Category Marketing & Storytelling

I’ve told hundreds of stories in my career. Every one of them belonged to someone else first.

When a person trusts you with their story, they’re trusting you with their dignity. Here’s how I try to honour that – before, during and after the telling.

Consent comes first

Before anything else, I need to know I can tell this story. Consent must be affirmative, clear, informed and in writing. Full stop. It isn’t negotiable.

Anonymizing doesn’t change this. If someone can see themselves in a story they never agreed to share, they will be hurt – and they may take action.

Pay people for their time

I always offer an honorarium. For charities, that’s often a couple of hundred dollars, documented and tracked.

The person keeps the right to withdraw their support after the initial campaign, without paying anything back. They were paid for the time they spent sharing with me. Their permission remains theirs to give or take back.

Meet where they feel safe

My office is rarely a safe space for someone telling a hard story. So I ask: where do you feel safe, and what do you need to feel safe there?

I’ve smudged and walked in the woods. I’ve drunk tea on a tweed chair while my storyteller smoked through a pack of cigarettes. I’ve sat on park benches, and on a couch in a therapist’s office. Safety matters – for them and for you.

Record everything, openly

Telling a hard story can hurt. Asking someone to relive it because you forgot a detail is unkind. So I record every conversation, and I tell people exactly how: that I’m recording, how the files are stored, and when they’ll be destroyed. Every detail, made clear.

Let them choose how to tell it

Some people would rather write than talk. I often offer my questions in writing, so they can answer in their own time and words. Different people trust differently. The goal is a way of telling the story that honours the person and stays safe for them and for the reader. Be responsive, and be kind.

Share the finished story

I don’t bring storytellers into every round of revisions, as long as I’m staying true to their story. Once it’s finished, before it goes anywhere, I share it with them to confirm they’re still comfortable – and I make any edits needed for it to feel right to them.

Build a story inventory

I try never to craft a story right before a campaign launches. If the story doesn’t sit well with the storyteller, or they withdraw, you’re left with nothing. Gather stories all year, build an inventory and use each one where it fits best.

What I won’t do

1. Emotional engineering. The emotional sledgehammer is manipulative, and it doesn’t even work anymore. Please, just stop.
2. AI-generated people or stories. Some argue synthetic stories are more ethical. I disagree. If no living person can speak to the difference your work has made, what have you done? Use AI to help edit and refine, if it helps. Keep the story human and true.
3. Unnecessary intimate detail. Tell an authentic story, respectfully. Include personal details only when they truly matter to the story.

Care for the reader, too

I’m trained in trauma-informed practice, and I believe everyone who tells stories for charities should be. Your readers bring their own experiences, and a story about illness, loss or violence can land hard.

Caring for them shapes every choice: the language and framing, how much detail to share, and sometimes a gentle content warning ahead of a difficult section. Before anything goes out, read it as a person first, and imagine how someone carrying their own hard story might receive it.

A story that stayed with me

Years ago, I worked with a young mum with two small children at home. For two years she had pushed her doctor to take her symptoms seriously, and for two years she was told it was hormones and aging. When she was finally diagnosed with DCIS – a cancer that can appear like fine grains of sand, with no lump to find – it was both a relief and a gut punch.

When we met, she had finished treatment and was cancer-free. The wounds were still raw, and so was the fear of what could have been. She was comfortable standing in front of a room and saying she survived. Going into the details, in a way that honoured her truth and the effort of her husband, her family and her clinical team, was much harder.

So we moved at her pace, over several cups of coffee. Together, we told a story meant to inspire other people to advocate for themselves – and to hold on to hope without being gripped by fear.

Try this

Pick the last story your organization shared about a real person. Ask yourself: do we have their written consent, would they recognize themselves, and would they be proud of how they were shown? If you’re unsure about any of the three, call them.

Be well.

When I joined my current organization, its marketing was handled by outside agencies, with a significant annual spend behind them. The agencies were busy. But nobody on the inside could see the full scope of what was being done or measure it against what the business needed, and the investment wasn’t lining up with the results.

