When it comes to nonprofit fundraising, few things are as impactful as sharing the stories of the people directly impacted by your organization’s work. But how do you interview your beneficiaries compassionately and respectfully? Let’s explore ethical nonprofit storytelling and unpack how these incredibly valuable first-hand accounts can help humanize your cause.
Chances are, your nonprofit was started because of storytelling – a story about a person, an animal, or a place in a dire state of need moved your founders to act immediately. That is the power of storytelling. An authentically, compassionately, and respectfully told story has the ability to mobilize action like no statistic or report can.
Your beneficiaries’ stories are more than just another tool in your organization’s fundraising arsenal. Their stories are simultaneously an instrument to help you raise funds and the very reason you are raising funds to begin with.
Get ready to take a deep dive into nonprofit storytelling. We’ll look at how it helps humanize your mission and inspires action amongst supporters and donors, and – most importantly – how to tell these stories with the care they deserve.
Regardless of whether your cause is rooted in addressing environmental issues, social justice, animal welfare, or any one of the many other worthy focus areas, chances are good there is a very strong human impact tied to achieving your mission.
Tapping into that impact is the key to effective nonprofit storytelling for one main reason: we often champion the causes we can relate to.
When you humanize your cause, your supporters can effectively see themselves in the need your organization is working to address and the beneficiaries you support.
Using ethical nonprofit storytelling, your organization can help donors feel connected to beneficiaries. This can be the start of a foundation for what will hopefully become a shared purpose that fosters a collective movement for change.
Authenticity and transparency are critical components in ensuring the success of any nonprofit organization. Sharing real stories that truthfully reflect the impact of your work will go a long way toward establishing and maintaining trust with all your stakeholders – not just donors.
Trust, authenticity, and transparency are terms that most nonprofit organizations often hear in relation to donors and donor retention. But these terms apply to the relationship that exists between your organization and its beneficiaries as well.
To help you through the process of ethical nonprofit storytelling, we’ve compiled a list of 10 steps to guide your approach to gathering beneficiary stories.
Something to keep in mind: Ethical nonprofit storytelling is complicated. In a landscape as ever-changing as the nonprofit sector, there is always a chance that you will come across a beneficiary or story that is hard to navigate. In instances like these, it is best to lead with empathy and remember that not every story exists to be told.
Your beneficiaries often seek out help from your organization due to a staggering lack of choices, a variety of unmet needs, or a specific set of hard-to-obtain aspirations. This can create a skewed power dynamic, meaning you need to employ extra care when obtaining and representing the voices and stories of this special group of people.
If you are reaching out to your beneficiaries to use their experiences for fundraising, for example, ensure that you are also reaching out to them to help you guide your organization’s program and policy decisions. A one-sided relationship with your beneficiaries will inevitably fracture their trust, but ensuring they feel they are truly making a difference for your organization will help.
Considering the power dynamics mentioned above, ensure that consent is always freely offered, enthusiastic, and informed.
Start by explaining how telling a beneficiary’s story helps further your mission (which exists to support them), ensure they understand how, where, and when this content will be used, and commit to including them in every step of the content creation process.
Beneficiaries should be allowed to step away at any point and have a final view of the finished story. Create a consent form that outlines all of these points in clear, easy-to-understand language. Keep a signed copy on file and share one with the beneficiary as well.
Important: Consent can be revoked at any time, so ensure that your beneficiaries understand that they can always say no and support them if they do.
Hopefully, you’ll already have a relationship with your beneficiaries, but you’ll need to establish an even stronger connection with them for this process to be successful. When the times come to gather content for ethical storytelling, sit down with the individual, listen closely to their story, ask them questions, and truly get to know them.
Remember that anyone agreeing to share their story is taking valuable time to do so. Sharing their stories can be traumatic and may require them to perform a significant amount of emotional labor. Stories can also often be triggering and emotional to recall. Be sure to provide beneficiaries with support, validation, and empathy, and don’t forget to properly thank them.
We’ve already mentioned the importance of informed consent. Ideally, this shouldn’t only be brought up during your initial conversation. As you continue to gather information from your beneficiaries, ensure that you constantly reinforce that practice of informed consent. Remind the beneficiary often how their story will be shared, which platforms will be used, and who will be reading it.
If the story is being gathered for a time-bound campaign, for example, it may be removed from your website or social media platforms after the campaign concludes. Be sure to mention this. If you plan to keep the story on your website for the foreseeable future or aim to use it in various ways for years to come, make sure the beneficiary understands this as well.
While some people would be thrilled to see their story and their name shared publicly, others may not. Always give your beneficiaries the choice of how they would like to be identified in the content you put out – remember that using just first names, aliases, or anonymity can work!
If your beneficiaries are minors, there are strict laws that govern how you share information about children and what they can and cannot consent to. Be sure to check the laws in your area before you approach the parents of any minors who benefit from the work your organization does.
When it comes to ethical nonprofit storytelling, it’s a good practice to allow your organization’s beneficiaries to share their stories with you, even if you decide not to share them broadly for various reasons. For beneficiaries, telling their story can be an affirming and empowering experience, and it can still contribute to your efforts in some way.
Consider this example:
A nonprofit working to raise funds for a children’s hospital might identify a need to fundraise for upgraded ICU equipment. A conversation with a doctor could lead them to a past patient who received life-changing surgery as a result of the equipment that now needs to be replaced. But, this patient doesn’t want their story spread across social media and other mass communication channels.
