Have you ever been asked, “So… what does your organization do?”

“Well, we provide…” You may proceed to list the ten services you provide, continue about how great your organization is, and then wonder why the person you are talking to is looking around the room for an escape route. Nonprofits and churches want to convey their stories and explain how wonderful their organization is, not realizing the other person is only interested in how the organization matters to their story. I’ve been guilty of this too. It’s no surprise that person didn’t become the next donor or visit a church service!

Many for-profit and nonprofit organizations are hindering themselves from growing their revenue because they just don’t have the right messaging. While for-profit businesses often waste money on ineffective marketing, nonprofits may be limited on marketing money, so it’s important they spend their dollars wisely.

As a co-founder and former Executive Director of The Landing, an anti-human trafficking nonprofit, I understand the frustration nonprofits face when trying to grow programs from ground zero with limited resources. When The Landing started, we decided we would not offer sub-par services. However, in order to grow our programs and offer quality services, we needed to grow our revenue. To grow our revenue, we needed people to trust us and believe in our cause. To get people to trust us, we needed to establish credibility and show Houston why we mattered. We had to show donors why it was important for them to give to us. We had to show what gap they were helping to fill. In leading our messaging with the problem we were solving, we were able to increase our budget to over $1 million in less than five years. Along with that message, we created visually appealing marketing materials that showed professionalism from the very beginning. We thoughtfully created our brand to help us increase our revenue, and The Landing continues to improve its marketing efforts because they believe the cause deserves excellent services.

Many nonprofits choose to invest very little in marketing efforts because they are focused on providing services. This is understandable, because it’s actually doing the mission that brings joy to the nonprofit team and should be at the core of the agency! But if you have a foundation of effective marketing to help you raise money more easily, you can then grow your mission and serve more people. Poor marketing might lead people to think that the products or services an organization offers are sub-par. The truth is the services might be sub-par only because a nonprofit is not able to raise the revenue to invest in improving its services. It’s time to realize that the people we serve deserve better. It’s time to stop self-funding our organizations. It’s time to become sustainable. It’s time to tell a story that will make people want to give. But how do we tell this better story?

We stop playing the hero.

Wait…what? Yes, you read that right.

Our organizations are not the heroes. The people we serve are the heroes.

Many organizations make their mission about them, sometimes subconsciously, instead of about the people they’re serving. One method to bring credibility to nonprofits is the use of the Story Brand Framework.

The Story Brand Framework starts the branding process by first crafting the story and then using that story to inform the rest of your organization’s marketing materials. It is the foundation on which you will build your brand. This framework helps organizations clarify their message so the story focuses on their target audience – the hero.

The reason this framework is so powerful is that it is taken from the ancient art of storytelling, which is the most powerful way to compel the human brain. The Story Brand Framework utilizes seven elements called a “Brand Script,” which basically goes like this: A Character has a problem that is getting in the way of what they want. Then they meet a Guide (you) who gives them a plan and then calls them to action to achieve success and avoid failure. When this framework is applied to an organization, people are more likely to engage and donate because they understand why you matter to their story.

— Natasha Paradeshi

(Originally published in the FEB 2022 Magazine)