So, you’ve been reading along with this 10-part series about using a simple plan to create your own perfect story. I hope it’s made sense to you – and that you’re eager to give this recipe a try as you cook up your tale.

My goal with these articles has been to give you the knowledge and confidence to dive into your own version of philanthropic storytelling. Let’s walk through an example to see how the whole thing works – and how these steps pull together as one.

Imagine you’re a fundraiser for the children’s hospital in your community or region. You want to send a direct mail campaign to your donors. 

You know that most of your direct mail donors are older (55+) – and you also know that cancer treatment is the type of medicine that typically generates the best direct mail response for your hospital.

Now, let’s take the 7-Step approach to creating your perfect story.

1. You want to choose a letter signatory (a.k.a. your protagonist) that your audience will most closely relate to. You have many options to choose from. You could tell this story in the voice of the child with cancer, the child’s mom or dad, the attending doctor or a nurse in the paediatric cancer ward. Instead of any of these, you choose to make the child’s grandmother your protagonist – because you think that your direct mail donors will most easily identify with her.
2. Next, decide on your cast of characters.  Because this is a letter and not a book, you don’t want too many supporting players – so you choose the child with cancer, the doctor and the child’s mom. Each of these characters will relate to your grandmother protagonist in ways that will reveal more about her personality and character.
3. The journey in this story is self-evident. It’s the journey from the child’s diagnosis to the day that the doctor declares her to be cancer-free. The ultimate destination in your story is a sick child restored to good health (and happiness!)
4. Your nemesis choice is also a no-brainer. The force opposing the journey to good health is the disease itself. It’s cancer that pushes back against our child having a happy outcome.
5. The magic moment could be when the doctor comes into the child’s room after surgery and tells the family that the operation was a complete success and that all the cancer has been removed.
6. Now it’s time to ask yourself which senses and emotions do you want to focus on in order to put the magic into your moment? Perhaps you focus closely on the look on the child’s face when she hears the news. And, you could zoom in on the grandmother’s intense dread being replaced by joyful relief.
7. By way of resolution, your story ends with the child’s next birthday party – and the family’s happiness at being returned to normalcy with a newfound sense of gratitude.

Achieve your desired outcome 

You want your direct mail donors to cross the imaginary bridge and become the grandmother in their minds. You want them to see and hear what the grandmother does. And, you want each audience member to go through the emotional roller coaster that the grandmother experiences. If you do this well, your odds of triggering a donation have just gone way up!

Now it’s time to get at it! Take a single-page and sketch out your seven steps – always keeping your specific audience in mind.

I think you’ll have a lot of fun with this. And I’m pretty sure that your storytelling is going to be better than it ever was before.

Once you’ve taken a stab at creating your 7-Step story outline I invite you to share it with me. I’d love to see what you’ve come up with.

Good luck and have fun!

Fraser Green is a Principal at Good Works, one of Canada’s leading fundraising consulting agencies. At Good Works, Fraser’s focus is on legacy gift marketing strategy, donor research and, well, storytelling! Fraser is the co-author of “Iceberg Philanthropy” and “You Can’t Take It With You – The Art and Science of Legacy Fundraising” and the author of “3D Philanthropy.” Contact him, fraser@goodworksco.ca