Once Upon A Time

Once Upon a Time
How to market your nonproﬁt by telling a story.

What do I know?
• President of Turnbull Marketing Group, a (very) small
company dedicated to helping nonproﬁts help others.

• Hold a BA in Spanish and Journalism from Wake Forest
University and an MA in Latin American and Caribbean
Studies from Florida International University.

• Worked at Food For The Poor, the nation’s largest
international charity

• Love traveling and getting my hands dirty. Throw in
some Spanish and you have one happy lady.

Turnbull Marketing Group
Helping nonprofits help others.

Once Upon a Time

• What makes a story interesting?

• Where can I ﬁnd a good story?

• How do I tell a story effectively?

• How do I incorporate stories into my
marketing and fundraising programs?


What makes a story interesting?

• Characters you can relate to

• A plot you can believe in

• A call to action that moves you


Characters you can relate to

• Personable

• Sympathetic/Vulnerable

• Have a fulﬁllable need

• Have a succinct story to tell
relating directly to your
mission

• Whenever possible, not you


A plot you can believe in

• Clearly expresses the need

• Has a story-like feel (think
feature story in your favorite
magazine)

• Ties directly in to your mission

• Succinct

• Invites the reader into the
character’s world


A call to action that moves you

• •
Direct—no hemming Urgent—Why me?
and hawing Why now?

• •
Repeated Doable


Where can I find a good story?

• Everywhere! Every single living thing in the
world has a story—the hard part is seeing it

• Start at home

• Talk to the people you serve

• Be nosy—ask questions that touch the heart


Be nosy
• What do you hope/pray for?

• What do you want for your
future? For your children’s
future?

• How has our organization
helped you? What was life like
before we began to help you?

• What do you want to tell our
friends and supporters?

• Why should our friends help
other people like you?


How do I tell a story effectively?

• Focus on the details that pull at the heart
strings—make them weep

• Be succinct—leave out the dry information

• Hook your audience from the very beginning

• Use action words, present tense and
adjectives

• Don’t just tell a story—show it

• Tie everything back to your mission


Mahalia

Climbing the sagging steps leading up to the
dilapidated house teetering 6 feet off the ground in
Georgetown, Guyana, I keep my eyes on 8-year-old
Mahalia, who bounds ahead of me with no
apparent fear of falling through the rotted wood.
She leads me inside, where missing ﬂoorboards,
bowing walls and a rusted piece of tin—more a
strainer than a roof—form what bit of space she
has to call home. I have come to listen, and Mahalia
is just about to tell me a secret.


How do I incorporate stories into
marketing and fundraising materials?
• Use them everywhere you can—online, brochures,
newsletters, fundraising letters, beneﬁts, annual reports

• Illustrate with compelling photos

• Send your audience online for the rest of the story—
websites shouldn’t be just content-driven, they need to be
story-driven

• Make short videos—feature the people you serve whenever
possible

• Tell one good story in each e-Newsletter

• Use your blog to tell stories, not to give status reports

And They Lived Happily Ever After

• Pull at heart strings

• Be succinct

• Make it personal

• Tie it back to your mission

• Tell stories all the time, everywhere you go


Let’s keep in touch

h Turnbull
Elizabet
h@tbullgroup.com
email: elizabet
itter : @ejturnbull
tw
one: 919.741.5072
teleph


Once Upon A Time

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