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Amanda Whitmyer

Key Components for Writing a Donor Impact Story

Updated: Oct 27


Granddaughter and Grandma

When your nonprofit is planning the best strategies to connect with your donors, sharing stories is powerful. Real-life stories fueled by impact encourage others to give back, get involved, and provide support because storytelling is the basis of connecting with donors. Here are the key components for writing a donor impact story and raising funds for your nonprofit's mission. Let's get started!

Step 1: Introduce Story

First, it's essential to identify the donor impact story you would like to share. The donor impact story should focus on one person and how their life has improved due to your nonprofit services. To highlight the real impact, sharing a donor's story to a happier, healthier tomorrow will resonate with potential donors because they can learn firsthand how your nonprofit has served others through a real, authentic story.


Step 2: Explain Challenge

Next, frame the overarching challenge and how it relates to the donor impact story. Take your reader on a journey by setting the stage, then leading to the donors' challenges faced, and close the story by incorporating how your nonprofit helped solve the challenge through your programs or services. Always ensure the person highlighted is the hero of their own story and that your nonprofit provides the resources needed during a challenging time to help the person create a thriving future.


Step 3: Use Engaging Language

Third, it's important to use engaging language in your donor impact story. Using emotional language that pulls the reader in by sharing the struggle, the hope, and the achievement of how the person is overcoming their challenges provides a moving connection with your potential donors. Not only will this pave the way toward inspiring readers to take action to further your organization's impact, but it will also highlight how their donation or time as a volunteer doesn't end there and continues to make a real-life impact.


Step 4: Highlight Impact

Fourth, highlighting the impact is crucial to providing context for donors to understand that their support is fulfilling the dreams of those who may not have access to the resources they need to overcome the challenges they face. For example, if your nonprofit helps people facing homelessness, illustrate that impact in a way that shares how a family support went from the fear of nowhere to stay to receiving services that secure housing, food, employment, and childcare. By highlighting this impact, you're telling the complete story of impact.


Step 5: Incorporate Stats

Fifth, incorporating stats related to the donor impact story helps readers understand the impact in numbers. Stats are a great addition to setting the stage when there's a significant improvement in a program or service the person has benefited from. It's important to note that when incorporating stats, they complement the story rather than be the central focus. Stats help tell your story, so focus on adding up to three.


Step 6: Include Visuals

Following, including visuals helps further enhance your story. Visuals can include photographs of the person highlighted in the story, their community, or other content related to the story. Another option includes infographics that condense information in an appealing format (also ideal for showcasing stats) or adding a video to your donor impact story with a message shared firsthand by the person in the story. Overall, visuals support your storytelling, making it real and relatable.


Step 7: Close with an Action

Every donor impact story should conclude with a clear call to action (CTA). The CTA should invite donors to take action to help impact even more lives through the services your nonprofit provides. Whether you're encouraging donors to make a gift, volunteer, or share the impact story across their social media channels, choose one CTA that's quick and simple to achieve with a direct hyperlink to the action.


Does your nonprofit need help creating donor impact stories or support sharing regular content to your email list? Click here to learn more about monthly plans for email marketing services. We'd love to create content that inspires people to take action for your cause!

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