02 | Donors aren't growing? This could be why

Are your donors pulling back- or not responding at all?

In this episode, we unpack the real reasons donor support may be stalling. It’s not just the economy or donor fatigue. You’ll learn:

• Common excuses ministry leaders may believe about low giving
• Why messaging is often the disconnect
• A story-driven approach that invites donors in
• How clarity beats cleverness in donor engagement

Walk away with practical insights and a new way to connect with your supporters.

Ready to clarify your ministry’s message and engage donors? Schedule a free call: https://irisstorytelling.com/getstarted

👉 Grab your free Ministry Message Checklist to start refining your message today at https://irisstorytelling.com/checklist

Connect w/ me:
lisa@irisstorytelling.com
https://irisstorytelling.com

Transcript

you think people are burnt out on giving. There's so many things to give to so many people asking give to hear give to hear so many different nonprofits so many different ministries so many ministries that are bigger ministries. So people are already giving to those bigger ministries and they're burnt out. They don't want to hear more people. They don't want to hear me asking for money

(...) I'm very proud of you for taking time out of your busy schedule to learn how to use the power of story to engage your donor and to move them to action to get them to support.

I know that you care so deeply about your ministry and you are doing hard work. You're wearing many hats. You have many things on your schedule and you're doing the hard work because you do care so deeply about the people that you're ministering to and the impact that you're making. You might struggle or worry daily.

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How can we get more partners? How can we get more support so I don't have to worry so much about the financial side so I can spend more time doing the ministry work I love without constantly worrying about where the money is going to come from.

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And I am excited to help you with that. I want to show you how you can use the power of story to implement it into your message so you can effectively move them.(...) A lot of times you might maybe right now or maybe you've had seasons where the support isn't coming in. Your donors aren't giving or maybe they start cutting back a lot and that stings. It's maybe happening right now in this economy. We have so many external factors going on so you might think, well, the economy is just terrible right now. It's very tough. People need to cut back or maybe

you think people are burnt out on giving. There's so many things to give to so many people asking give to hear give to hear so many different nonprofits so many different ministries so many ministries that are bigger ministries. So people are already giving to those bigger ministries and they're burnt out. They don't want to hear more people. They don't want to hear me asking for money

or inflation has hit everyone. Donors don't just have extra.

so many reasons that so many external factors or maybe you even kind of start blaming it on your donors and supporters. Well, our donors don't just don't understand the importance of our work. They don't get it like we do. If they truly understood what we do, then they would be more willing to give.

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Or our supporters only give when there's a crisis.

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Our audience just isn't that generous.

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They don't see the need. We need like a disaster to happen before they care.

a lot of them can be true, right? The economy is tough and inflation has hit everyone.(...) There are so many external factors, but the thing is we can't control those external factors. No matter what the situation is, no matter what the economy looks like, what year it is, what president is in office,(...) the need is still there. Your ministry still matters and the people that you're ministering to still matter and they still have a need.

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And the need often increases in those tough times. And the disasters in the economy being terrible with inflation going up, those needs a lot of times increase.(...) But you can't give up. You don't want to give up.(...) You know, you feel deeply about your ministry and the work that you do.

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And there's no give up in your mind.

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There's no wait it out, right? Can't just wait out something that you don't know will just pass. It could be years. It could be decades. You can't just hope for the best.

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The people that you're ministering to, they need you.

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And again, you care. You care about them so deeply.

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So while you can't control those external factors, you can look internally.

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So look internally within your ministry.

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What could be missing?

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Start with your messaging, the wording that you're using. What could be missing in your ministry's message that's not connecting?

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The words that you use are the bridge that you're building to get your potential donor to cross over and support your ministry.(...) Because your potential donors are people who deeply care about your ministry as well. Or the work, the need that you're meeting. They care deeply about that as well. But they just don't know about you or they don't understand clearly that what you do meets the need that they care about.

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So your words and your messaging create a bridge for them to cross over and support your ministry. So it's very important the words that you're using and how you are crafting your messaging.

let me make it more actionable. So I want you to pick some form of your messaging. So pick a newsletter, a donor appeal, or an email campaign, or your social media bio, or your website. So pick one of those things in your ministry and you can just imagine it or you can look it up right now.

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So you can see the wording that you're using.

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Give you a moment.

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Pull up your website. Pull up your social media. Look at the words that you're using on your ministry's page.

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Are those words clear?

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Is it super duper clear for anyone reading what problem you solve and who you solve it for?

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Is your ministry's message within the title, within a first few paragraphs, if it's on your website or the first paragraphs in your email?

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Is your ministry's message telling a story that invites the donor in?(...) Invites them in a way that they have a role to play and they can see that they are needed to help meet that need.

