How to Tell Your Nonprofit’s Story with Your Website
From books to Netflix shows to podcasts, it’s clear that people are enamored with stories told in any format. Your nonprofit has a story, and it’s important to include it in your website, from your event pages and online donation form to your blog. Storytelling helps you build empathy with your audience and recruit passionate supporters who believe in your cause.
With that in mind, we’ll cover six tips for telling your nonprofit’s story with your website. According to research from 360MatchPro, your website is the most effective tool for communication and fundraising. These tips will help you make the most of this platform by enticing supporters new and old into interacting with your content.
1. Spotlight real people.
At the heart of any impactful story are the trials and triumphs of the main character. For your nonprofit’s story, your protagonists are the community members and volunteers you work with daily, as well as the recipients of your nonprofit’s work. Letting these individuals tell their stories using their own words will go a long way toward building empathy with website visitors.
Keep the following tips in mind when sharing community stories:
- Choose relatable stories. Conduct audience research to discover common characteristics, such as demographics, education level, and employment status. Then, select stories that include main characters who are relatable to different segments of your audience.
- Share your hero’s face, name, and voice. Introduce audience members to the real people affected by your cause by sharing images, direct quotes, audio clips, and videos of your protagonists.
- Show the relationship between community members and your nonprofit. Explain how support from donors and volunteers helped your organization resolve the main character’s problem. For example, if your nonprofit is an animal shelter, mention that with funds from donors, you were able to rehome your protagonist puppy with a loving family. This showcases your organization’s services without overshadowing the individual you supported.
Covenant House, a nonprofit focused on supporting young people experiencing homelessness, provides a great example of storytelling on its website through its stories page. It spotlights those the organization has helped, including photos, direct quotes, and ways that the nonprofit supported each individual.
These stories show donors and volunteers exactly who they’re helping when they support your organization, making your mission feel much more real to supporters.
2. Be transparent about challenges.
Donors and volunteers appreciate transparency regarding the challenges your organization faces. For example, researchers have found that nonprofits that have earned the GuideStar Seal of Transparency receive 53% more contributions on average than those without the Seal. To receive the Seal, you must update your profile on the Candid website with information about your organization’s leaders, grantmakers, financials, and more.
Keep these recommendations in mind when developing transparency in your story:
- Don’t sugarcoat your story. Dive into the complex issues your organization faces and present both the bad and good news. Perhaps a recent event was canceled due to inclement weather, or one of your nonprofit’s buildings faced damage due to age. Sharing the stories of these struggles can inspire supporters to get involved through donating, volunteering, or supporting your nonprofit in other ways.
- Let your characters be complex and flawed. Perfection isn’t realistic or relatable. Show your characters as the complex people they are, with their flaws and past mistakes as well as past triumphs.
- Share clear data. When developing reports like your digital annual report, don’t present only your positive data findings. Tell the full story using your data and describe your nonprofit’s plan for addressing negative trends.
However, don’t let your storytelling wallow in negativity or hopelessness. Even if the stories you’re telling aren’t necessarily happy, you should always emphasize the thread of hope or promise of change within the narrative. Show how your organization’s work brings about positive change.
3. Use multimedia elements to tell your story.
Stories are much more engaging when told alongside various multimedia elements, not just text alone. Whether you’re marketing an upcoming hybrid fundraising event or sharing a recent interview with a long-time volunteer, use the following multimedia elements to tell a richly detailed story:
- Photos, such as images of volunteers sorting through in-kind donations or beneficiaries receiving aid
- Videos that showcase interviews with beneficiaries, volunteers, or staff
- Infographics describing complex components of your nonprofit’s mission
- Audio and podcast clips that provide context to your visual content
Plenty of top content management systems like WordPress and Drupal also offer tools and features to create engaging content, such as videos, quizzes, and interactive maps. 81% of marketers agree that interactive content is more attention-grabbing than static content, so consider how you can use these innovative new elements to increase engagement on your website.
4. Bring your audience into the story.
To increase engagement from supporters, emphasize how much their support makes a positive difference for your nonprofit and those you serve by bringing them into the story. Ensure your online communications directly connect donations and volunteer support to your nonprofit’s ability to achieve its mission. Incorporate calls to action (CTAs) that invite web visitors to engage with your organization on a deeper level.
For example, let’s say you’re rethinking your website design for your medical aid nonprofit. Kanopi’s guide to healthcare website design recommends using clear, prominent CTAs to guide visitors through your website. The CTAs can be buttons or links that speak to each of your main audiences, whether patients, potential donors, volunteers, or those simply looking for medical information online.
Plus, use compelling messaging for your donation page CTAs to invite donors to become equal partners in your cause. For example, your CTAs might say something like “Join the Fight Against Childhood Cancer” or “Become a Partner for Change.”
When audience members see the impact they can make and how easy it is to deepen involvement with your organization’s work, they’ll be more inclined to take the next step.
5. Make your stories inclusive.
The best nonprofit websites and stories are inclusive, meaning they’re empathetic to your audience’s wide range of experiences and needs. Your audience comprises individuals from different backgrounds and walks of life, so your stories should resonate with different experiences to engage more supporters.
Here are a few recommendations to keep in mind when writing inclusive stories:
- Be aware of your audience members’ diverse identities and backgrounds. Your nonprofit’s audience members aren’t a uniform group. Conduct audience research to understand the diverse identities present in your audience. Then, ensure your website’s pages and forms are inclusive of supporters from various backgrounds. For example, make sure your forms don’t include any character minimums or maximums for names, and include a variety of pronoun options on forms asking for gender identity.
- Emphasize representation. Your website’s images, videos, and blog posts should reflect the diversity of your nonprofit’s community. Potential supporters or beneficiaries should see themselves reflected in different aspects of your content.
- Prioritize accessibility. Accessibility is a significant part of creating inclusive content. When you design your content with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines in mind, you can create a website everyone can use. In addition, reference the principles of universal design. These principles help guide the design process to create an online experience
Inclusive storytelling shows audience members they are welcome at your organization and in your story. Plus, it invites new audience members to give your organization a chance and potentially become true supporters.
6. Integrate stories into multiple website pages.
You’ll convey your nonprofit’s story most effectively when you incorporate storytelling aspects into multiple important website pages. You might think of your blog as the most natural place to tell stories, but it’s not the only page you can use. Integrate storytelling strategies into high-value pages like your:
- Homepage. Include videos or photos that speak to your nonprofit’s purpose.
- About page. Incorporate engaging interactive elements like a timeline of your nonprofit’s history or a map of your nonprofit’s reach.
- Testimonials and community stories. Empower beneficiaries to tell their own stories through videos, audio clips, direct quotes, and written statements.
- Donation page. Include an eye-catching image on your donation page to remind donors what their gifts are going toward.
Every website page is an opportunity to tell your story, whether through text, images, videos, or interactive elements. By making the most of these opportunities, you can grow their passion for your cause.
As a nonprofit marketing professional, it’s your job to become a storyteller for your organization. Think about the characters, imagery, and CTAs that will help tell your story most effectively. Using these elements throughout your website will create a much more engaging user experience, and as a result, you’ll build more genuine relationships with your audience.
Anne Stefanyk
As Founder and CEO of Kanopi Studios, Anne helps create clarity around project needs, and turns client conversations into actionable outcomes. She enjoys helping clients identify their problems, and then empowering the Kanopi team to execute great solutions.
Anne is an advocate for open source and co-organizes the Bay Area Drupal Camp. When she’s not contributing to the community or running her thoughtful web agency, she enjoys yoga, meditation, treehouses, dharma, cycling, paddle boarding, kayaking, and hanging with her nephew.
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