Storytelling is a powerful tool nonprofits can use to rally support for your mission throughout the year. Folding stories into your slate of fundraising events allows your attendees to connect with your organization, its work, and its beneficiaries in a more tangible way. This guide will discuss four key tactics for telling compelling, ethically compiled stories at any nonprofit event, from golf tournaments to black-tie galas.

1. Include Components of a Compelling Story

Not every story is created equal. Make yours as compelling as possible by structuring your stories to captivate your audience. Strategically mapping out your storytelling approach helps you optimize it in all aspects of your event—before, during, and after. 

Your nonprofit’s stories should include:

• A defined structure. Good stories have a beginning, middle, and end. Excluding even one of these components can leave the audience unfulfilled and unmoved by your story and less inclined to support your mission.
• Protagonist. The protagonist is the main figure in the story. Your nonprofit’s staff generally shouldn’t be the protagonist; instead, focus on your organization’s beneficiaries and supporters.
• Challenge. What has the protagonist had to overcome? What difficulties are they facing? What brought them to your organization in the first place? What role did your nonprofit play?
• Resolution. This is the outcome of the challenge. It’s an ongoing story, so it’s likely not wrapped up with a bow for a happy ending, but should include hope for the future.

2. Include the Story’s Elements in Your Event Planning

Once you’ve mapped out your story’s components, strategize how you’ll weave them into the overall marketing strategy for the event. For instance, setting the stage for your event by introducing your cause and perhaps the protagonist in initial messaging piques the audience’s interest. From there, you can focus more specifically on the challenges in later communications and the resolution at the event.

It’s important to keep in mind that all stories should be collected ethically from your nonprofit’s beneficiaries. Collect their written consent both for sharing their stories and any photos of them that may accompany the stories, and clearly explain what they will be used for and where they will be shared. Above all, respect their wishes if they don’t want to participate. 

Let’s say your nonprofit is holding a charity golf tournament. Here’s a sample event plan that includes storytelling:

Pre-event: Build Anticipation 

• Choose a theme for the tournament that’s related to your mission in some way, such as “Swing for Kids” or “Putting for Miracles.” 
• Share stories of impact in your promotional materials, including your event registration website. 
• Introduce your mission, protagonist, and challenge.

Event Day: Integrate Storytelling into the Event

• Use signage to share photos and stories of beneficiaries and supporters. Place signs on tee boxes, in the clubhouse, and other high-traffic areas. You might even consider including a QR code on signage that golfers can scan to read a more detailed version of the story.
• Mention your nonprofit’s mission in the tournament’s kickoff speech and in any remarks at an awards ceremony or dinner. 
• Add on-course games that tell a story and connect folks to your mission. For example, if your charity builds homes for underprivileged members of your community, you might create a game where golfers putt with building tools like sledgehammers or putters. Another option is to weave the story into several games across multiple holes that tell different parts of the story.

Post-Event: Use Stories to Say Thank You

• Invite your nonprofit’s beneficiaries to record a thank you message that’s shared with golfers and sponsors that thanks them for their support of the golf tournament.
• Include the story’s resolution and hope for the future in thank you communications after the tournament.
• Use social media to share photos and videos that have a broader reach and might encourage additional people to make a donation.

3. Encourage Supporters & Attendees to Share Their Stories

Prompting your supporters to come forward to share their own experiences with your nonprofit is a great way to organically uncover new stories that can aid in attracting people to your event. Here are a few ways to get started:

• Use dgital channels. Digital outreach is a great way to collect and share impact stories from supporters. Ask folks to use a specific hashtag on social media or email your team additional story details. 
• Incentivize story submissions. Unwrapit suggests incentivizing participation with small tokens of appreciation, like gift cards or branded merchandise. You might also offer a reduced registration fee to your event if someone submits a story or an entry into a drawing for a larger prize.
• Use website forms. Create a form on your website to make submitting stories or signing up for an interview simple and convenient.  

Be sure to extend your thanks at the event to supporters who submitted their stories. You might also provide opportunities for people to share their experiences at the event, such as a QR code placed around the venue that links to the website collection form cards.

4. Continue to Share Stories in Follow-up Communications

Tying everything together at the end of the event’s campaign allows you to continue telling your organization’s story over the long term. Continuing with the golf tournament example, let’s say that you’re reaching out to tournament sponsors to share the event’s impact. Here are some ideas for using stories in post-tournament communication:

• Highlight any memorable tournament components, such as a winner of a hole-in-one contest, to connect the sponsor to the event’s experience. 
• Showcase results from the tournament by using impact metrics and a dedicated report about how you fulfilled your sponsorship deliverables. 
• Provide a “look forward” or “save the date” to future iterations of the event to keep them interested in continuing their support.
• Theme your thank-you notes around the story used throughout tournament communications, offering a resolution that looks forward.
• Feature testimonials from event attendees to share attendee experiences.

Wrapping Up

As you consider how you can fold storytelling into your nonprofit’s events, the recommendations included in this guide can provide a roadmap. Start by using an event website where you can spread awareness about your mission, tell your organization’s and beneficiaries’ stories, and collect additional experiences. These stories will help new and existing supporters build a strong, personal connection to your nonprofit’s work.