Fundraisers have to be great storytellers. With this pandemic continuing, and many of you locked up in your homes wondering when we are going back to a normal work environment, we have been stressing the importance of reaching out to donors and keeping those relationships intact. I have been asked now by a couple of colleagues how can they continue to tell their organization’s story in these troubled times. I told them to become great storytellers!
When my kids were very young, they would ask me what I did for a living. I thought to myself that telling them I was fundraiser would be hard for them to understand, let alone comprehend. So one day, I sat them down and told them that my job was to make friends, tell stories, and ask those friends for money that would help other people. I then realized that to be successful in fundraising, you have to do three things extremely well: (1) make friends, (2) tell your story in an honest, warm, and urgent manner, and (3) close the deal by asking for a gift.
Unfortunately, life gets more and more hectic every year, and our mailboxes and e-mail in-boxes grow fuller every day. The result: a lot of our fundraising and marketing materials get tossed out or deleted without ever being read.
In my 40-plus years of managing major gift, capital, and marketing campaigns throughout the country, I have found that one of the biggest challenges for non-profit organizations – in this media-sophisticated and media-saturated era – is to raise the awareness of and support for their cause or service in a powerful and memorable way.
Since the mid-1980s, The Huddleston Group has been using video to tell our clients’ stories – with great success.
A video presents your case uniformly regardless of the presenter…and with far greater impact.
A compelling, sensitively produced video about your organization’s campaign or other fundraising or marketing program can accomplish many things that a live speaker, no matter how good, cannot. It assures your message is presented exactly the way you want it presented every time…and with maximum motivational power – even if your key presenters are not available. A good video transforms complex information about your organization and its plans into clear messages that touch the hearts, souls, and emotions of your audiences.
Video commands attention and outshines print messages every time!
It is the most effective way to reach your target audience and elicit the response you desire.
When produced in broadcast quality, your organization’s story will be brought vividly to life!
There’s no way you can bring all of your prospects and donors in to see for themselves what a great service you offer and what great people you are. However, by putting it on video, including moving testimonial interviews with your patients or clients and ringing endorsements from community leaders, your audiences will also see and hear your top executives express their personal dedication to the organization and/or campaign.
Since you can’t take your organization to each person who may want to donate to it, put your story on video, and get it out there! Telling your story on a DVD or online through various mediums shows potential donors exactly what you do, how well you do it, how your organization or campaign will benefit them and their community, and how they – your supporters – can make a difference in the lives of others.
Produced with care by people who understand fundraising as well as your mission, videos are sophisticated exercises in persuasion; they make a strong argument, emotionally involve the viewer, and strongly engage the audience in supporting your cause.
Our research of numerous capital campaigns shows that those who utilized a professionally produced video as a part of their campaign strategy hit or exceeded goals gave campaign leadership confidence in telling the story, and in almost all cases, the campaign ended on or before schedule.
Remember, with most donor prospects you only get one chance to make your case for support.
We are not talking about a cheap YouTube or phone video. We are not trying to teach your donor how to change out an old garbage disposal! Instead, you want to produce a well-crafted video that is written, edited, reviewed, and directed especially for your audience. Seldom can one video convey all of the messages your organization has to offer, so you must segment your audiences and prepare your message for each.
A well-planned, short (seldom longer the five minutes) and powerful yet warm and caring video will help to galvanize your crucial potential supporters and turn them into valuable, long-term, assets. And in the bargain, you’ll find that your organization has been launched to new heights, which will energize your staff and board, as well. I wrote an article back a few years ago about the power of video. You can get a copy by clicking here (Ron’s Video Article). Also, visit our YouTube Channel to see a sample of the videos we have helped produce for our clients.
If I can answer any questions or help you in any other way, give me a call, and
Good Luck!
Ron J. Huddleston, CFRE, FAHP
President
