Reflection: Storytelling to Better Understand Donor Motivations

Challenge:  I have been working in the financial services nonprofit and social impact sector, focused on  fundraising, articulating impact to stakeholders, and strengthening donor relationships. While  much of this process involves outreach, it is a dynamic and constantly changing journey that is  constantly challenging fundraisers to better understand their target donor groups and their  respective interests over time. Traditionally, our fundraising process has been linear: find a few  great statistics and data points to support our work and progress in the community, draft an email  with a big “DONATE” button, update the website to focus on the fundraising campaign, and  email this campaign out to all our stakeholders. However, funders and their priorities change, I  realized, and we need to better adapt to this changing landscape for the sake of our nonprofit’s  future. My organization has recently seen a decrease in donations through our traditional outreach  (described above), without fully understanding why, given the relatively positive economic  climate of our donor group. Now, in planning our upcoming fundraising season, I feel challenged  me to start thinking of other ways to fill this gap and identify what we don’t know: what do  donors want, what motivates them to give, and what will keep them engaged with our work over  time? How can we better understand our donors and connect them with our inspiring work in the  community to inspire a longer-term trend of giving?    Selection:  I selected Storytelling as my tool to help inspire and empower our development team staff to  better understand the insights of our donors, making fundraising a more donor (user)-focused  strategy rather than a blind outreach tactic. As per the lecture, storytelling “has emotional  connection, and it also has larger purpose. Storytelling is the difference between solving a  problem and creating a cause.” First, the storytelling tool will help me and my team better  identify our audience and their respective needs; perhaps our target donor has changed, and we  need to investigate that and better understand what would drive and interest a new potential donor  group. Second, we would need to plan out a sequence of events to clearly tell our story in a  compelling way that inspires our team to keep understanding donor insights. And third, we will  need to do a better job of reflecting: not just reviewing our campaigns, but looking at our  response rates, donation amounts and frequencies, and asking our community for their feedback.

Application:  I started the storytelling process by meeting with our development team and writing out our  fundraising process. I needed to understand what our current donors wanted, and which potential  donors we might be ignoring in our target campaigns and outreach. I began the donor identity  process by looking through our donor data from the past five years, analyzing giving trends, and  finding a portion of lapsed donors – or donors who stopped giving last year, after consistent  donations for several years. I tried to first understand their profiles: background, career, issue area  interest (education, housing, etc.), and connection with our clients. I built a survey to better gauge  what inspires donors and what made them donate in the first place – and what kept them  interested in our work. I then emailed this survey to over 100 of our major donors who had  stopped giving and who we wanted to re-engage with. The intent of this survey was to learn about  our donors and structure our fundraising strategy around their needs, desires and interests.    Insight:   This survey illuminated insights we hadn’t uncovered before: that donors felt disconnected to our  outreach, which came across as data-filled and impersonal, while other nonprofit organizations  were sharing success stories and videos of their clients doing well, thanks to the donation they  had given. I realized we weren’t keeping our strategy centered on our donors, and rather, were

finding the easiest way to engage in outreach. I extrapolated this data into basic terms, describing  the story of one particular major donor, Jennifer B., who clearly stated she stopped giving  because she felt “she was merely a number to the organization; while other grassroots  organizations were giving her updates on actionable ways her donation has made a difference to  others, [your] updates fell flat. I want to feel like I am actually a valued stakeholder here.” The  team and I were absolutely shocked that we had missed this simple insight for so many years, and  did not think to stop and ask our donors about how they felt. Instead, we would read blogs and  articles about “best practices in the nonprofit field.” We had lost sight of our donor’s priorities.    This also made me realized that we were holding back the amazing power of people-to-people  connection from our donors. Instead of throwing them data, we could share the amazing updates  from our clients, who were buying houses, going to college, and paying off debts, thanks to our  donors’ gifts. We could certainly refocus our attention to tying our donor dollar amount to an  incremental change in our clients’ lives, and share those updates to inspire and continue donating.    Approach:   Next time, I would engage more of my team in the process, and do a deeper dive in understanding  donor insights by setting up focus groups or coffee chats with a random group of donors on an  ongoing basis. I learned so much through sending out a simple survey, and there is ample  opportunity to continue understanding our stakeholders by making this a proactive, continuous  learning process, rather than a reactive one. We can continue understanding the drivers and  motivations of our donors by meeting with them and sharing stories of those engagements at  weekly staff meetings, alongside our client stories. By understanding those who we help and  those who help us do our work in the same setting, we can impact more lives and more deeply  engage our staff with our outreach creatively and proactively.


