I have always been a huge advocate of telling a story when it comes to fundraising. When I tell people my personal story – my “WHY” I do this and why you should join me in supporting this cause – I tell a story. In this assignment, we reviewed an article by Harvey McKinnon called “How I Wrote it. The Make A Wish Foundation’s prospect letter. Harvey talks about the story containing emotion, and being credible and he’s exactly correct.
I’ve seen so many charities and fundraising groups boast about how much they’ve raised. The headline in their solicitation speech is “Last year we raised $X million dollars” and then ask to help them raise more for the next annual campaign.
Or even worse that the headline of the charity on their newsletter or solicitation email is “Millions of dollars raised” at their last fundraising event.
Donors will ask the question … “Why?” It will be very hard for many charities to come up with an answer. In the back of the donors mind might be “You’ve raised so much. Why do you need MY help?” If a charity or non profit is not prepared with the answers, your chances of getting that donor to commit to the cause plummets drastically.
The story you tell in your newsletter has to make an impact and provide the donor with a reason why they should donate to your organization. No story, no impact and in turn no donation.
An example of a story that touched me personally comes from the United Way Halton Hamilton which does an incredible job coming up with many different stories that people can relate to and find a connection with or will touch someone emotionally. Here is a link to the video of Fred, one of the many success stories from the United Way.
A quick synopsis of the 60 second clip is that Fred was addicted to drugs and was about to lose everything. He had reached the end of his rope and had contemplated committing suicide. He went into the rehab clinic and made a call through the UW that changed his life. If he didn’t make that call, he was prepared to end it all.
Through my work with UW, I have had the opportunity to meet Fred and first hand hear the full story which I know many donors don’t get the chance to meet people like this. Bottom line he said if it wasnt for the assistance he received from UW, he assures us he wouldn’t be here today. That story impacted me back then and still does today.
To me, this story checks all the boxes of what Harvey was talking about when it comes to the story – emotion, real, and how the charity intervention made the difference. Fred’s story is one that many people can relate to because of the prevalence of drug addiction in our society – in a lot of cases you know someone personally or through someone else who has struggled with addition.
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