Storytelling That Moves People

A Pocket Guide to Narrative Marketing for Small Charity Fundraisers

Most small charities don’t have a marketing department. They have one person — a development director, usually — writing the appeal, running the socials, booking the venue and thanking the donors, all before Thursday.

This book is for that person.

Storytelling That Moves People is a pocket guide to narrative marketing: how to find the one story your organization actually has, tell it so a donor recognizes themselves in it, and carry it across every channel without starting from nothing each time.

It’s 114 pages and it fits in a jacket pocket, which was the point. It’s meant to be carried into the work, not shelved beside it.

The STORY method

S — Signature story. The one story only your organization can tell.
T — Turn the donor into the hero. They aren’t the audience for the work. They’re the reason it happens.
O — One arc, many channels. Write it once. Adapt it everywhere.
R — Real specifics over stats. A number proves. A detail convinces.
Y — Your ask, built in. Carried through the story, not bolted onto the end.

What it's built on

The method rests on five values I was raised on — Cree and Métis values that also sit at the centre of this practice.

Wahkotokin — interconnection
Sakihiwewin — universal love
Manachihtowin — respect
Mistahimekowin — generosity
Nisitihtamowin — understanding

They aren’t decoration on the book. They’re the reason the method works the way it does. It asks you to treat a donor as kin rather than as a line of revenue — and in my experience, that’s also the version people answer.

Where to get it

Choose your reading style, paperback or eBook, and enjoy.

Paperback Edition

Get your printed paperback edition of Storytelling The Moves People from Amazon.

Kindle Edition

Start reading Storytelling That Moves People on your Kindle in minutes.

Kobo Edition

Get Storytelling That Moves People on your Kobo device, and start reading now.

Copies for a team

If it would be more useful in five hands than in one, write to me at conor@knowgood.ca and I’ll sort out copies.

The book is the short version of how this practice works. The long version is the practice itself.