Bold, community-centric fundraising in practice: Storytelling
By Travis Shingledecker
As fundraisers and nonprofit leaders, we know what our communities have confronted in the face of converging crises. It is in these moments of crisis when our organizations come to truly learn and understand our mission, our values, and our potential for impact.
We know that systemic, community-centric change is not about returning to how things were from before the crisis. We know that these changes are about moving forward, but how do we do that?
The George H. Heyman Jr. Program in Philanthropy and Fundraising housed within the Center for Global Affairs at NYU and Aperio convened a panel of nonprofit leaders to do a deep-dive into one of the most important tools in a fundraiser’s toolkit: storytelling.
Panelists included:
Anthony Escobar, Senior Vice President and Chief Development Officer, YMCA of Greater New York
Maimah Karmo, CEO, Tigerlily Foundation
Elizabeth Ngozi, Founder and CEO, International Social Impact Institute; Adjunct Assistant Professor, NYU Heyman Program
What is effective storytelling?
Storytelling is the art of sharing ourselves with the purpose of connecting with others—sharing our history, our values, our struggles, our successes, and our potential.
It is our responsibilities as leaders in the sector to take the stories that we hear and the stories that we carry to bring about change for and within our communities.
Our panel shared their insights and experiences around some of these pivotal questions on storytelling in the context of community-centric change:
How do we tell the stories of our organizations’ missions and work?
How do we bring to life the impact and importance of the work to our communities and donor audiences?
Whose stories are we telling?
How are we centering the right people in the right ways at the right time?
In conversation, the panelists identified four key tips that we can all apply as we seek to communicate our impact more effectively:
Effective storytelling starts with clarity
Effective storytelling leads with impact
Effective storytelling is personal
Effective storytelling is grounded in listening
Tip #1: Effective storytelling starts with clarity
When we share our stories, it is easy to get lost in the details of our programs, the minutia of our plans, and the line items in our budgets. Really—as our panelists explored—what effective storytelling requires is a sense of clarity: clarity of passion, clarity of purpose, and clarity in the ‘call to action.’
To have clarity of passion means knowing why you are brought to your work. Liz elaborated on this point based on her own work with nonprofits: “Ultimately, if you as a leader are not clear about why you are working for the organization—what your own purpose is—it’s going to be very hard for you to convince the supporter to come on board.”
How can we expect our communities and our donors to care about what we do if we ourselves cannot articulate why we are drawn to the work? It is not enough to show that we are passionate to bring others on board. We also must have clarity of purpose: we need to show why our nonprofit exists.
Anthony spoke about his experience in coming to the YMCA and shared how he initially had preconceived notions—as most of us do—about what the YMCA is and what the YMCA does. That is, the Y tends to be thought of for its gym programs instead of all of its other vital community programs—like transitional housing and immigration services. As such, he is working with his team to a launch a new organizational structure:
This Fall, what we are actually doing is launching a new organizational structure called the ‘Center for Access, Innovation, and Advocacy’ that will house all of the community programs…It is actually going to give us a new purpose in terms of how to rethink and reimagine those programs.
He continued by sharing how this new structure “is going to focus its messaging in a more clear and more concise way of what it is we are actually doing and why it is we are doing what that is.”
Once we as fundraisers are clear on why we do what we do and what it is that our organizations do, we need to be clear on what the call to action is. Liz brought attention to the common pitfall of not extending an invitation to the supporter to do something specific:
I think so many times as organizations, even we as people, [what] we fail to do is ask for what we want and tell people what we want them to do…When you look at your materials, when you look at your social media posts, you go to your website, you don’t actually ask anyone to do anything…Make that ask.
Tip #2: Effective storytelling leads with impact
In addition to having a sense of clarity in our stories, how do we know what part of the story to share? Effective storytelling is not about communicating how the plane is made; it is about communicating how we got to fly.
To this point, Liz observed that what many “organizations tend to really think about when they’re telling their stories—they focus on the problem they are trying to solve; they focus on the solution; but really, what they need to be looking at is the impact that they are creating and how the supporter they want to connect with is going to be able to help them realize that mission.”
For Liz, leading with impact effectively gives a pathway for a supporter to join an organization—more so than a story that focuses too much on the problem at hand.
Maimah shared that the murder of George Floyd was an important inflection point for her foundation and for herself in terms of how she told stories:
I think that…pushed me to tell my story in a way that is more palpable, more in your face, more ‘you will look at; you will see me.’
By making a story more palpable, that meant sharing the harsh, uncomfortable health inequities there are in this country—particularly for women of color. By being upfront with donors about what the foundation’s impact really is, Maimah saw that she was better able to connect with her audience.
Tip #3: Effective storytelling is personal
To reiterate, storytelling is the art of sharing ourselves to connect with others. That means effective storytelling is inherently personal.
To make our storytelling personal, Liz advised that organizations and leaders must “go inward. Have a clear understanding of what their purpose is and how that aligns with the organization they work for—and how that aligns with the supporter they are trying to engage.”
In her introduction, Maimah demonstrated what effective, personal storytelling can look like when we talk about our organizations:
When I began Tigerlily, I was 31 years old going through breast cancer and began it as a single mother in my bed while in the middle of treatment…A lot of what I wanted for resources were not available to me…What we built was a virtual space for women who are young adult breast cancer survivors—younger women and women of color—to come to for support.
Here you can see how Maimah connected with the audience at this panel by bringing them to her. The mission of Tigerlily Foundation is no longer words on a website; the mission is now embodied by imagining a woman we know in cancer treatment looking for ways to support other young women who are experiencing or have experienced breast cancer.
Tip #4: Effective storytelling is grounded in listening
Anthony observed that “there are a lot of guessing games” when it comes to fundraising: assumptions about what our donors want to hear and assumptions about the lives of the communities that our nonprofits purport to serve.
Liz reminded us of the phenomenon that has come to be known as ‘poverty porn.’ She elaborates: “it is very exploitative. It is not in any way empowering of the people you claim to be serving…It is important for us to focus on the impact you are trying to make through your organization and what that person or that community will look like as a result of whatever intervention you’re providing.” In our communications, it is important to be intentional with how we frame our programs: are they programs that help communities or are they programs that ‘save’ communities to satisfy our own sense of self-purpose?
To avoid the pitfalls of saviorism, we need to listen to our communities and amplify their voices and experiences.
Anthony made some tactical suggestions on what nonprofit leaders can do to center their communities in their communications:
Give donors and community members the opportunity to share what interests them
Provide opportunities for donors and community members to give feedback in real time when donating or volunteering
Incorporate DEI content into professional development opportunities for fundraisers (for example. what does it look to build relationships with Asian American communities?)
Anthony closed: “If you’re gonna be community-centric, then the community has to have a seat at the table.”
What next?
Join us for our next panel event on Thursday, October 28th where will continue to explore how to drive bold, community-centric fundraising beyond storytelling and through board engagement. Click here for more details.
Before joining Aperio, Travis worked in the nonprofit sector in New York City and Philadelphia for organizations like Sanctuary for Families and Nationalities Service Center. He specializes in project coordination, grant reporting, CRM systems, event planning, and leadership engagement.