What do you think your donors would say if you asked them why they give to you?

They’d probably answer how we’d expect them to:

• "I think the organization does great work in my community."
• "They solve a problem I want to be solved around the world."
• "They steward my donation well."

But if it was just about the case – if all it took was doing work in solving a problem and people would give – wouldn’t organizations have no problem raising funds?

Why doesn’t reason or rationale always work in motivating people to give?

Well, as Neurologist Donald B Calne wisely said, "The essential difference between emotion and reason is that emotion leads to action, while reason leads to conclusions."

Act I: The Power of Storytelling
Do you remember the last great movie you watched? What made it great? Was it the intense scene where the bad guy almost gets away? Or the part where the friends finally confess their love for one another (I’m looking at you Little Women fans)?

A great story is arguably the most important vehicle in your direct-response fundraising. A story can communicate information so powerfully that our brains interpret it similarly to us living out that experience ourselves.

Talk about putting the donor in the shoes of our beneficiaries – a great story can help you do that!

This isn’t anything new, but where I find organizations struggle is storytelling effectively – often, organizations will start the story too late.

Oftentimes, because a charity by nature is in the business of doing good, they miss telling the part of the story of how someone* came to the organization.

* Note this very much applies to animals, too.

So if you care about helping your donors understand why your work is so important, then building empathy through stories is crucial.

It’s easier to understand the importance of a food bank after you hear about a single mom struggling to feed her kids because she had to decide between rent and groceries that month.

We care more about a shelter when we hear about someone who lost their home as a senior and it was so cold one night that they finally decided to go to a shelter.

Families remember why they support their favourite international development charity when they hear about a young girl who ran from an early childhood marriage and now will be the first in her family to attend school.

The build-up in a story helps create the emotional tension necessary to be motivated to give. So, let's harness the power of storytelling to inspire action today.