nonprofit storytelling best practices

“Programs like yours take some of the fear away and remind me that all progress is incremental and I just have to take it step by step. 

Thank you so much for being there with the information that I need when I need it. You do important work and I appreciate you very much. What you do makes a big difference in the world by empowering people like me to reach our potential and help our communities.”

You really cut to the “meat” of what it means to be small shop and you “get it” in a way that so many fundraising gurus don’t.

THANK YOU for the Grow Report. I love grabbing my cup of coffee to settle in for the BlogRoll and some great insights. It’s my morning awesome sauce!” “

“I have thoroughly enjoyed and greatly benefited from all of the valuable classes you have offered! You are an amazing support for small nonprofits and I share your website with other nonprofit friends that I meet.”

Simple Development Systems is fantastic!  I’m about to be a new ED and I am excited to lead the organization into a new era of donor centric activities.

“THANK YOU… for being the wind beneath my wings. These words seem so inadequate to express my gratitude for all that you have taught me this past year. I hope this story paints a more eloquent picture. Your emails are a blessing. I receive many from well-known CFRE gurus but NONE are as useful as yours. Most are content marketing pieces aimed at selling ebooks, Webinars, or expertise. Yours, on the other hand, have one simple goal — empowering people to raise money for causes they are pass…

“Our school in Honduras is currently raising funds to build a new recreation center for our students. Being such a new development officer, I have never been involved in such a large capital campaign (well, large for me: $150,000). I was very overwhelmed at the thought of raising that much money, but Pamela’s Spring Direct Mail Appeal course made it easy to take the campaign in little, step-by-step pieces. The lessons felt more empowering than overwhelming, and soon I was able to write a mail ap…

I just wanted to let you know how useful I found your “Thank You” webinar with Pamela Grow in early December. I realized how many mistakes we were making in acknowledging our donor’s generosity. The best part was many of Pamela’s suggestions were so easy to implement it didn’t create a big project for us (always a plus). Thank YOU for offering the webinar – it was one of my faves so far.

Last week, I received my first $100,000 gift. I have raised nearly $325,000. My annual appeal was very successful. Using your book, webinars, classes, etc. I am moving forward nicely!

I just wanted to thank you again for your help with our Annual Appeal. This year, we almost doubled the amount we have ever received from one appeal. Amazing!”  

“Your book is incredibly helpful. I’ve started going through it and every page is filled with excellent advice and tips. Some of the people you quote, like Ken Burnett I know personally. He has been kind enough to put some of my old work on SOFII, I used to do fundraising and member recruitment for Amnesty and about 17 years ago helped found the Bhopal Medical Appeal.”

Pamela I really enjoy your weekly updates and blog.  With a small budget and a smaller development budget you have truly made a difference in the nonprofit arena as we share your tidbits and highlights with our members.  Thank you.

You have embarked on a journey of saving lives.  On behalf of all those whose lives you will touch … THANK YOU!

“Warm, personal, real…love that you do the legwork to read the blogs and pass along the best. I’m not really in a “small shop” but since I train our 900 campus staff to do fund development the different approaches and ways to communicate the basic stuff in a new way is really helpful.”

“I just wanted to share with you that opening your email yesterday was exciting moment for us at Eastside Baby Corner (EBC). I am so proud of the work that Christine does for EBC — she is managing our entire annual fund program and doing a fabulous job. I am also grateful for the affordable and accessible support you offer. The classes that Chris has taken with you have been a big part of her growth as a development professional. Thank you for your prompt and thoughtful response when she rea…

Thanks for all the information you continue to share; it’s invaluable to little nonprofits like us.

“Out of all the enews I receive, The Grow Report is the one that I can consistently count on for ah-ha moments.”

Please know you are a big part of our development team here at the Intervale, and we not just achieved but exceeded our community fundraising goals by $24,000 in 2013 thanks for great advice and support from Simple Development Systems!!

I always seem to come away with a few pearls to inspire me…and kick me into action. thanks!

