Description

What if I were to tell you that what your nonprofit does — doesn't matter.

Now, give me a second to clarify: the point here is that "what" is the wrong place to put your focus when it comes to fundraising writing. Potential donors and supporters aren't really interested in information about your programs or what you hope to do — they need information about the, "Why."

It's really important to uncover the people behind what your organization does (Especially when creating content for a crowdfunding campaign): the social impact, the emotional hook, the people who remind you every day why your organization does what it does.

Your nonprofit organization can create this human connectivity by fusing story-telling into your crowdfunding campaign strategy. Here are a few things to consider as you prepare your writing strategy for a crowdfunding campaign.

How will your organization create its content?

Quality content is an essential piece of any successful crowdfunding campaign. This means if you're putting any effort at all into this type of fundraising campaign, is vital that your organization find the write person to create this content — whether it be a professional writer, an active supporter or volunteer with strong writing experience.

How do you know if someone inside your organization is fit to do the job? You need to be confident that a volunteers' work is going to be effective for your campaign, so start by considering two factors:

• Does the person actually enjoy writing? If not, writing all the content for this campaign will become a chore. And, there's a lot of writing to be done — the last thing you want to do is slow down the momentum of your campaign because creating great stories seemed like too much work.
• Does the person have strong interviewing skills? While you can prepare a standard list of questions to use in interviews about the "why" of your organization, when it comes time to actually do the interview your writer better be able to think on his or her feet and get the real, emotional conversations started.

What are the essential "ingredients" to a successfully written crowdfunding pitch?

While there isn't a black and white answer for the set number of paragraphs your writing needs, which paragraph should talk about what, and so forth — there are some general guidelines to follow as to the flow of your story-focused campaign pitch.

• Start with an emotional hook. Bring your readers to tears, or evoke belly laughs so vigorous they bounce off their chairs and climb back up looking for more. The point is, you want potential donors reading your campaign to be interested from the start — and that starts with an emotionally captivating human story.
• Give brief details about how your organization helps. Make the transition natural by explaining, in generic terms, how your nonprofit helped the person in the emotional hook.
• Explain that the problem still exists. Just because your organization helped the person in the first example, doesn't mean your work is done. Use statistics that showcase how many more people are still in need, or other data or information that truly showcases the societal need for your nonprofit.
• Call to action/the ask. Tell people what you need them to do, and be specific.

Now, that you have all the right ingredients, it's time to be sure your mixing it in with the essential characteristics of writing that will truly captivate your audience: here, study up on the 5 essential elements of any successful crowdfunding campaign here.

Resources

The best way to learn more about Lyssa is to visit her website: lyssaschmidt.com

Twitter: TipsOnPurpose

Note: these show notes were written by Lyssa herself. How cool is that?!

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