One way that this story could still be leveraged for fundraising is for the organization to look through its list of donors and identify a few high-net-worth individuals who might have the financial capacity to make a large enough gift to secure the necessary equipment. The patient’s story could be shared with just this small group (with permission, of course) who stand to have the biggest impact on the fundraising effort.
The way you deliver your storytelling is as important as who you deliver it to!
Nothing we share publicly exists in a vacuum. This is especially true for content posted on social media. Your potential reach is massive and there is always a chance that your post and your beneficiary’s story might get in front of the wrong audience.
Our natural biases color the way we digest content online. For this reason, it is a great idea to conduct consistent social listening about how your organization’s focus and themes are being received. If your mission is a polarizing one, perhaps social media is not the right channel for beneficiary stories, especially if it puts beneficiaries on the receiving end of people reinforcing harmful stereotypes and hurtful commentary.
Pro tip: Having a crisis communication plan ready to go is the best way to mitigate potentially negative social media storms.
Your organization should always see its beneficiaries as partners in achieving its mission. When you use language that paints your nonprofit as a savior of a community or cause, you risk alienating not only your beneficiaries but also your donors.
Individuals, donors, and organizations work together to achieve collective change. And this includes the beneficiaries who are willing to share their personal experiences with the world. It’s a partnership and should always be communicated as such.
Steering clear of language that portrays your beneficiaries as passive is sometimes a hard-learned habit. After all, aggressively tugging on the emotional strings of donors used to be the way everyone fundraised. But times have changed and it’s vital that the language your organization uses changes along with it.
Always err on the side of people-centered language. For example, don’t call someone a “burn victim”, call them a “burn survivor” instead.
The American Association of Disabilities has an incredible guide on how to reframe your organization’s language so that it’s always people-focused. You can find it here.
When in doubt? Ask your beneficiary the language they would like to be used.
There might be times when you arrive at a difficult situation. Perhaps a part of your beneficiary’s story is hard to understand, or you’re not quite sure if it’s right for a certain outlet. Maybe it’s been edited down to an oversimplified form, and you’re no longer sure how to move forward.
You won’t always hold all the answers. When you hit roadblocks in your ethical storytelling journey, be sure to involve your team, your leadership, and your beneficiaries themselves.
Now that you understand the importance of ethical beneficiary storytelling, let’s explore a few techniques for maximizing its potential.
Your beneficiaries are the cornerstone of your mission – to turn their stories into an effective fundraising tool, your donor needs to feel like the hero. So how do you guide them toward making a meaningful impact on your mission? Here are four great strategies.
The right narrative will look different for each organization and campaign. The best way to establish which one is right for you is to take an iterative approach.
Test, adjust, and test again. Donating to a cause is an incredibly personal action, and what drives that donation decision is just as personal. You’ll need to analyze and respond to how your donors receive these stories.
Here are the two main narrative approaches you could take:
A donor-centric approach to nonprofit storytelling places your supporters at the core of your organization’s success.
Consider the following two calls to action:
The second is significantly more impactful because it places the donor at the heart of the mission’s success.
A cause-centric approach to storytelling places your beneficiaries, your organization, and your programs at the center of the message.
Consider the following two statements:
Leading with your mission, your work, and your beneficiaries is an equally impactful tool for nonprofit storytelling.
The easiest and most time-efficient way to do this is to test using tools like split or A/B testing. Here’s how:
Each donor is unique and has different preferences. The best way to unlock these insights is to get to know them. Look at your newsletter sign-up forms, conversations with donors, your donation forms, and past survey results. What information are you mining for? If you’re only gathering contact information, you’re doing your fundraising strategy a massive disservice.
Finding out why a donor gives, why they care, and how to keep them engaged will help you craft more compelling stories. To serve the right story to your donor in the right way, consider things like:
The way you decide to share your beneficiary story will depend on the content, what you hope to achieve by telling the story, and who you’re trying to reach. Consider all platforms at your disposal.
For example, sharing stories through video may be more impactful than written words. Or, you might find that sharing beneficiary stories in your monthly newsletter boosts donations.
One of the best places to share your beneficiaries’ stories is directly on your campaign page. This underscores not only your mission but the impact of each donation. Check out this live example from Black Girls Code, which perfectly highlights how effective storytelling on your conation pages can be.
Start fundraising with Donorbox
There are endless options, so ensure that you spend enough time considering which platform best supports your beneficiaries and their stories.
Your beneficiaries are critical to your organization’s mission, and their stories need to be gathered and shared ethically. These stories are more than just fundraising tools, they provide your supporters and the beneficiaries themselves with a compelling narrative that grows engagement for your cause, inspires action, and fosters a more meaningful sense of connection.
As always, Donorbox is here to help with powerful donor management tools that make it easier for you to segment your database and store and analyze important donor behavior data. Tools like customizable donation forms help you share beneficiary stories as well as extract the right information from your donors when they donate so you can better understand what motivates them to support your cause.
For more fundraising insights, check out the rest of our Nonprofit Blog. Subscribe to our newsletter to receive a curated collection of blogs and resources delivered to your inbox every month.
Nicole’s professional background is rooted in the nonprofit sector, where she’s honed her skills in communications, marketing, and fundraising. She has extensive experience in various fields, such as social media, content strategy, public relations, and more. Nicole has a deep passion for writing, editing, and gaining knowledge about the many causes that tirelessly advocate for essential societal change.
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Nicole Human