Keeping donors and finding new donors is challenging, considering South Africa’s economy. We touched on storytelling a while back in one of our blogs, where we mentioned the touch of emotion when posting for your target audience. Storytelling builds emotional connections, strengthens donor relationships, and demonstrates the effectiveness of its mission.

One of the obvious things is to set a goal, this also helps your organization, employees, and volunteers focus and direction, helping you work smarter with the available resources. Be clear with what you’re trying to achieve, then incorporate storytelling to connect with donors on an emotional level. 

Attract donors in 3 ways: 

1️⃣ Storytelling 

For a relationship to work, you have to have an emotional connection, and so it does in this instance. For people generally, to help you actualize your vision, they have to first know it,  understand it, and it has to matter for them. As much as it matters to you. How do you get strangers to do this? Build an emotional connection with them. You can do this through storytelling. 

One way to tell powerful stories: 

Visuals deliver home a message faster than text. Share powerful images that grab attention and highlight your mission, such as pictures of the people you help, or even the work that goes on behind the scenes, such as staff and volunteers teaming up to plant trees or build houses.

2️⃣ Data and metrics 

This is the part that gets a bit technical… but more than anything, it’s just to strengthen your story and back it with data. As mentioned, you cannot measure what you don’t know, so the more you tell stories, the more you can track and measure your performance towards your goals.  

A practical example is if you are on a mission to upskill the youth and give them opportunities, you can report on the number of young people you managed to teach skills, and the number of learners you managed to get internships for. If you run a pad drive, you might measure the number of pads donated per week, cost per package, and the demographics of people that need help.

Tracking the metrics shows transparency while also providing the proof and accountability that donors expect from you. 

3️⃣ Marketing 

While marketing can assist you in attracting more/potential donors, keeping in touch with your current donors, highlighting your accomplishments, and taking the time to cultivate relationships with important donors can all assist in making sure that your organization is at the top of its minds when they plan their charitable giving.

Donors care deeply about supporting organizations that share their interests and beliefs, and they’ll want to see proof of efficient financial management and successful mission execution. Continue to share tales.

It’s crucial that the foundation of your marketing plan is your messaging and branding, and that your website, social media accounts, and other communications accurately reflect your brand and objective.

Data provides a better understanding of your organization and mission and can take your NPO storytelling to the next level.

If you are running an NPO, let us know in the comments how you attract donors and how you nurture relationships with them.