So we brought the work home. Today I lead a five-person in-house agency. Here’s what changed, and what I’d tell anyone thinking about doing the same.

Why in-house worked for us

1. We understand our own numbers. We have up-to-the-minute data that we understand and that matters to us. When a campaign or ad needs a change to perform better, we make it that day – and we have.
2. We’re in more places. A year ago we were online and in print. Today we run true omni-channel campaigns: digital, broadcast, out-of-home, direct mail, print and community investment, including partnerships with six local radio stations.
3. We control the whole process. From idea to results, the decisions are ours, and we have the freedom to do what’s right in the moment.
4. Decisions move faster. I can look my team in the eye and say what we need to do – and they can tell me what they need from me or from others. Approvals happen in conversation, in real time.
5. Our people grow. The creative challenge and the fun of marketing now land with our own team. That’s opened real opportunities for them to learn and grow as professionals.

The results so far: year-over-year growth in occupancy at two of our sites, revenue growth across all three, and campaigns that are delivering a positive return.

What I’d tell you before you start

1. Measurement comes first. Before anything else, decide how you’ll know the job has been done well.
2. Write down who decides what. A clear RACI chart, or a similar document, sets out who is responsible, who approves and who needs to be kept in the loop.
3. Strategy and calendar before themes. As the leader, set the strategy and the calendar first. Your team will be dreaming up campaigns before you’ve finished their job descriptions – and that energy is a gift once the foundation is in place.
4. Be clear about how people show up. Spell out where each person has firm boundaries and where they’re free to create and have fun. Clarity is what makes creative freedom feel safe.
5. Build a standard intake process. Other departments will ask for marketing help. A simple, consistent way to request it lets you track the work and report on your successes. I use Microsoft Forms and SharePoint – it’s quick, easy, and the reports are clear.

The people part

When I arrived, the team was under a lot of pressure and morale was low. One person moved on. Everyone else stayed.

Today, two of them are thriving – building remarkable things and doing the best work of their careers. They’re excited to come to work, even on the shitty days. That is what I’m proudest of.

Try this

Pull last year’s marketing spend and list what each dollar produced. If you can’t connect the two for most of it, start with measurement – whether you bring the work in-house or not.

Be well.

Originally published October 1, 2014 on LinkedIn as “Who is talking to your donors?”

Updated September 2026

Years ago, CBC Calgary ran a morning radio piece about how many charity runs there were – some weekends, four or five in the city on the same day. People in the sector talked about it as competition for donors.

There is competition. But donors give to what they care about. An environmental charity and a health charity holding events on the same day are like a bakery and a toy store across the hall from each other. Both depend on the same household budget, and each wins by being valuable and relatable to the people who walk in.

You know your donors. Others know them better.

Most charities survey their donors. How are we doing? Will you keep giving? Boards love the answers, and they’re useful. But they only tell you how people feel about you.

Your donors’ car dealership, grocery store, bank, gym and favourite local coffee shop know a great deal about their lives – what they buy, where they spend time, what they care about. The businesses that serve your donors every day often understand them in ways your database never will.

How to learn more, respectfully

Privacy law has changed a lot in the past decade. Canada’s anti-spam legislation (CASL), federal privacy law and Quebec’s Law 25 all shape how you can collect and use personal information. Build every approach on consent and transparency. Here are three that work:

1. Ask your own donors about their lives. Add a few questions to your next survey about their interests, the causes they care about and where they spend their time. Tell them why you’re asking and how you’ll use it.
2. Use aggregate data. Canadian segmentation tools like Environics Analytics’ PRIZM describe the lifestyles and values of neighbourhoods by postal code, without identifying individuals. Look up the areas where your donors are concentrated and see what the data says about the people who live there.
3. Ask your partners. When you meet a potential corporate partner, ask what they know about their customers. Compare it with what you know about your donors. The overlap is the heart of your pitch.

