Follow These Three Simple Steps to Create Compelling Stories to Share with Grant Makers

I’ve been writing grants and teaching grant writing in one form or another for over 25 years now, and the most common complaint I hear from clients and students about grants as a fundraising tool is this:

Grants are BORING! 

I know why fundraisers think this – it’s simply that they want to be able to tell stories. They want to be able to tell the touching, human, victorious and sometimes tragic stories of their clients, constituents and communities. They know (rightly) that telling stories is a powerful tool for raising awareness and raising money. In fact, in a recent article, the Association of Fundraising Professionals identified storytelling as one of the most important fundraising trends in 2020.

And they’re right! 

Unfortunately for grant writers, with the exception of ONE place in the grant where you should share an individual success story (which you already know if you’ve taken my Grant Writing 101 course), there is no other opportunity to touch a grant maker’s heart. Or is there?

While it’s true that we are typically very restricted from tugging on heartstrings in a grant application, there are actually so many other opportunities to touch grant makers outside of the grant application where client stories serve to drive home your mission. Just think of all the public channels you use to share your vision with your community. You can assume that a grant maker has seen every one of them as they go through the process of qualifying your organization for a grant. This includes your website, social media channels and printed materials like brochures and annual reports. You can also highlight individual stories at educational and fundraising events and in any media opportunities you have, not to mention any follow up communication and reporting that you do with a funder.

Wow! That’s actually a LOT of places you can tell stories! 

So as you go into 2020, develop a plan and schedule to regularly ask your clients for their stories and be prepared to guide them through the telling of it. Provide them the structure they need to follow your logic model so that their story matches with the case for support you provide in your grant application. In short, a client story should follow these guidelines:

1. What was going on in your life before you got help at our agency? This should match the language you use to describe your client population’s challenges and/or the community problems (called the Problem Statement) in your grant application. Make sure you choose clients whose stories highlight the problems you are trying to solve. This is the client or community’s BEFORE.

2. What services did they participate in? This should match exactly with how you describe your solutions to the problems you identified (called the Program Description) and be easily recognizable by someone who has read about your program activities and objectives. This is the client or community’s DURING.

3. Where are they now as a result of participating in your services?  This should match the evaluation you use to measure your impact (called the Evaluation). You should pick a client who has had success in the areas you most want to demonstrate. This is the client or community’s AFTER.

For extra impact, ask them for a quote that you can use. Help them get started by giving them prompts like these:

“Thanks to you I can now….”

“Because of your help, I….”

“Before I came to (name of agency), I never thought… but now I...”

So go ahead – try it! Get used to asking clients for their stories. Many will be happy to help as a way of saying “thank you” to your organization.