult getting someone to be comfortable with the idea that how other people process and respond to the same information may be different. Perhaps you can ease them into it by making a case for experimentation and slowly expanding as success builds. Good luck!
@Kevin, I completely agree! Unifying communications across all departments and stakeholders is the goal and can often be the tougher challenge. Add to that everyone has a different level of comfort with and belief in technology and you start to understand why some orgs may feel overwhelmed at the prospect of starting the work involved. Maybe we should tackle that at an upcoming 501 Tech NYC meeting!
Thomas – I totally agree with your great points.
So often part of the story disconnect is that nonprofits aren’t telling the right overall story. They’re still framing the issue in terms that are no longer relevant, focused on a sense of urgency, alarm, or moralizing their issue. The real lesson is learning how to find and tell the bigger story – that transcends old boundaries that separate.
On Dec 8th, I’m leading a free telecall with Network for Good all around this hot topic. http://web.networkforgood.org/np911120809
Hope you and your readers can possibly listen in. If you register, you also get audio and written transcript of the session. All free…