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So look at the words that you're using. You want to make sure your potential donor, when they are reading that subject line on your email newsletter,(...) or they are seeing the first few words that header on your website, that it's super crystal clear.

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What problem you solve, who you solve it for, and that the donor has a role to play in that.

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You want to be careful not to add wording that is too clever. You know, there's a lot of fun, I don't know, like catch raises or taglines that use alliteration or rhyming or whatever.

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And you kind of build this initiative with this fancy title, but people don't understand what it actually means right away. If your wording needs explanation,

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then you've got to rethink that. You've got to rewrite things because you're missing your donor. If you don't catch them in that first few seconds to where they can understand very quickly who you know, what your ministry does, who you're serving, what problem you solve, then you lose them.

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They won't be clear on what you're trying to say.

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They, you know, they end up confused.

A confused donor just moves on. A confused donor doesn't donate. A confused donor doesn't investigate. They're not going to keep reading and reading and reading, trying to figure out what your ministry is about. They're going to move on most of the time. Okay, there might be exceptions. You might get lucky, but most of the time people are going to move on if it's not clear.

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Real quick, if you're listening to this and thinking, "Our donors aren't engaging well, how can I actually check if our messaging is clear?" I want to invite you to download my free ministry message checklist. It's

a simple tool to help you identify what's working, what's not, and where your message might be losing people, especially when it comes to donor engagement or supporter growth. You can grab it now at irisstorytelling.com slash checklist.

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So here's the takeaway.

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Here's the good news, guys.

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You can use the power of story to clarify your message so your donor will understand immediately and will be much, much, much more likely to engage.

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When I say the power of story,

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I don't know if maybe you've seen or heard or experienced what I mean when I say the power of story. But storytelling is actually incredibly powerful and I would argue that it's the most effective way of communication.

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Storytelling versus any other form of information output.

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Storytelling actually activates several, multiple areas of your brain.

several things. So one of the things is called neurocoupling.

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It stimulates different regions of the brain so that the listener can transform that narrative into their own concepts, like they're living it and explore those events through their imagination.

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And then also get the brain also releases dopamine into the system when it experiences an emotionally charged event, which makes it much more easy to remember.

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Which is great news for me because I have a terrible memory.

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So I got I got to do more storytelling.(...) Maybe that's why I got into storytelling because I have a terrible memory. But it is it is very memorable. It's easy to remember stories. You can remember stories for years without having to hear it several times. It just kind of like it's something that just kind of sticks in your brain.

other part of how storytelling affects the brain is through mirroring. This is when the listener, the brain activity in the listener kind of reflects similar brain activity as the storyteller. It's almost like you're living it even though you're not living it. You're kind of living it through their story.

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And it's like just this immersive,(...) immersive experience and super emotionally engaging.

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I don't want to get too bogged down into the science of it more than that. But storytelling is really, really powerful.

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And guess what? You can use it for all of your messaging.

so let's move into how this can happen.

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So I like to use a simple story structure. And there are several story structures out there. Some people call them frameworks, some people call them spines, there are several names for them. But the most important thing is that most amazing stories actually follow a structure to it.(...) And it's not something that just kind of naturally happens. Some people do have kind of a storytelling skill or knack for it. But you can learn a simple story structure, and then apply it over and over and over again with amazing results.

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So you may have heard of Donald Miller's book, Story Brand, or Building a Story Brand. And it's wonderful, absolutely well written, and it's easy to understand.

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And so he basically shares how he applies the story structure to a brand message.

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So that's a wonderful book. If you have the time and energy to buy it and read it,

but what I found is that ministries are a little bit different than most brands.

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So most brands will have one main audience, right? There's this one relationship between the brand, the corporation, whatever, and the customer, the buyer. And that relationship is basically an exchange, right? It's money in exchange for goods and services.

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But ministries,(...) donor-funded ministries, are much different, right? You have two different relationships happening. You have two different audiences.

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You have your audience, the people that you're ministering to. That's one audience. And then you have the donors. That's your other audience. So

So what I've done is adjusted the story framework so that it can more easily be applied to ministries who are dealing with your donor and the people that you're ministering to, right? There's kind of these two different groups and you have to connect them. So the story framework would go something like your donor is the main character. You're trying to move them to action so they're the main character. You are not the main character in the story.(...) And by that I mean on your website and every messaging platform,(...) you are not going to say, "Hey, this is what we are doing. This is what we're about.

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We're going to tell you our story. This is how we started."

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That's all.(...) It's not a bad thing. But when you switch perspectives and start treating your donor as the main character and the emphasis is on them and their story of transformation,

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everything will change. All of a sudden, they're not the ones being invited to watch your story unfold, but they're being invited to their own transformation journey that's going to happen through your ministry.

your donor has this desire to make a difference, to make an impact. They have a desire to

help with the need that you meet.

