Storytelling: A Powerful Way to Touch Hearts and Raise Money

My sister Linda and I grew up in a family of storytellers. We all told stories around the dinner table at night—from a strange encounter our dad had with a plumbing customer to a weird thing one of our teachers did at school that day. We laughed a lot and it was a bonding time.

Linda recently released a book (The LightKeeper), which, of course, I read as soon as it was published. It was a quick, delightful read that captured my attention for several afternoons. After I was finished, I kept wondering about the process she used to develop the storyline which kept me so engaged. Would some of her process be applicable to those of us writing grant proposals, major donor solicitations, or even membership recruitment emails? I pondered this for a few days, and finally I gave her a call. I asked her to share her thoughts with me regarding storytelling.

Linda: Good storytelling is an art. It has to be told in just the right way, like a well-crafted joke. It needs a little background, a lot of personality, and a kicker at the end. Real life doesn’t always provide those naturally, so sometimes you have to embellish a little to make it engaging. A good story should entertain, educate, and evoke a response.

Cynthia: If we try to relate this to fundraising, then you can’t really move the storyline into fiction, right? Can you use this same technique even though you have to stick to the facts?

Linda: Most of my life, I’ve been a journalist. My stories were all factual, with little embellishment, but I always tried to keep those tenets in mind. Sometimes it’s just choosing the right word. Is the person “sad” or “bereft”? And there’s nothing wrong with a clever turn of phrase or a little alliteration when it’s appropriate. As long as it’s still true.

Cynthia: When I teach the art of grantwriting, I often talk about the importance of grabbing the reader's attention from the get-go. In a way, this is the “entertainment” factor you mention, I think. I also focus on the importance of educating the reader, which often means you need to share with the reviewer new information about the subject, so you aren’t just repeating information they already know. 

Linda: How do you go about gathering information a knowledgeable grantmaker doesn’t already know? If the grantmaker is deep into funding climate change, for example, I would think there is so much already published information which the grantmaker already has access to, that it would be hard to actually provide new information.

Cynthia: It often means the grantseeker has to develop charts or graphs using existing information but presenting existing facts in a new way—often comparing that information to the data the grantseeker has developed via their own organization. Or it may mean the grantseeker has to generate a whole new set of data via surveys, etc., that reflects their current situation.

Linda:   So essentially building on existing facts, and perhaps adding new data to it to further enlighten the reviewers? Actually, when I sat down to write The Lightkeeper, it was a new experience for me. Now I could make stuff up!

Cynthia: Where did you get the initial idea for the book?

Linda: It started on a trip to New England when I visited Mystic Seaport Museum, a living history offering that included historic buildings and ships, and even a lighthouse. As I walked by the lighthouse, I heard a voice inside. Curious, I entered and saw a video playing, sat down on the bench, and listened to a history of East Coast lighthouses. 

One fact astonished me: After the Civil War, there was such a shortage of men that the Lighthouse Service hired women—mostly spinsters and widows—to manage lighthouses. The idea captured my imagination and, like any good writer, it started writing a story in my head. I couldn’t wait to get home and put it to paper. Thus, The Lightkeeper was born. It was published in December.

Cynthia: Okay. Let me stop you there, Linda, as I want to explore this a bit. I often find, when writing a grant proposal or a major donor solicitation, that inspiration for my approach often comes at the oddest times. Once I was working on a proposal to protect religious icons at a Russian Orthodox church in a very remote area of Alaska, pondering how I would open the request so I would really capture the reader’s attention. I was walking through the town, went down to the docks, and was talking with a U.S. Coast Guard who said (among many other things!) that the weather in this area was “the worst in the world.” And that thought stuck and became the opening for my proposal. What other writing advice can you share with our readers?

Linda: Many writers will tell you this: You can’t be a good writer unless you’re also an avid reader. I’ve told that to countless high schoolers when asked to be a guest speaker. And it’s true. Reading a well-written book is like an apprenticeship in the craft. I hoped, in my recent book, to emulate some of the most memorable stories I have read by creating characters that seemed realistic and situations that were plausible. The response from readers so far tells me I succeeded. 

Cynthia: Well, it is a good story, so I concur! But how do you see storytelling strengthening a grant application or a major donor solicitation?

Linda: Storytelling can inspire action. Once, as a reporter back in the day, I interviewed an elderly woman in a nursing home for a story for my newspaper. As we chatted before I left, I asked her if she had any family in town. She said no, her only son had moved to California, and she never got visitors. It was fine most of the time, she said, but she did get lonely around the holidays. I asked the administrator of the home if there were many like my new friend and she said there were several residents who never had visitors.  So, we brainstormed an idea.

I wrote a story for the newspaper about how many abandoned elderly were in nursing homes over the holidays, and we initiated the “Adopt A Grandparent” program. About five nursing homes participated, and we got families to invite them over for Christmas dinner, maybe go caroling at the nursing home, even get little gifts. It was a big success. Some of those pairings lasted for years.

I could have started the story like this: “Many elderly residents of local nursing homes never get visitors and are especially lonely over the holidays.” Serviceable, but not evoking any sentiment.

Instead, it went something like this: “Lillian Johnson peers out of her nursing home window every Christmas, looking for someone who will never come. Her only son is far away in California, and this will be another Christmas where good tidings are delivered by the postal service.”

Both are true. But one tells a story. 

Cynthia: I love this example, Linda.

Linda: Storytelling also works well with fundraising. I am a board member and mentor for a women’s scholarship fund at the University of Colorado in Colorado Springs. I go to service club meetings to tell them about our program in hopes of getting financial support.

I tell them, “This scholarship is for non-traditional women students, age 24 and older, who have overcome obstacles in life to get an education to better their lives and those of their children.”

It’s true. But then I tell them about Jennifer, my first scholar whom I mentored: Jennifer was a runaway teen who got on drugs when she hooked up with street kids. She had two babies before the father took them away from her due to her addiction. She got sober, got her GED, went back to school (where I met her), and finished her degree in English. Then she earned her master’s degree and is now teaching. She did all this with undiagnosed bipolar disorder. 

Jennifer’s story gets them every time. It’s her story that opens wallets, not the fact that we have a 95 percent graduation rate out of the program. 

Cynthia: Thanks for sharing these stories, Linda. I believe strongly in opening proposals with a story. I think it can truly set the stage for ongoing support of a program or project.

Linda:  I believe that good storytelling reveals the humanity behind the facts. It opens hearts and often coffers. Use it wisely. It’s a powerful tool.

Linda DuVal was a reporter, feature writer, and section editor for The Gazette in Colorado Springs for 32 years. She is now a freelance writer whose work has appeared in many major newspapers and online sites. Her first historical novel, The Lightkeeper, was published in December 2023. Visit her website: https://linduval.wixsite.com/linda-duval-writer.