“Thanks for your first 100 days course. I was able to implement the loyal donor survey to 150 households who consistently have given over the past 7 years. We’re also doing an online survey soon to another 1000 households who have been more loyal recently. The results are helping shape our year-end campaign message. I also just completed my first big event with the organization — our annual gala. We grossed close to $900,000, likely net $700K. We spent about $200K on the event, which I cons…

“I signed up for the whole year of Basics & More classes in 2016, after joining the Board of a national non-profit. Since then, we have:

• Established a policy of hand addressing envelopes and hand-writing notes to our current (last 12 months) donors at each Board meeting;
• Established a policy of having Board members hand-write thank-you notes to all donors;
• Established a policy of phoning donors who give $250 or more, including sustaining donors on the anniversary of their gift;
• Cre…

“There is truly NO better small shop resource!!!”

“And this is what I love about the Simple Development Systems membership and your support for us — it makes us believe that we can do it and teaches us how to get started.  We’re actually launching our first ever Major Gifts strategy in 2016, and I walked away from that webinar with a concrete plan of action that we are already starting to implement. I LOVED it — so thank you!

When we first joined SDS, it was really just me, as a fundraising CEO. Now we have a team of 4 staff — my time (which…

“I wanted to thank you for this course. I wanted to share that for the first time in our five years, we raised over 100K in program revenue and I think it was in large part due to this course and what I implemented. I need to look further, but program revenue for Q42015 was 28.7k. For Q42016 program revenue was 42k! Amazing! I will be back for more learning from you…thank you for serving those of us who feel called to bring hope to the world!”

“After we implemented the simple Reply sheet recommended in one of your webinars after just three months we’ve already added 40 new monthly donors! Thanks so much Pam!”

“Simple Development Systems is AMAZING. I am so glad we signed up for it — it has been an incredible support for me and our Development Associate. We don’t have a senior development person — it’s just me on top of being executive director, and your program has had JUST the right approach for us. I feel like we are doing things more effectively and efficiently — the webinars, resources, newsletters/emails, it has all been terrific. I am recommending it to other folks right and left!”

“My Basics & More membership was 100% worth the expense and time invested. After almost a year, it’s becoming second nature for me to write in a donor-centric way. There’s still a long way to go at my new job, but we’re in the process of recovering from years of non-communicative, self-centered, stingy treatment of donors and I can already see lapsed donors coming back, increased interest in volunteering and events, growth in our mailing list, and other positive signs. Thank you!!”

“I just wanted to thank you again for your help with our Annual Appeal. This year, we almost doubled the amount we have ever received from one appeal. Amazing!”

“The Grow Report has been so user-friendly and practical, that I haven’t felt improving our communication is beyond my reach!”

“I learned so much from you and the Simple Development Systems Membership Program. I highly recommend it for all professional fundraisers.”

The idea of a donor ‘welcome kit’ is awesome.  I am going to implement MANY things – too many to mention.  But I will say that sending out cards for other occasions is genius!  How wonderful for donors to get a card on Thanksgiving before the holiday rush.  We have a great communication plan and I have a contact strategy, but your WOW calendar gives me a great tool to merge the two.  Keep up the good work!  Thanks a million for the free book!

“We hit our Year-End fundraising goal and still have 2 weeks left! We implemented everything we learned in the webinars. Feeling so proud — best $250 ever spent!”

“As the new Associate Director of Development at a not-for-profit senior retirement community,  I was told that year-end giving was almost non-existent therefore, no real effort had been put into a campaign.  The rationale was donors were bombarded with requests and we were always at the bottom of their list.  Taking cues from Simple Development Systems (I purchased two years ago), I came up with a plan in mid-September and presented to my boss. Her words were, ‘Okay, what do we have to l…

“I dove into the Simple Development Systems book last night and was so delighted to see your personal note and autograph! I’m loving this edition of the book. I had the first edition many years ago. I was hooked and read all the way to chapter 10 in one sitting last night. I can’t wait to finish it and then go back and get to work on some great ideas.”

