When we work for and with non-profit organizations, it’s easy for us to see the value behind what our orgs do. We know how meaningful our fundraising can be to our communities because we’re in the thick of it day after day. However, it can sometimes be a challenge to communicate that mission and impact to our volunteers, supporters, and interested community members who aren’t as closely involved with our work.
People don’t donate randomly. They donate because they’ve learned about an organization that’s focused on a cause they care about and they feel that donating to the organization will make a difference. Learning how to tell your story effectively is integral to taking a person who’s interested in your cause and converting them to a supporter (as a donor, volunteer, or more). This is your chance to show them the direct impact their support makes!
In order to convince them that you’re the right organization to support, you need to get really good at telling your story. With Auctria’s tools and The Storytelling Non-Profit’s writing support, you’ll become a master at telling your organization’s story with ease so you can crush your fundraising goals and make a difference! Here’s our top 3 tips for how to communicate your story more effectively:
- Make the Most of Your Website
- Write and Record an Impact Video
- Share Your Call to Action
Let’s dive in!
1. Make the Most of Your Website
Having a strong website is key to communicating your story. For many potential donors, your event website is the first place they’ll learn about your organization and your event – whether they were directed there through social media, word of mouth, or an advertisement for the event.
Your auction or event website should clearly communicate your mission as an organization.
Don’t be afraid to pull at their heartstrings: make sure you communicate why it’s important for them to support your cause by attending your event. You can do this by showing pictures and videos, including informational articles about your cause, or sharing relevant data.
Here’s a few questions to ask yourself as you build your website and tell your story:
- What’s the heart and soul of why you do this work?
- What’s the change you want to see in the world every time you go to work, plan an event, and run a fundraiser?
- What are the tangible outcomes of the money you raise?
Once you’ve worked with The Storytelling Non-Profit to learn how to tell your story, you need a place to show it off – and Auctria can help you build an effective website to do that. If you’re curious what Auctria can do for you, check out our full article here.
2. Write and Record an Impact Video
Video marketing might seem daunting, but if Forbes is calling it the “future of content”, we should be paying attention. In fact, research has shown that fundraisers that included a video raised “4 times more funds than campaigns without one”. When you hear stats like that, it seems like including videos for your campaigns is a no brainer!
Back in the day, you had to rent or buy a camcorder or other equipment to film a video, and sharing it with your audience would have been a challenge. Thankfully, even our cellphones can shoot decent quality video these days and sharing videos on our websites, social media, and more make it easy to get your pitch in front of your audience.
If you have video footage or stories from people your organization has helped, use them. If you have data about the work you’ve done (number of houses built, books donated, meals funded), share it. From there, you’ll need to craft a compelling narrative using the data and stories you have. If the scripting process makes you nervous, that’s okay – The Storytelling Non-Profit is here for exactly this reason! With the writing skills you’ll learn with their support, crafting a compelling script to tell your organization’s story will be easy.
Impact videos allow you to showcase the best of what your organization can achieve as you call on your supporters to help you continue to make a difference. Once you’ve created your video, you can easily add it to your event website to share it with potential attendees, sponsors, and donors! Auctria makes it easy to upload and add videos to your sites so that you can make the most of their storytelling power.
3. Share Your Call to Action
The most effective stories about your organization and its mission should finish with a strong call to action that encourages your audience to provide support. This call to action will depend on which audience you’re speaking to at the time.
For instance, if you’re looking to sell sponsorships (which are a key revenue stream for any organization), your call to action should focus on encouraging the potential sponsor to support your charitable organization so that they can gain social capital within their community and be able to market their business to a large group of people (your event attendees, donors, etc).
If you’re communicating to potential event attendees, your call to action needs to encourage them to purchase tickets for themselves, their friends, and/or their families and to attend your event! Clearly communicating the auction items, prizes, or activities that will be available at your event will be key to encouraging them to convert, buy tickets, and ultimately donate or bid at your event. Find our full list of ticket-selling tips here!
When you focus on communicating the why behind your cause, you’ll see the difference it makes – in ticket sales, sponsorship sales, dononations, and more. Skip the stale, ineffective appeals and writing anxiety. With The Storytelling Non-Profit and Auctria, you’ll become a storytelling master with the tools to share your mission with your audience clearly and effectively!
Special thanks to Laurie Hochman from Auctria for the expert advice.
Auctria is a powerful engine to organize and run your event and auction fundraiser. From in person events to online and from the first donation to the final collection, Auctria helps you stay on top of the details so you can focus on maximizing your fundraising. Over 45,000 event fundraisers have used Auctria to raise over $500M.
