Life and Mission
Storytelling and writing are essential skills for missionaries, ministry and nonprofit leaders. In fact, if you struggle to tell stories, you'll struggle to raise the funds you need. Kay Helm is a writer & editor with experience in missions and the business world. She founded Mission Writers in 2022 to help missionaries write fundraising appeals and powerful stories to share with supporters. In this podcast, she offers tips you can use today to improve your missions & nonprofit writing.
Life and Mission
Adjust Your Messaging to Fit Your Donor's Journey
Our stories have the power to move supporters along on a journey: introducing them to a problem, dispelling myths, offering hope, introducing them to our organization, showing them how we solve the problem, building trust, and inviting them to take action.
At any point in time, you'll have people at different stages along these five levels of awareness:
- Unaware - They don't even know there is a problem.
- Problem Aware - They know about the problem, but not about solutions.
- Solution Aware - They know about solutions, but not so much about your organization or the work you do.
- Brand Aware - They know about you! But they aren't convinced you are the right fit for them.
- Most Aware - They get it! They know about the problem, what you do to solve the problem, they know, like, and trust you, and they're ready to join you (just waiting for you to ask).
It’s important to think about the donor’s journey, and where they are in it, when crafting our stories. We must also consider our organization's goals (increase monthly donations, bust a myth around the problem we solve, attract volunteers, etc.) and position ourselves and the story accordingly.
Adjust your flaps–address potential donors according to the stage of awareness they're in.
Do this, and donors will be more informed, engaged, and ready to respond when it’s time to ask for their support.
If you struggle to tell stories, you’ll struggle to raise funds.
In the Mission Writers course:
- Learn the exact stories that every ministry, missionary, and nonprofit needs to tell.
- Master the fundraising story calendar.
- Develop and practice essential storytelling skills to increase funding for your mission.
- Build your story library and your confidence.
Details at MissionWriters.org
Support the show
Mission Writers is an online course and group coaching experience where you’ll develop and practice essential storytelling skills to help increase funding for your mission. Get started now, for a year of coaching at over 60% off the regular price.