Storytelling is a powerful way to strengthen people’s connection with your cause and inspire support. Use these storytelling tips for your online donation page.

By Murad Bushnaq

People have been telling stories for at least 30,000 years. Whether we’re sharing them out loud, in writing, or with pictures, stories unite us through empathy and understanding. 

Because of this, storytelling is an essential skill for nonprofits to master. By telling stories that help people connect with your cause, you’ll generate more support to push your organization closer to achieving its mission.

While you won’t be recording stories on cave walls as people did thousands of years ago, thanks to modern technology, you have many excellent tools at your disposal for sharing stories related to your cause, such as your nonprofit’s website. Your donation page, in particular, is an essential place for inspiring donors to support your organization.

We’ve rounded up four tips for leveraging your content management system (CMS) to help you make the most of your donation page’s storytelling potential:

1. Incorporate engaging visuals.
2. Share real people’s stories.
3. Use emotionally compelling language.
4. Craft strategic CTAs.

As you begin to enhance your donation page and other parts of your website with strong storytelling, think about which stories will resonate most with your audience members. Keeping your audience in mind ensures that your stories will leave a lasting impression, inspiring ongoing support.

1. Incorporate engaging visuals.

In some ways, a picture can be worth a thousand words. While effective writing is vital to sharing your organization’s stories, images can enhance your message by conveying what words cannot. Visual storytelling has the power to stir up emotions upon just the briefest of glimpses, elevating the information spelled out on the page.

As you begin selecting your nonprofit’s visuals and planning how you’ll incorporate them into your donation page, keep these tips in mind:

• Photos of your beneficiaries can cultivate empathy. Tap into your supporters’ empathetic side by featuring pictures of your nonprofit’s beneficiaries on your donation page. This allows prospective donors to see who their donations are helping and how they’re actively making a difference in people’s lives. Of course, you’ll want to get permission from your beneficiaries first.
• Ensure that your images match your nonprofit’s branding. Unify your donation page by ensuring that the visual branding is consistent with the rest of your website.
• Use your CMS to optimize your images. The right nonprofit CMS can ensure that your images are up-to-par for a professional and conversion-driving donation page. Use your CMS to convert your images to web-friendly versions and resize them appropriately. Additionally, you can zoom and crop your images to get your desired focus.
• Consider adding other multimedia elements. Consider adding a short video or audio clip to your donation page to further encourage donors to give. Incorporate these elements thoughtfully—they should compel supporters to complete the giving process, rather than distract from it.
• Tie relevant images to your suggested donation amounts. By adding relevant images to the suggested donation amounts on your page, you can make it easier for prospective donors to visualize the specific impact their gifts will have, whether that’s providing meals to shelter animals with a donation of $10 or covering their medical treatment with a donation of $50.

Pet Rescue’s online donation page includes images with each of its programs so supporters can see the impact their donations will have.

To maximize your results, take a look at other stellar donation page examples, like Pet Rescue, for inspiration and guidance. Morweb’s list of the best nonprofit websites walks through a number of additional websites that effectively convey the organization’s purpose and provide an excellent user experience.

2. Share real people’s stories.

In addition to including pictures of your nonprofit’s beneficiaries on your donation page, share their written stories so your supporters can associate a name and a face with your cause. This ensures that your mission stands out from the crowd and compels donors to take action.

Some impactful ways to share people’s stories on your donation page include:

• Presenting a story about a specific individual at the top of your donation page. When a potential donor navigates to your donation page, your goal is to have them complete the giving process. Grab their attention at the top of your page by sharing a specific beneficiary’s story. Keep the written copy concise, describing the individual’s background and clearly explain how the donor can help make a difference.
• Using your CMS to create a section of “testimonials” for supporters to scroll through. Gather quotes from your beneficiaries to use as short testimonials on your page. This allows you to communicate multiple stories at once without slowing donors down in their giving journey.
• Adding a gallery of beneficiary pictures that lead to specific stories. For those of your supporters interested in exploring more about your impact, use your CMS to create a gallery of pictures that act as buttons to access specific beneficiary stories. A striking visual and a call to action (CTA) like “Read Joseph’s recovery story” or “Learn more about Whisker’s adoption journey” can capture donors’ interest and motivate them to read.

