Nonprofit Storytelling: 6 Tips for Interviews

By Merritt Engel

Ask any non-profit, and they'll tell you there's nothing better than a personal, heartfelt story to put a face on their cause. Far better than organizational blah-blah or sterile statistics, stories help donors (and future donors) learn an organization's personality. Stories help donors feel engaged in the work - and see the difference they can make in a real person's life. They empower the organization and its supporters to continue on. Messaging Shangri La!

But getting stories (good stories especially) is easier said than done. Here are a few tips we've learned from interviewing hundreds of people who have received help from charitable organizations.

1. Start with the End in Mind - Do your homework. Get the "story behind the story" from the program manager before you ever pick up the phone. Think of the story you want to end up with and backtrack from there to draft your questions.


2. Never Use the Word "Interview" - The word "interview" makes people feel like they're being interrogated by Woodward and Bernstein. It can cause anxiety and stage fright. Instead, ask if you can "chat for a few minutes about the assistance he/she received."


3. Talk Less, Listen More - Use the first minute or so to make the interviewee feel at ease-express your thanks. After that, zip your lips. Closed-ended questions will give you just what you might expect-one-word, dull answers. Ask questions like "what did the help mean to you?" and give people time to think about and respond to the question. Resist the urge to fill dead air as some of the best responses come when the interviewee is given the floor.


4. Veer from the Script - As mentioned in #1, a list of questions is always a good idea. But that said, it's a starting point. Listen closely to the interview, and be ready to jet off in another direction if needed. Use probing questions to get more in-depth answers.


5. Get Approvals - No surprises. That's our motto. After you've drafted the story, give the interviewee a chance to review for accuracy. Most make no changes, but it's better to know any problems before publishing it. Keep a paper trail-you might need it.


6. Be Prepared for Anything (and I mean anything) - Interviewing for non-profits is unique. You're talking to people who were-or are-in crisis. Don't be surprised if you encounter hostility, tears and any other emotions. Listen and be empathetic, but never say, "I know what you're going through." Most importantly, stay calm no matter what's thrown at you.

Source: Merritt Engel is Vice President of Merrigan & Co., a Kansas City-based agency that specializes in messaging for non-profit organizations.

The BDPA Education and Technology Foundation (BETF) seeks volunteers that can help us capture the story of past winners of the Jesse Bemley Scholarship, Bank of America Scholarship for BDPA Students and Eli Lilly Scholarship for BDPA Students. Please contact BETF by email or phone (513.284-4968) if you would like to discuss this volunteer opportunity.

Fundraising Tip: How to Turn One-Time Donors Into Monthly Givers

The BDPA Education and Technology Foundation currently is supported almost exclusively by one-time donors. We have very few monthly givers. As such, I was very interested in a fundraising tip shared recently by the folks at Network for Good.


Thinking about monthly giving is one of the smartest things you can do as a fundraiser. Network for Good research shows that 30-40% of the donation volume for a nonprofit website is monthly giving, and that would be a great situation to find all nonprofits in -- thanking people every month instead of asking them for donations every few weeks.

How do you do that? How do you turn your annual givers into monthly supporters?

• Make sure your donation form asks what type of gift the donor wants to make ("Do you want to give us a monthly gift?"). Whenever you're asking for money, ask for the monthly pledge, not just a one-time gift.
  
• Revisit the language you're using in your appeals. Frame your ask in such a way that it's a win-win situation-monthly donations for you, convenience and budgeting for your donors. (Read more about the four parts of a great fundraising appeal.)
  
• Package the appeal in an exciting way. For example, some organizations have an ambassador program or a sponsor-a-child every month program. Put a face on that sustainable gift. This way you're creating some tangible tie to the idea of giving every month. Remember: To increase charitable donations, you should appeal to the heart--not the head.
  
• Don't be afraid to ask for a monthly gift of support after someone completes a one-time transaction. It can be ingrained as a nice thank-you message: "Thank you so much for making a one-time gift. This is how you can put your support to work for us each and every month. Would you consider becoming a monthly supporter?" We've seen great success in converting first-time online donors into monthly donors by doing that within the first three days of them making their first online gift.

Think of using this strategy during the holidays when you're experiencing high traffic of one-time gift donations!

Does this tip seem like one that you might use for your local chapter or nonprofit? If not, do you have a fundraising tip that you would like to share with us?

7 Principles for Building Better Relationships Online

Soulclap to Jocelyn Harmon & Katya Andresen for writing this article and publishing it on the Network For Good Learning Center.

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It's not news that online giving is skyrocketing, but what really thrills us is all the different ways donors can give online now - websites, donation portals, social networks. There are so many options for donors now!

While all of these options are new and exciting, the reasons people give online are not that different from the reasons they give elsewhere. And just like offline, online relationships and the strength of those relationships will ultimately determine your success as a fundraiser.

Here are a few tips to help cultivate those relationships.

1. Be Interesting. Create great content. Think of new ways to tell your great stories, like using video instead of a written testimony. Try to inject humor if it's appropriate. Engage your supporters and create conversations. This should not be a one-way street.

2. Be Interested. In your supporters. Make sure their online experience is easy and built for them. Personalize and segment your communications. Don't send an email about volunteering for an event to a donor who lives in another state. Let them know you care about them and their lives.

3. Be Generous. Focus on what you give your supporters, not on what they give you. Give them the chance to do extraordinary good through your organization. Give them credit for the good that happens. Give them memorable stories about the difference they made.

