Earlier this month I wrote about the value of questioning best practices in fundraising and communications.
And well, I'd be remiss if I didn't spend some time talking about storytelling as a best practice.
Storytelling is billed as a best practice, but the problem is that it's often conflated the answer to many fundraising and communications problems.
Need to raise more money? Tell a story. Need to increase awareness? Tell a story. Want to retain donors? Tell a story. Want to grow your social following? Tell a story.
I'm being a little flippant here, but it's important to remember that telling a story is not your organization's silver bullet.
Simply telling a story for the sake of telling a story is not going to catapult your organization to fame, nor will it result in a flood of donations from new donors.
None of that happens simply because you told a story.
On the other hand, telling the right story to the right audience in the right way and at the right time. . . well that's when you could get some results.
But for that to happen, you have to be looking at the bigger picture. You have to look at storytelling within the ecosystem that it operates in.
Take your storytelling to the next level by strategically considering the ecosystem that your stories operate in
Stories are no silver bullet, but there's a chance they could perform better.
Are you telling the right story?
Do you know enough about your audience to know what will resonate with them?
Is opportune timing on your side?
Where did you tell the story?
How did you tell the story? What were the tone, style, emotion, etc?
There are so many questions that can help us understand what's working and what's not working in our storytelling.
The last question -- how did you tell the story -- is one I often start with. The assumption is that for a story to be appealing and rake in the big bucks, it has to be about puppies or kids. There has to be some obvious emotional appeal. But, just like telling a story isn't your silver bullet, neither is an overly or obviously emotional story.
There are many ways to tell a story, but the best way is your way. That means doing the work to figure out your organization's authentic voice.
Ready to improve your non-profit's storytelling in 2019? Join me for our next free webinar on February 5th.