What you can do with it

1. Build better partnerships. Companies invest in causes their customers care about. If you can show a business that your supporters are already their customers, you’ve given them a reason to say yes. If your donors aren’t their customers, you’ve saved everyone a meeting.
2. Care for donors as whole people. When you know what fills their weeks, you can meet them where they are – the right channel, the right timing, a story that connects to their lives.
3. Show up where they live. Social media matters, and so do the grocery store bulletin board, the community newsletter, the local podcast and the rec centre. Your donors shop, eat, travel and scroll like everyone else.

Try this

Before your next corporate pitch, write down three things you know about the company’s customers and three things you know about your donors. If you can’t fill both columns, you have your homework.

Be well.

Sources

1. Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada, guidance on PIPEDA – https://www.priv.gc.ca/en/privacy-topics/privacy-laws-in-canada/the-personal-information-protection-and-electronic-documents-act-pipeda/
2. Commission d’accès à l’information du Québec, Law 25 overview – https://www.cai.gouv.qc.ca/
3. Environics Analytics, PRIZM segmentation – https://environicsanalytics.com/

Combines two earlier LinkedIn posts: “Fear and Happiness in fundraising” (February 23, 2015) and “What your charity can learn from ‘Inside Out'” (July 20, 2015)

Updated September 2026

My daughter was almost four when the first Inside Out came out. She saw it twice in theatres. I think I got more out of it than she did.

The film follows Riley, a young girl, and the emotions at the control panel in her head – Joy, Sadness, Fear, Anger and Disgust. Early on, one emotion takes the controls at a time. As Riley grows up, her emotions learn to work together, and her feelings become richer and more complex.

In Inside Out 2, Riley is a teenager and new emotions arrive. The loudest is Anxiety, who tries so hard to prepare Riley for everything that could go wrong that she nearly loses herself.

Your donors know that feeling well.

Your donors are already anxious

Think about what reaches your donors in a typical week: rising costs, worrying headlines, job uncertainty, bills that keep climbing. Then your letter arrives. If it adds one more reason to be afraid, you’re asking Anxiety to write the cheque.

Sometimes that works, once. Research by Deborah Small and Nicole Verrochi found that sad faces in charity ads raised sympathy and giving. Fear and sadness are real, and pretending otherwise would be dishonest.

But a gift given out of fear is fragile. If every donation is all that stands between a family and disaster, what happens when a donor’s neighbour doesn’t give? The picture starts to feel hopeless, and people drift toward causes that show them progress.

Giving also makes people happier. Elizabeth Dunn, Lara Aknin and Michael Norton found that spending money on others raised people’s happiness more than spending on themselves – and later work showed the effect can build on itself: giving makes people happier, and happier people are more likely to give again. That’s a relationship worth building.

Give donors the whole arc

People take in stories through a dramatic arc. You can use every emotion along the way:

1. The opening shows the need clearly. Some fear, anger or sadness belongs here – the situation is real.
2. The middle connects the reader to the people and the work. Emotions mix, the way they do for Riley.
3. The ending lands on Joy: what’s already changed and what their gift makes possible next.

Joy puts the hard parts in context. “With your help, we can do this” is a message anchored in the reduction of fear.

Five ways to lead with hope

1. Always thank your donor. They’re part of a community already doing remarkable things. Tell them so.
2. Tell the story of someone you’ve already helped. “The Millers needed us, and with your help we were there. Thank you. Families like the Millers are counting on us this winter. Please give today.”
3. Ask politely. You can share hard truths and striking numbers and still say please.
4. Choose your words carefully. “With your help, 62% of patients now survive” and “thousands will die” describe the same reality. Donors feel them very differently.
5. Tell stories with dignity. The people in your stories are whole people. Share their stories with consent, in their own words where possible, and show their strength along with their struggle.

Tell dark stories when they’re relevant. Just don’t let the darkness be the whole story. Your charity earns support because of the good work it does.

Try this

Pull your last appeal letter. Highlight every sentence that creates fear in one colour and every sentence that creates hope in another. If the last colour on the page isn’t hope, rewrite the ending.

Be well.

