The Art of Storytelling – why it works for fundraisers…
Howard Lake | 19 February 2010 | Blogs
Over the years I have been profoundly concerned with understanding why people give, and how I can bring them to the understanding that they should give to some of the most unpopular causes. I am increasingly convinced that at the route to a donor’s heart is through the use of stories.
A character in one of Margaret Attwood’s novels says that he likes stories to be real and to be real they must have wolves in them. Indeed he sets out a convincing case why this is so, but though the stories I have set out have terrible wolves red in the proverbial tooth and claw, stalking their victims relentlessly, I think there is much more to it than that. Yes, to be real these stories need wolves, but in talking recently to the brilliant writer Indra Sinha I heard some of the subtlety that has made his work stunningly effective. Do you know another writer who can make full-page ads work profitably in year one time and again?
Indra wrote recently:
“What I have learned in twenty years of fundraising and recruiting donors/members first for Amnesty, then for the Bhopal Medical Appeal, is that what makes all the difference is telling the story properly. Storytelling of course depends on writing skills, but more importantly includes the way one thinks of the reader, treating them as intelligent people, but never patronising them by telling them that they are caring or compassionate, rather allowing them to discover these things about themselves. Also recognising that ultimately, at its deepest level, storytelling is not about this or that subject, tale or narrative, it is about the reader, the way they think of themselves and the world.
It works best when one does not tell one’s story with the object of raising funds, or gathering support, but in order to enable the reader to discover for themselves that they are powerful and can do much in the world, and that they are the sort of person who wants to do it. Get this right and funds, memberships and support come automatically, because what we are offering is something of inestimable value.”
Of inestimable value indeed! Here we can see something at work at the heart of fundraising – we forget to treat our potential donors as intelligent people at our peril.
John Baguley
www.internationalfundraisinmgconsultancy.com
About Howard Lake
Howard Lake is consultant editor of UK Fundraising. He founded the site in 1994 and successfully sold it in 2022. As director of Giving X Ltd he is exploring growing giving on a massive scale.
He is the founder of Fundraising Camp and co-founder of GoodJobs.