“Your classes have been invaluable… In my first year here we raised 47k with the EOY, my second year after taking just one of your classes I raised 100k, last year I raised 140K! I could not have done this without you!”

“Thank you so much for coming to Montana yesterday. I learned so much from you and know I have the power to take this organization in a new direction and your workshop gave me inspiration to really follow through with fundraising efforts.”

“You are a delightful speaker. For an introvert, you were a wealth of information! Thank you for being so generous with your resources. I will be using them for the YWCA Great Falls – and am leaving this workshop inspired!”

Pam’s rewrite of our recent annual appeal resulted in a 36% increase in gifts over last year’s.  She also worked with us on our follow-up letters and those have already brought in 17 new donors!

“I am thankful for all the amazing trainings I’ve done with you over the years and the incredible resources you’ve put together for small non-profits like ours. Your dedication to our sector is such a gift and has transformed many lives.”

Thank you again for The Grow Report. It is one of the many nonprofit marketing and fundraising newsletters I receive. However, it is one that I can consistently count on for ah-ha moments.

I have to tell you that this book was AMAZING when I started my new job. It helped me craft my 30-60-90 day work plan. I would highly recommend it!!!

“Your webinars, tools and guides are thebomb.com! You’ve definitely helped me and my organization jump-start our fundraising and start putting down the groundwork for more efficient and profitable fundraising.”

“I signed up for probably a dozen online blogs and newsletters. Yours is the only one to stay in my inbox! I feel it’s most relevant to me, my new role and our small organization. Thanks for all the helpful information.”

“This is a great course for both novices and old hat fundraisers. Pam brings in the top fundraisers of the day and even if you’ve been fundraising for a long time they will give you new ideas to add to your repertoire. The techniques you will learn will help you not only in your year-end but all year round. I highly recommend this course for anyone who wants to have the opportunity to learn from the best in a condensed and cost-effective way.”

“You make it possible for me to get the best of what’s out there in one easy and fun shot every Thursday morning – I just wish I had time to implement everything! Thanks Pam for your weekly words of wisdom.”

“I think signing up for your Grow Report has been the single most best thing I have done to help me with this job!!!!”

“Just read your grow report this morning and wanted to thank you. My colleague and I went through your master class on writing a winning appeal letter a few months ago. We brought in more than $10,000 over our goal and a good number of lapsed donors responded to our letter!”

“Based on the excellent advice presented in your Monthly Giving course, we’ve increased our monthly donors by 242% in just 7 months! We’re excited to keep building on this success in the coming school year.”

“Yours is the only newsletter I actually read – thank you!”

“Yours is still the only NPO related newsletter I read each week start to finish.  I’m going to join your membership program since it looks like that would be a better investment of my resources than some places I’ve found.”

“I just wanted to drop you a line and thank you again for providing me with so much needed information. I have learned so much from you, and am so glad I got to meet you at the MNA conference.”

“Last fiscal year we had our best year ever.  We reached out to lapsed donors and also segmented the database for our annual appeal.  The result was a 15% increase in the number of supporters (I currently prefer the word ‘supporter’ to ‘donor’) who gave to our organization.

Pamela, thank you for everything you do.”

“I am so thrilled to say we are having an INCREDIBLE year. Typically, the first 6 months of our fiscal year are…tight (to say the least). However, we’re already about 60% of the way toward our total income goal for the fiscal year.

Thank you for all that you do. As I have navigated the vastly complex world of fundraising, you have been a steady, strong, and thoughtful guiding force. You’re my go-to guru!”

I am newer to the development field (after a 20 year Human Resources run) and I find it rewarding and fascinating. Your book helped me to feel good that I am putting my efforts into the right places.  Gratitude is the starting point of all generosity.  I loved your calendar for stewardship and will use it to enhance my quarterly work plan efforts. I really enjoy your newsletter.  Thank you for all your efforts and good information.