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And you actually have the privilege of connecting the donor to the work that you do so that the donor has a transformation in their life because they are able to make such a huge impact through you, through your ministry.

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And they come out of it on the other side, change people because they're like, "Wow, I've been able to make a huge impact in this with these people."

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With, you know, whatever,

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whoever you're ministering to with your ministry, they're the ones that are making the impact in their lives. And when they see that and when they feel that, it can just, it changes everything.

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All of a sudden, the donor doesn't feel like they're just being generous, like a third party outsider here, take my money.

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God bless you. And those are great. Those donors, God bless them.

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But when you actually change the narrative to where the donor has this full transformation and they feel like your ministry needs them,

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they feel like, "Wow, I am needed and I am valued and I can make such a huge difference through your ministry." Does that make sense? I hope I'm not losing you because it's such a key shift from,

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"Hey, this is our ministry.(...) Look over here. We are doing our best and, you know, these are our numbers and this and that. Please give us money because we want to keep doing this." It changes because all of a sudden, the donor is part of your team.

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The donor is involved personally and all of that happens through the words that you're using.(...) That's the change. It's not a change of, you know, how you're working things. It's a change of wording.

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All of a sudden, they go from being an outsider to an insider.

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That's a huge transformation shift and so powerful for the donor.

So in that story,(...) you are actually the helper.(...) You get to help them make a difference. You connect them with the people that you're ministering to in a way where,(...) "Here,(...) this is all you have. You're telling the donor, "Here, this is all you have to do."

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"To make a difference in this life and you will be changed for it." So you are the helper of bringing this story together and connecting the donor and the people that you serve and how their stories align.

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So you kind of show them the way and you show them the plan here. This is how you do it. And if you follow this plan, then the people that you're meeting, they will be forever changed. They will be rescued and healed and full of restoration. And they will be empowered to bring people to Christ, whatever it is that your ministry is and what need that you meet.(...) The win, the success of that is now the donor success.(...) It's not your success as the ministry. It's the donor success through you. So I hope that's making sense because once you kind of

you're articulating things and wording things and trying to engage the donor,(...)

Everything changes just without mind shift.

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So you're probably thinking,

don't know, Lisa, this is,

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this sounds great, but I don't even know where to start. I don't know how. This sounds super overwhelming. I don't have the time for this."

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And I want to say,(...) I'm here to help you walk through this.

So first of all, imagine how much time you would save about, you know, from thinking, how do you engage your donors and how do you reach out and how do you do this and the worries about finances and just wishing and the stress and the stumbling on the words, trying to describe what do you do? What does your ministry do? The time that you spent on trial and error over and over trying to figure out not sure what to say, how to say it, where to say it, anything.

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Imagine all of that being gone.

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Once you have a solid ministry brand story, it's one story line.

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That you then apply to every single message.

something you apply to every single platform, every single place where you have words and messaging your website, your email, your on stage, your presentation, your video,(...) whatever it is, you're going to use your brand story and apply it to all of those things. And all of a sudden, everything has consistency. All of a sudden, you don't have to try to think of a new idea or something new and creative. You have your template and you pull from that and you apply it. You apply it to your social media bio, you apply it to your email campaigns or your donor appeals, you apply it to everything and it makes everything so much simpler and it's amazing.(...) Truly.

I'm going to build your ministry brand story and then show you how to apply it. So by the time our sessions are done, you'll have that complete brand story that will be your guide for years to come. Unless you have a huge change in who you're serving and who your donors are, your brand story should stay the same for a long, long time.

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So this will be your guide for years to come. Then you use it. You create your elevator speech, your one sentence speech.

use it for your tagline, to create a tagline. You use it to write email subjects. You use it for social media bios. You use it for donor appeals, videos, everything. You start applying your brand story to all of those things. Not only will everything have the same story and the same consistency,

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but your team will also know the brand story through and through and they will be able to apply it to whatever job, whatever role that they have.(...) Now your team is all unified and consistent. Everyone is driving the same direction,(...) geared at, you know, headed at the same target.

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It's going to simplify so many everything,

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everything, the whole world. No, I'm just saying it just simplifies so much.

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So much. It's wonderful.

if you don't have a clear message right now, I would highly recommend doing the one-on-one coaching to establish your ministry brand story.(...) Or if you're just starting out, what a better way to get started than to be super clear on what your message and what your ministry brand story is and just take off from there and you would erase probably years of the trial and error.

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So to do that, we'll get on a discovery call. You can go to irisstorytelling.com slash get started and we'll just do a short discovery call where you're telling me about your ministry and the challenges that you have in growing your donor support.

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you a plan and share with you what it looks like to do coaching sessions with me so that you can finally have a clear ministry brand story and simplify all of your messaging.

started, go to irisstorytelling.com slash get started.