Reaching them where they act
July 2008
fundraising
In the nonprofit sector, storytelling is about building relationships. Of the many ingredients in a good story, a “call-to-action” might be the most important for nonprofits. A campaign may tug at your heartstrings and keep your attention, but if it doesn’t spur you to make a donation, sign up for a program, contact a decision-maker, or act in some other way, is it truly effective?
When creating or analyzing stories, start by asking, “What is the target audience?” One good storytelling example is
Keep A Child Alive’s “Alicia in Africa” campaign. Built around a documentary that chronicles Alicia Keys’ ‘journey to the motherland,’ she asks, “Who are we and what do we care about? Do we care about a whole generation of people being wiped out — orphaning millions of children? Shall we be the generation that says no more injustice for the poor… Shall we commit to eradicating AIDS, extreme poverty and more?” This is followed by a simple call to action — donate a dollar and give life-saving treatment.
Perhaps you’ve seen the promotion on MySpace, or the trailer on YouTube. Maybe you were asked to text a donation at an Alicia Keys’ concert. Or maybe you don’t have a MySpace page and haven’t heard of Alicia Keys.
Let’s stop for a moment and consider whom this story is trying to reach: college students and 20-somethings. Will they relate and respond? Will a posting on their friend’s Facebook profile provoke a donation, or would the organization be better off sending a card in the mail? These channels might not be familiar to you, but are they familiar to the people you are trying to reach?
If we don’t relate to a story personally, we may question its validity, or somehow feel its message is off base. It’s easy for staff, board members, or consultants to stand back and judge a campaign. But it’s possible that your executive director or board chair might not relate to the stories you use or channels you select — unless of course they are representative of the audiences you are trying to reach.
It might also be more comfortable to fall back on channels that have worked in the past, such as traditional direct mail, brochures, or advertising, without considering if the audience is still reachable through these media. And sometimes, even if your ways of communicating “aren’t broken,” adding new channels can broaden or fine-tune your reach.
Good stories move people to act. The channel isn’t important: it’s the people you reach and the action you inspire that counts.
So next time you brainstorm a new story to tell, consider starting by asking who you are trying to reach, what you want them to do, how you will get them to do it, and where you might reach them most effectively.