Simple Development Systems is absolutely easy to use, easy to understand and covers all of the topics I’ve had to self-teach myself in an organization with no dedicated development staff.

Thank you for your clear instruction and useful insight on writing grants.  The webinar was very helpful and the materials you included with the course were excellent!”

“Your newsletter is still the only one I read top to bottom each week. In fact, in my new job it’s the first thing I read when I get in the office on Thursdays.”

“This past September I knew our little charity had to make some drastic changes or die. Table revenues were down 85%. Because we had primarily used donation tables we had NO DONOR list to speak of and no clue how to build one. State Registrations were breaking the bank and for the first time, we were at risk of not meeting our bylaws requirement of 50% to our veterans and military families in need. Then I came across Pamela Grow. In three short months, we are back to break even. Our Programs a…

“I’m LOVING the Power of Thank You modules. Being new in my organization, I’ve been wanting to re-vamp thank you letters and going through this e-course is spurring me on to get it done. Thank you for your enthusiastic coaching and for your encouragement to focus on donors!”

I really appreciate the way you focus on small nonprofits with easy to digest info and tactics. I get really tired of most consultants and nonprofit sector pundits (do we have pundits?) talking and making presentations as if everyone has a full development staff. Thanks.

“I get so many emails…..yours is one of the few that I try to read from beginning to end and even click on many of the links for more information and inspiration.”

You make it possible for me to get the best of what’s out there in one easy and fun shot every Thursday morning – I just wish I had time to implement everything! Thanks Pam for your weekly words of wisdom.

Last week, I received my first $100,000 gift.  I have such great stories to tell about the good work we do.  It’s easy to be passionate when you’re doing what you love. I really received the reigns of the foundation in late October.  Since then, I have raised nearly $325,000.  My annual appeal was very successful. Using your book, webinars, classes, etc. I am moving forward nicely!

“Simple Development Systems is AMAZING.  I am so glad we signed up for it – it has been an incredible support for me and our Development Associate.  We don’t have a senior development person – its just me on top of being executive director, and your program has had JUST the right approach for us.  I feel like we are doing things more effectively and efficiently – the webinars, resources, newsletters/emails, it has all been terrific.  I am recommending it to other folks right and left!”

“I’ve been working with FSFP to improve our donor communications to help our supporters better understand how vital they are to our mission, and YOU have been such a great help in this endeavor! Not only did you give us fantastic language for our automated thank you, but, over the years,  you have provided such great resources and insight, all of which has helped me to do my job better and guide the organizations I’m working for to be more donor-centered.”

“I am really loving your POTY course, and finding it so useful. Thank you so much. It has such great material. I am busy re-writing our online thank you letters. Our physical letters are great, handwritten etc., but our email ones were bad. I had never even checked them! I took your great advice, and gave ourselves a donation, and saw what happened. One system had a good thank you, the other didn’t. Thank you so much for making us think about this. It is so good to study something and instan…

Thank you for always providing helpful, inspiring content. It makes this job so much easier knowing we’re not doing it alone!

I had great success with the last course I took with you. My first end-of-year appeal campaign (sent mid December, a 4 page letter and lots of ‘yous’:) came in 38% higher than the previous year so far! And envelopes are still coming in. Very exciting.

I love how you do the research for us and post the best of the best. This is a tremendous help for those of us who are a one woman shop and don’t have the time. Thanks!

Ho! Ho! Ho!  It feels like Christmas all over again, Pamela.  I am now holding a printed copy of a 57 page book packed with information about donor cultivation.  This is supposed to be one of my “specialties” in the little pond in which I reside, but in just flipping through the book as it was printing, I saw several ideas that had not crossed my mind. I am reading and marking up the book tonight, so I can get started using your ideas tomorrow.

I had great success with the last course I took with you. My first EOY appeal campaign (sent mid December, a 4 page letter and lots of “yous”:) came in 38% higher than the previous year so far! And envelopes are still coming in. Very exciting.