Sources

1. Deborah A. Small and Nicole M. Verrochi, “The Face of Need: Facial Emotion Expression on Charity Advertisements,” Journal of Marketing Research 46 (2009)
2. Elizabeth W. Dunn, Lara B. Aknin and Michael I. Norton, “Spending Money on Others Promotes Happiness,” Science 319 (2008)
3. Lara B. Aknin, Elizabeth W. Dunn and Michael I. Norton, “Happiness Runs in a Circular Motion: Evidence for a Positive Feedback Loop between Prosocial Spending and Happiness,” Journal of Happiness Studies 13 (2012)

Combines three earlier posts: “Common Threads: Donor Acquisition” (LinkedIn, December 12, 2014), “Making the case for acquisition mail” (LinkedIn, August 14, 2015) and “Retention or Acquisition? Maximizing your ROI.” (knowgood.ca, September 11, 2023)

Updated September 2026

Some years ago, over coffee, a colleague told me their charity had dropped mail acquisition entirely and gone all-digital. I understood the appeal. I also knew their donor file was about to get older and smaller.

Every charity loses donors. People move, retire, change priorities and, eventually, pass away. So every charity needs to keep finding new ones – which brings us to the question I still hear most often: is direct mail still worth it?

My answer is yes, for most Canadian charities, with a plan for when the mail stops.

Mail still works, with a backup plan

Direct mail still works, especially for donors over 65. In 2022, nearly half of every dollar donated in Canada came from that group. It has also become riskier. Postal strikes in late 2024 and fall 2025 hit charities during their busiest giving months, and Canada Post is moving through a major federal overhaul, including a shift away from door-to-door delivery.

Keep mailing, and build campaigns that can survive a disruption:

1. Tell the same story in several places. Mail, email, social and your website should carry one message to the same audiences at the same time.
2. Make online giving fast. A donor should be able to give from their phone in about a minute. Test it yourself.
3. Have a backup plan. Know in advance how you will reach mail donors if the mail stops – a phone call, an email, a text.
4. Test your mix. The right split between print and digital depends on your donors. Your own results will tell you more than any rule of thumb.

Keep the donors you have, and keep finding new ones

It costs less to keep a donor than to find one. That has been true for my whole career. But retention alone won’t hold your revenue steady anymore.

The number of people giving keeps falling. The Fundraising Effectiveness Project, which tracks giving across thousands of US charities and is the closest thing we have to a North American benchmark, reported that donor counts fell again in 2025 – by 3.6%. Overall retention sits around 43%. And turning a first gift into a second one remains, in their words, the most consequential unsolved problem in the donor pipeline.

So plan for both:

1. Fund retention first. Thank people well, report back on what their gifts made possible and invite them to give again.
2. Fund acquisition every year. Treat it as an investment in next year’s base, with its own budget line and its own targets.
3. Plan the second gift before the first one arrives. The welcome journey for a new donor – the thank-you, the first update, the second invitation – is where acquisition pays off.

Introduce yourself the way you’d want to be introduced

Years ago, someone told me that if I could make a person cry, I had a new donor. I’ve also taken calls that tried to guilt me into giving – “You care about kids with cancer, right?” – from someone who couldn’t tell me who they represented. I hung up.

A first contact is an introduction. It works best when it is warm, clear and generous. When I built acquisition campaigns, the pieces that did best followed a simple shape:

1. A bold opening that makes the reader stop and think.
2. A few clear facts about what your community has already achieved together.
3. An invitation to join people like them.
4. The difference their gift can make.
5. A way to learn more and a simple way to give.

When I was with the Missing Children Society of Canada, we talked about the children who came home. We showed people what their community was already making possible and invited them to be part of it. That message built donors who stayed.

A few things I include in every acquisition piece:

1. Some urgency, with no guilt. Giving should feel good.
2. The hopeful outcome. Show the result your work produces.
3. An easy way to ask questions. Assume a new reader has some. Give them a phone number and a web address.
4. A consistent way to give – online, by phone or by mail.
5. The word “please.”