4. Be Honest. Share both your successes and your failures. Make sure your financial records are easily accessible as well. Transparency should not just be a buzz word.

5. Be Clear. People need to know what to do when they get to your site. Make it easy for them to sign up for a newsletter or donate or contact you. Provide actual contact information and not just a contact form. Have a person outside the organization test your site to see if it's as easy to use as you think it is.

6. Be Brave. Try something new - whether it's a new fundraising campaign or experimenting with mobile giving. Be innovative. Don't be afraid to fail or put yourself out there.

7. Be Grateful. Say "Thank you." A lot. Call, write and email your donors. Find your champions and show them extreme love.

Finally, we want to share a very eye-opening statistic from the Network for Good and TrueSense Marketing Online Giving Study: Repeat giving by donors is 66.7% lower for generic non-branded donation pages than it is for those who have a clearly branded donation page. In other words, they may give once, but they aren't coming back.

When you give donors a sterile commercial transaction as part of the donation process, you take away the feeling that the donor is directly conversing with your organization and making a difference. This will diminish the effect you have on the donor and therefore, the amount you fundraise.

Donors need to feel closely tied to your organization and not feel like a walking ATM. Show who you are in your entire donation process to make the most of and further the relationship you have worked so hard to build.

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Did you find any information in this blog post that you can put into action for your local BDPA chapter or other nonprofit organization?

Get More Tangible and Impact-Focused

Are you having a rough time with your fundraising this year? The economic tsunami that hit America over the past 18 months or so put a hurt on BDPA Education and Technology Foundation (BETF) fundraising. That is why I am reading as many fundraising tips as I can. Network For Good (NFG) is a fertile source of ideas ... especially in their downloadable E-book.

Here is a very useful tip that may help your BDPA chapter or other nonprofit organization with fundraising efforts this year:

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Here is another paradigm shift required this year: From need to impact.

Fundraising is not about what you need. Really. It is about what the donor - through you - can achieve.

Everyone knows you need money. So do the other 1.8 million nonprofits in the United States - as do the millions more around the world. If that's all you've got to say, you are just another organization with yet another appeal.

What is special about you? The answer can't simply be that your programs need support. It must be that with your donor, together you can achieve a difference that no one else can.

We should stop building our case for support around a need-based tax categorization and instead talk about how we make a difference.

So how do we talk about impact?

1. By talking about individuals - one person or animal at a time. Avoid talking about massive numbers, mind-numbing statistics, or intangible outcomes. (There is plenty of research on why this is ineffective in conveying impact and motivating giving and it's laid out in Network for Good's recent eBook, Homer Simpson for Nonprofits: How People Really Think and What It Means to Your Cause.) Telling individual success stories will give people the emotional connection to your work that is so essential to the donor relationship.
2. Online tools, from websites to Twitter, can be especially helpful in making that individual connection and showing the impact of your work.
3. On your website, Facebook page, eNews and everywhere else, put these individual stories front and center. Then, to the side, provide a quick glance into how much of your donors' funds is going to that human impact - i.e., your programs.

The bottom line: Do the best job you can showing where the money goes, in a human, authentic, and transparent way -- in all your outreach online.

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This tip is an eye-opener for me. I have alot of research on the critical shortages of African Americans in the IT industry from the classroom to the boardroom. However, I can see now that I need to put more attention into sharing the human stories of success that result from BETF scholarships and BETF funding.

What thoughts or ideas did this blog post bring to you?

Rethink and Restructure Your Donor Relationships

BDPA Education and Technology Foundation (BETF) seeks continuous improvement. We have to improve if we hope to raise funds necessary to provide scholarships and pay for technology-based education programs around the country. As such, I thought that this article by the folks at Network For Good (NFG) was excellent.

If you lead a BDPA chapter or other nonprofit organization then I encourage you to download the NFG e-book and enjoy the following tip:

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The biggest thing that needs to change for nonprofit organizations this year is how we think about our donors. We are in the midst of an enormous generational shift that has major implications for our work. The Greatest Generation of older, civic-minded Americans who wrote checks out of a sense of duty and trusted charities to use their donations wisely is moving on. The torch has passed to a far more demanding series of donors, who view their giving as an investment, and want to be informed of the progress.

That means it's not enough to declare a need and send a thank-you.

Consider how to reorganize your fundraising efforts with a focus on the donor experience at each touch point with your organization. Here are some steps to take:

1. Have a Be Your Donor Day. Go to your website. As the donor, ask yourself: Is it apparent what your organization does? Do you see something that forges an emotional connection? Are there tools to share what you are seeing via social networks, right on the home page? Are the voices of donors and supporters clear in the content? Does the website feel like a community or a brochure?
2. Donate online and offline. How and when are you thanked? What happens after that? Call information to ask for your 800 number and your local number. Call both and see what happens. Sign up for e-News. Tweet your support. What happens?
3. Do a "walk" online and in the shoes of your donor at least one once each quarter. It will surprise and perhaps horrify you. That's okay. It will very quickly uncover where you are failing to make the donor feel amazing about his or her support of your organization - and supply the insight needed to improve the situation.
4. Pay particular attention to your online tools. Are you using them to enhance the donor experience or are they lacking? If they don't work well, fix them or stop using them.

Here's the good news: If you make your donors feel appreciated through your website, you will truly stand out. Most nonprofits aren't focused on their donor experience online. When you start doing that, you will be a wonderful anomaly. You will delight, engage, and entrance the people you want to reach.

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I'm looking for one or more volunteers that may want to work with me to implement these ideas for BETF. Interested?