If you're paying any attention at all, you've heard that telling stories is a good way to engage donors and raise funds.
But there's more to it than that. Saying "You must use stories" is kind of like saying "You must use colors."
A white paper from M+R Research Labs, Storytelling and the Art of Email Writing (PDF) takes a close look at the use of storytelling, especially in online fundraising.
The key point is this:
Embracing storytelling means more than simply dropping a personal story into a fundraising appeal. Too many organizations have a limited understanding of what "storytelling" means -- and it leads to what we call "the personal story trap."
The stories that don't do you any good have one or more of these characteristics:
- They are not relevant to the subject at hand.
- They are over-written. They read like the work of a professional writer, not like what a friend would tell you over dinner.
- They are not interesting enough to pull readers in. This can be a problem with the quality of the writing or with the story itself.
- They're about the wrong thing. Most commonly, an appeal for funds has a success story in it, which basically communicates that the problem is already solved.
I've found that picking a good stories is a lot like picking a good photo. The right one is:
- Technically good (well written), but not so much that it calls attention to itself.
- It's about the right subject.
- It's about people, not things.
- It communicates exactly the same thing that the rest of the messaging communicates.