Try this

Pull your list of first-time donors from last year. How many gave a second time? Now look at what each of them received from you between the first gift and the second ask. That gap is where your next dollar of investment belongs.

Be well.

Sources

1. Association of Fundraising Professionals, Fundraising Effectiveness Project Q4 2025 report (April 2026) – https://afpglobal.org/news/fundraising-effectiveness-project-reports-strongest-revenue-growth-five-years-even-fewer
2. Future of Good, Charities to stick with direct mail fundraising for older donors after Canada Post disruption – https://futureofgood.co/charities-to-stick-with-direct-mail-fundraising-for-older-donors-after-canada-post-disruption/
3. ITIF, Reforming Canada Post for a Lower-Volume Era (April 2026) – https://itif.org/publications/2026/04/01/reforming-canada-post-for-a-lower-volume-era/

Originally published September 11, 2023 on knowgood.ca as “Leveraging Information and Impact to Optimize Customer Success”

Updated September 2026

Small and mid-sized businesses are competing with global brands and direct-to-consumer companies that can outspend them on almost everything. Price cuts are a hard way to win that fight, especially when the cost to make, market and deliver goods keeps climbing.

What smaller businesses can offer is confidence. When a customer understands exactly what they are buying and trusts the people selling it, price becomes one factor among many.

Give people what they need to decide

Customers want to know what they’re getting before they buy. Clear information helps them choose well, and customers who choose well are happier with what arrives. A customer who knew what to expect is a customer who keeps what they bought.

1. Answer the real questions. Sizing, materials, what’s in the box, how long it lasts, how to care for it. Read your customer emails and reviews – the questions people ask most belong on the product page.
2. Show it. Good photos from several angles, and a short video of the product in use, do more work than extra paragraphs.
3. Let customers speak. Real reviews, with permission, help a new customer picture themselves using what you sell.
4. Describe what it means for them. What will their day look like with this product or service in it?

Let your values show

Many customers want to support businesses that share their values – how they treat their staff, their community and the environment. PwC’s 2024 Voice of the Consumer survey of more than 20,000 people in 31 countries found that 80% say they are willing to pay more for sustainably produced goods, by an average of 9.7%.

What people say and what they buy can differ, though. Researchers writing in Harvard Business Review found that 65% of consumers said they wanted to buy from purpose-driven brands, while only about 26% actually did. Treat your values as a reason customers choose you and stay loyal, and keep your pricing grounded in the value of the product itself.

The businesses that earn that loyalty do three things:

1. Do real work. Community investment, fair employment and responsible sourcing that happen year-round.
2. Report the specifics. Share what you did, what it cost and what changed. Customers are wary of vague claims.
3. Ask your customers what matters to them. It builds connection, and the answers will sharpen both your community work and your marketing – as long as you act on what you hear.

Try this

Pick your three best-selling products or services. Read the last 20 customer questions or reviews about each one. Add the top three answers to each product page this week.

Be well.

Sources

1. PwC, 2024 Voice of the Consumer Survey (May 2024) – https://www.pwc.com/gx/en/news-room/press-releases/2024/pwc-2024-voice-of-consumer-survey.html
2. Katherine White, David J. Hardisty and Rishad Habib, “The Elusive Green Consumer,” Harvard Business Review (July-August 2019) – https://hbr.org/2019/07/the-elusive-green-consumer

Reading Time: 6 minutes

Since about 2013 or 2014, Conor has been sharing ideas, thoughts, and experiences on LinkedIn. Some of his pieces are well-written articles, while others more closely resemble stream of thought pieces.

Fundraising – the used car sales method

On December 30, 2014, my vehicle was stopped at a red light. The driver of an F350 traveling at 70 KM/h was distracted.

Fundraising – What Cold Call Style Voicemail messages can do for you

In fundraising, we really don’t spend a lot of time making cold calls. Well, we think we don’t.

The Fundraiser, The Miser

A colleague shared a great story with me about how his organization printed wonderful, full colour brochures on nice paper. And donors did not respond.