“Last week, I received my first $100,000 gift. I have such great stories to tell about the good work we do. It’s easy to be passionate when you’re doing what you love.I do not have any staff and my board has set a goal for me of $1 million by December 31, 2014. I really received the reigns of the foundation in late October. Since then, I have raised nearly $325,000. My annual appeal was very successful. Using your book, webinars, classes, etc. I am moving forward nicely! As your emails alw…

“I loved this class  (Nonprofit Storytelling | The Basics & More)!! Especially the sections on video storytelling, week three mostly. One thing I can and already have put into practice in the importance of making daily phone calls just to say THANK YOU to donors! What a great idea! And already as I plan video stories that I will be filming and interviewing for, I am using the dramatic arc of storytelling that we learned about all the way back in week one. Thank you for this course, it has so man…

“I’m glad I took this course (Monthly Giving | Basics & More) to help me really concentrate on our monthly giving program. It was there but not fully developed.

I did my first monthly giving solicitation in spring 2015 and I followed it up with an e-solicitation. We now have twenty more Virginia History GEMs (Give Every Month) over this time last year.”

First of all, your Grow Report is absolutely fantastic. It has not only educated me – it’s made me laugh too! Not to mention, the personal side of it is SO appreciated (especially since most of the reports I receive are so robotic and too serious – it’s enlightening to read something that presents valuable information in a fun way! Who says fundraising and grant writing can’t be fun?). So, THANK YOU.

I  just really wanted to say thank you because you’ve helped me find a little bit of footing…

I know the business of nonprofits pretty well, then I get “The Grow Report” in my email & I start all over again. Awesome stuff.

Thanks for the Grow Report!  It’s my favorite source of development information!

“I want to tell you that your programs are head and shoulders above others I’ve taken. Thanks to your Online Fundraising Masterclass, I have practically redesigned our website and communications based on all the valuable information.”

Oh my gosh Pamela, whenever I read something of yours I get all fired up and want to do it all TODAY!  Thank you very much for being such a wonderful resource for me!

I am new to fund development, stewardship giving and donations. The person I am replacing has been in the CEO/President role for 26 years. Our donors are very tied to giving to her, not the cause. The first thing I started to do was to call each donor to thank them and introduce myself to them as each check came in. (We are very small!) I want them to get to know me and the work that we are doing. Response has been wonderful. Thank you for sharing your years of wisdom and insight. As a newbie…

“I treasure the Grow Report and use it in my daily annual fund work!”

“I’m so ready to go through this course again as it is terrifically timely. I love how the Basics & More™ courses are organized.  I always learn and I never feel patronized.  I so appreciate you for that,  Of course, the knowledge you share is terrific and I love that I can immediately put it into practice.”

“I just purchased your year-end fundraising course and it’s incredible!  And this is coming from a person who took SEIU’s PAC from 9.2 million to 21.5 million in 24 months.  You are just incredible!”

“I wanted to thank you for this course. I wanted to share that for the first time in our five years, we raised over 100K in program revenue and I think it was in large part due to this course and what I implemented. I need to look further, but program revenue for Q42015 was 28.7k. For Q42016 program revenue was 42k! Amazing! I will be back for more learning from you…thank you for serving those of us who feel called to bring hope to the world!”

“I am so thrilled to say we are having an INCREDIBLE year. Typically, the first 6 months of our fiscal year are…tight (to say the least). However, we’re already about 60% of the way toward our total income goal for the fiscal year. Thank you for all that you do. As I have navigated the vastly complex world of fundraising, you have been a steady, strong, and thoughtful guiding force. You’re my go-to guru!”

“I am so excited to say that after our coaching session, I was able to have an open and honest conversation with my ED. I advocated for a grant-writing consultant to come on so that I can spend more time loving our donors, and got the green light to co-create a plan to promote a culture of philanthropy that engages our Board and staff. Plus — I got a raise and a promotion! Thank you for everything, Pamela!”