No matter how you decide to share your beneficiaries’ stories, remember that they are real people. Use plain language and aim to capture their real voices, perspectives, and journeys. This ensures that your stories feel more authentic to donors, which adds legitimacy to your nonprofit’s cause. Once again, be sure to ask permission to include your beneficiaries’ stories, and you always have the option of changing peoples’ names to protect their privacy.

3. Use emotionally compelling language.

Every word in a story counts, contributing to its overall message and emotional impact. Therefore, it’s essential to be thoughtful with your words when writing a story to share on your donation page.

Use these best practices to tap into your readers’ emotions:

• Be descriptive. Remember when your high school English teacher taught you the “show, don’t tell” rule? It still applies here. For instance, if you’re an animal shelter, go beyond sharing that you recently took in a homeless dog and found it a home. Describe the conditions you found the dog in, then elaborate on how the dog looks and behaves after you saved it. Descriptions and details make your story much more emotionally captivating.
• Include the donor in the story. According to GoodUnited, the more personal your messaging is, the more impact you’ll have on each reader. Use pronouns like “you,” “your,” “we,” and “our” so donors can feel a part of your story’s narrative. This will make them more invested in your nonprofit’s cause. For example, you might write a sentence like, “Because of donors like you, we were able to provide 500 meals to families in need.”
• Illustrate how your organization can provide solutions to problems. A story needs both a conflict and a resolution. Once you’ve presented donors with the problem you’re focused on solving, indicate how, with their support, you’re going to solve it. This can go a long way toward convincing donors that your organization is the one they should support because you’ll be able to make an actual difference.

You don’t need to be a trained writer to construct an emotionally engaging story for your donation page. Simply focus on providing details and emphasizing the solutions to the problem you’re aiming to address. This way, you can effectively build an emotional connection between readers and your cause.

4. Craft strategic CTAs.

A call to action (CTA) is a statement that encourages someone to complete an action. On your nonprofit’s donation page, you should feature CTAs encouraging your donors to take action after learning about your cause or a specific beneficiary’s experience with your organization. Those CTAs can lead donors to:

• Donate to your cause through your donation form.
• Opt into your monthly giving program.
• Explore information on corporate matching gift programs.

After someone donates online they should be taken to a thank you landing page. Besides saying thank you, you can include other CTAs that provide additional engagement opportunities for your donors, so be open to incorporating them into your storytelling.

• Subscribe to your email newsletter.
• Register for an upcoming event.
• Sign up for a volunteer opportunity.
• Advocate for your cause online.
• Share your donation page on social media.

When crafting a CTA, keep it clear and simple, but remember to make it specific to your cause. For instance, “Give now to help stomp out cancer” will be more effective than just “Give now.”

Additionally, you can use your CMS to make your CTAs into buttons that link to other resources, like your donation form or volunteer page. Including these within a story can break up the text and ensure that when a supporter feels inspired to act, they can do so right away.

The Gist

By leveraging powerful storytelling, your nonprofit can level up its donation page and inspire more supporters to give. As you’re tapping into the human element of your stories and using your CMS to enhance them with visuals and CTAs, remember to track metrics such as the average time visitors spend on the page to evaluate the effectiveness of your efforts.

As you delve deeper into optimizing your donation page, take a look at donation page templates if you need a little added guidance. Stories, when crafted well, can motivate supporters to act and stay invested in your nonprofit for the long term. By continually fine-tuning your storytelling efforts, you’ll improve your results over time and boost the revenue you need to further your purpose!

Murad Bushnaq is the Founder and CEO of Morweb. Since its inception in 2014, Murad has acted as Creative Director and Chief Technologist to help nonprofits spread their vision online through engaging design, intuitive software, and strategic communication.