How a nonprofit’s storytelling campaign tripled donations
If you’ve ever said that your nonprofit is the “best kept secret” — you’re not alone.
Community Support Advocates serves individuals with mental health challenges or disabilities, and president Christina Smith has said they're one of the community's "best kept secrets."
Organizations that work directly with CSA know the great work they do to serve members, but outside of those direct partnerships, many don’t know about CSA.
With their tried-and-true funding streams declining, Smith knew CSA needed to focus more intentionally on fundraising and marketing efforts.
Not only did the not-for-profit need to tell their story, they needed to do so in an intentional way that helped share their services — what they did and who they served — with the greater community.
CSA launched a storytelling campaign in 2022 as part of their 25th anniversary year. The results were wonderful — engagement went up, and donations tripled.*
On the podcast, Christina talks about:
- Why she was initially hesitant to share member stories, and what changed her mind
- Why an initial video story didn’t get the results they wanted
- How CSA distributed the digital storytelling campaign, and why the second effort worked
- How storytelling changed their interaction with their audience, including engagement
- Why the campaign helped with fundraising
- Changes they’ve seen after the storytelling campaign ended in 2022 and what they want to do next
Learn more:
→ CSA online: https://teamcsa.org
→ See the storytelling campaign: https://teamcsa.org/25th-anniversary-stories/
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Nonprofit Storytellers features the stories of how not-for-profit professionals are sharing their organization’s story. From outreach to marketing to fundraising, host Mackenzie Walters leaders on how they accomplished their goals through smart storytelling.
→ More episodes and additional articles: www.nonprofit-storytellers.com
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→ Nonprofit Storytellers is published by StoryStruck Marketing. It's editorially independent. It's hosted and edited by owner Mackenzie Walters, a national award winning journalst. CSA partnered with StoryStruck on their storytelling campaign.