Reflection : Storytelling to Better Understand Donor Motivations Challenge : I have been working in the financial services nonprofit and social impact sector , focused on fundraising , articulating impact to stakeholders , and strengthening donor relationships . While much of this process involves outreach , it is a dynamic and constantly changing journey that is constantly challenging fundraisers to better understand their target donor groups and their respective interests over time . Traditionally , our fundraising process has been linear : find a few great statistics and data points to support our work and progress in the community , draft an email with a big “ DONATE ” button , update the website to focus on the fundraising campaign , and email this campaign out to all our stakeholders . However , funders and their priorities change , I realized , and we need to better adapt to this changing landscape for the sake of our nonprofit ’s future . My organization has recently seen a decrease in donations through our traditional outreach ( described above ) , without fully understanding why , given the relatively positive economic climate of our donor group . Now , in planning our upcoming fundraising season , I feel challenged me to start thinking of other ways to fill this gap and identify what we do n’t know : what do donors want , what motivates them to give , and what will keep them engaged with our work over time ? How can we better understand our donors and connect them with our inspiring work in the community to inspire a longer - term trend of giving ? Selection : I selected Storytelling as my tool to help inspire and empower our development team staff to better understand the insights of our donors , making fundraising a more donor ( user)-focused strategy rather than a blind outreach tactic . As per the lecture , storytelling “ has emotional connection , and it also has larger purpose . Storytelling is the difference between solving a problem and creating a cause . ” First , the storytelling tool will help me and my team better identify our audience and their respective needs ; perhaps our target donor has changed , and we need to investigate that and better understand what would drive and interest a new potential donor group . Second , we would need to plan out a sequence of events to clearly tell our story in a compelling way that inspires our team to keep understanding donor insights . And third , we will need to do a better job of reflecting : not just reviewing our campaigns , but looking at our response rates , donation amounts and frequencies , and asking our community for their feedback . Application : I started the storytelling process by meeting with our development team and writing out our fundraising process . I needed to understand what our current donors wanted , and which potential donors we might be ignoring in our target campaigns and outreach . I began the donor identity process by looking through our donor data from the past five years , analyzing giving trends , and finding a portion of lapsed donors – or donors who stopped giving last year , after consistent donations for several years . I tried to first understand their profiles : background , career , issue area interest ( education , housing , etc . ) , and connection with our clients . I built a survey to better gauge what inspires donors and what made them donate in the first place – and what kept them interested in our work . I then emailed this survey to over 100 of our major donors who had stopped giving and who we wanted to re - engage with . The intent of this survey was to learn about our donors and structure our fundraising strategy around their needs , desires and interests . Insight : This survey illuminated insights we had n’t uncovered before : that donors felt disconnected to our outreach , which came across as data - filled and impersonal , while other nonprofit organizations were sharing success stories and videos of their clients doing well , thanks to the donation they had given . I realized we were n’t keeping our strategy centered on our donors , and rather , were finding the easiest way to engage in outreach . I extrapolated this data into basic terms , describing the story of one particular major donor , Jennifer B. , who clearly stated she stopped giving because she felt “ she was merely a number to the organization ; while other grassroots organizations were giving her updates on actionable ways her donation has made a difference to others , [ your ] updates fell flat . I want to feel like I am actually a valued stakeholder here . ” The team and I were absolutely shocked that we had missed this simple insight for so many years , and did not think to stop and ask our donors about how they felt . Instead , we would read blogs and articles about “ best practices in the nonprofit field . ” We had lost sight of our donor ’s priorities . This also made me realized that we were holding back the amazing power of people - to - people connection from our donors . Instead of throwing them data , we could share the amazing updates from our clients , who were buying houses , going to college , and paying off debts , thanks to our donors ’ gifts . We could certainly refocus our attention to tying our donor dollar amount to an incremental change in our clients ’ lives , and share those updates to inspire and continue donating . Approach : Next time , I would engage more of my team in the process , and do a deeper dive in understanding donor insights by setting up focus groups or coffee chats with a random group of donors on an ongoing basis . I learned so much through sending out a simple survey , and there is ample opportunity to continue understanding our stakeholders by making this a proactive , continuous learning process , rather than a reactive one . We can continue understanding the drivers and motivations of our donors by meeting with them and sharing stories of those engagements at weekly staff meetings , alongside our client stories . By understanding those who we help and those who help us do our work in the same setting , we can impact more lives and more deeply engage our staff with our outreach creatively and proactively .