Increase your revenue by applying these cycling rules to your charity

Those who follow me on Twitter have seen my return to cycling. It’s something that I thoroughly enjoyed a child and teen.

Who is talking to your donors?

CBC recently ran a news piece on the Calgary morning radio show about the growth in charity runs. “Some days, there are 3 or 4, or even 5 in the city on the same day.

Don’t hate your donors. You need them.

OK. Maybe “hate” is the wrong word.

Can large scale campaigns be donor centric?

Start with Why. It’s a common mantra in the non-profit sector.

How my shoe and bike guys can help your charity

It’s January 2016, and the media are telling us (especially those of us in Alberta, Canada) that we are in for a doom and gloom year. That can’t be good, especially if your business relies 100% on discretionary spending.

How Charity Rankings Can Deceive You

Around this time every year, dozens of publications release their lists of “Top Charities” and “Best to give to this year.” Some of the rankings are comprehensive and view multiple factors.

Running your charity like a startup for success

A colleague called me last week and asked only one question – “Why do you keep tweeting links to these startup articles?” Because as a charity in an increasingly competitive marketplace, your ability to communicate your value and realize your potential depends on your ability to act like a startup.

Making the case for acquisition mail

I believe in dinosaurs. There are some that have died off because they stopped working (I wrote about a few of them here.

What your charity can learn from “Inside Out”

“Can I say that curse word now?” My little girl is going to be four this fall. She loves Inside Out.

Why you should care about international relief

Earthquakes. Tsunamis.

Selling Philanthropy: Life Insurance

Over the last few years, I have coached and counseled a number of colleagues and allied advisers on the business of philanthropy as it relates to them. There is a huge opportunity in life insurance for 1) Causes, 2) Clients and their families, and 3) Agents and Brokers.

Your most powerful fundraising asset

I attended the incredible CAGP15 conference in Halifax in April. We talked a lot about storytelling and narratives.

Drop the rubber chicken. Why I don’t rely on gala dinners.

In my years serving donors and the groups they support, I have organized some great gala dinners. Hundreds of people crammed into hotel ballrooms, art galleries, and other event spaces – all ready and willing to support my cause.

Stories or Stats – which one will drive results for you?

Do your donors prefer stories or statistics in their direct mail? Or is the answer a little bit more grey? Direct Mail is still driving strong results for groups that use it effectively. Building bridges and connections, personalizing your content, and delivering meaningful content is how we keep th

Your Most Overlooked Donor Demographic

The last few weeks I have been reading up on strategies that are being employed at North America’s NGOs. Big and small, there is a consistent theme in the breakdown of demographics.

Fear and Happiness in fundraising

I think that by now we all realize that happy people give more to charity. When people feel squeezed and less happy – they give less.

The Upside. Understanding Philanthropic Motivation

Motivation is complex, not complicated. We – the fundraisers – tend to complicate it by muddying the message.

Major Gift Fundraising…. with a divining rod?

Are you asking your Major Gift fundraisers to head out into the world with nothing more than a divining rod and a few brochures? There are simple and easy to implement steps that we can all take to help fundraisers have success in their major gift roles. Know your existing donor base.

Cutting through the noise. A fundraiser’s guide to staying informed.

This piece could also be titled “Why I get up at 0430 everyday.” The brilliant Paul Nazareth recently wrote about how radio is critical to your career.

The most critical factor in fundraising

I have written before about taking donors on a sort of walk – a meandering conversation about how you can build a partnership with them. Today, I am going to dig deeper into that conversation.

Common Threads: Donor Acquisition

When writing direct mail, call scripts or other fundraising collateral, conventional wisdom says that we need to find a way to link our cause to the donor or risk not being heard. Cool concept, right – get into the hearts of the masses and you are guaranteed to win.

Why Fundraisers should spend 35 seconds with a Hunter

Who are you and why are you here? Even if the question isn’t phrased quite so boldly, it is there every time we reach out to someone. When you call, email, or walk-in – people want to know who you are and why they should care.