How Data-Driven Storytelling Helps Good Causes Get Funded
From The Observatory
Source: The Observatory
Nonprofits play a crucial role in holding communities together, and combining powerful stories with real data is essential to securing the support they need to continue making a difference.
This article was produced for the Observatory by the Independent Media Institute. It is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0)
“How Data-Driven Storytelling Helps Good Causes Get Funded” by Isabelle Métivier is licensed by the Observatory under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0).
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Introduction
Chances are you’ve benefited from a nonprofit—whether by listening to public radio, adopting a pet from a shelter, attending a community arts event, or witnessing their support through local food pantries. Nonprofits are part of the invisible infrastructure that keeps communities running, meeting needs that businesses might ignore or governments don’t fully address. From youth mentorship to environmental action and crisis response, nonprofits fill vital gaps in our communities.
In a system that prioritizes profitability and scale, nonprofits are expected to address significant social issues while operating on limited budgets. They are tasked with carrying out their mission while also meeting the requirements of the people and institutions they depend on for funding.
To secure support from donors, foundations, or institutions, nonprofits are expected to do more than just describe what they do; they must demonstrate why it matters. It’s like a job interview: A personal story may spark interest, but without a track record of results, the opportunity slips away. The same is true for nonprofits—stories draw people in, but proof of success is what builds trust.
In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic and the global economic downturn, securing funding has become increasingly challenging for nonprofits. As a result, standing out to potential donors and funders is key to ensuring financial resilience and avoiding insolvency. One way to achieve this is through data-driven storytelling. Stories are a historically effective way of conveying information, and data inspires trust. When skillfully combined, these two approaches can help nonprofits to position themselves as uniquely equipped to meet the needs of their target populations, thereby increasing their chances of securing support from a given funder.
On a most basic level, stories organize information in a way that is compelling and logical. It’s why every organization’s website, nonprofit or otherwise, has a landing page with a distinct and persuasive “About” section. It is also why, even if not explicitly requested, no one expects a rote proposal or grant application that lists an organization’s needs without contextualizing them or demonstrating impact to stand out to funders. While this knowledge is generally universally understood, some apply it more successfully than others.
Take, for example, Craig and Marc Kielburger’s Free The Children, rebranded as WE Charity in 2016. The organization gained unprecedented momentum in its early years, propelled by the inspiring story of its cofounder: 12-year-old Craig Keilburger, who, while searching a newspaper for the comics section, came across an article about 12-year-old Iqbal Masih—a child debt slave who had escaped brutal conditions in a Pakistani carpet factory at age 10 only to be murdered two years later. Deeply affected by the realization that children around the world endured such injustices, Kielburger resolved to carry on Masih’s fight against child labor. He recruited 11 classmates, and together, alongside Craig’s brother Marc, they formed Free the Children out of the Keilburger family home.
In 1995, the group sent a petition with 3,000 signatures—demanding the release of child rights crusader Kailash Satyarthi—to the prime minister of India, packaged in a shoebox. The story quickly attracted headlines, leading Free the Children to be featured everywhere from “60 Minutes” to “The Oprah Winfrey Show,” and garnering worldwide attention and support, including financial backing.
It’s not difficult to see why this story was so resonant. It has all the right ingredients: an undeniable cause, a grassroots origin story, and a magnanimous youngster who saw injustice and felt compelled to correct it. The veracity of each detail aside, it is a narrative that is impossible to refuse. Despite facing serious scandals in recent years, including conflict of interest concerns over a grant awarded by the Trudeau federal government and accusations of white saviourism, WE Charity persists, likely due to the enduring impact of its origin story in the public’s mind.
Ultimately, funders want to support initiatives that reflect their values, or at least the values they want to be seen as holding. In the case of Free The Children, it presented itself as being at the forefront of the fight against child labor from the beginning. It drummed up enough visibility that not supporting them was akin to supporting child labor. This is the type of framing that is important to remember when crafting a narrative about a nonprofit.
For Free The Children, its origin story was a primary driving force behind its success. But we have come a long way since its heyday in the early aughts. Today, there are estimated to be more than 10 million nonprofits worldwide, all of which require some sort of external funding, which is limited. In the data age, demonstrating impact to funders is typically required before receiving any kind of financial backing. Often, the best way to achieve this is through metrics.
Consider an organization seeking funding to expand its nutrition and healthy eating workshops for teens. They could tell a handful of inspiring stories about youth who have participated in these workshops and enjoyed them, but that does not demonstrate that they are fulfilling a need. If, however, they were to introduce or punctuate these stories with the number of youths who noted an improvement in their cooking skills and ability to plan a nutritionally sound meal post-workshop, and demonstrate a high volume of inquiries about expanding the program from parents and interested youth in the community and beyond, they will have painted a picture of a successful, desired program that is filling a void within a population and has the metrics to prove it.
Essentially, data introduces scale, which can back up claims of effectiveness, impact, and need that narrative alone cannot. Its use within the context of nonprofit fund development is a key factor in taking a given initiative from an inspiring story worth a read to a successful operation worth supporting.
All forms of data, both qualitative and quantitative, can be helpful in this context. What matters most is how it complements and affirms the story being told. That said, certain types of data are particularly compelling to funders, notably, data demonstrating positive outcomes (e.g., growth, improvement, efficiency) and demographic data. The former because it communicates program effectiveness, the latter because funders, such as foundations and corporate philanthropic entities, often establish specific demographic niches they are interested in supporting through their funding.
An added benefit to incorporating data into funding proposals is the opportunity it creates for visual storytelling. Data visualizations, such as diagrams, maps, charts, and tables, can make data more engaging and accessible by conveying key information at a glance. While not always feasible—depending on the funder’s required format—visual representations can effectively communicate a range of metrics and statistics that might otherwise be cumbersome or less impactful when presented solely in text.
An infographic from OXFAM, titled “Let’s Talk About Hunger,” is a good example of compelling visual storytelling. It breaks down the language of food crises into five categories, in order of urgency, and uses pie charts and cleverly designed images to convey the level of scarcity experienced at each level. It is both visually appealing and highly informative. In the case of a funding proposal, even a simple set of graphics, appearing within the context of the greater narrative, can help bolster the legitimacy of the request. As this infographic illustrates, this approach can also be particularly effective when communicating urgency to funders.
So, how can this information help organizations secure funding? Here are three steps that can help incorporate data-driven storytelling into funding requests.
1. Identify the Best Success Stories
These stories should highlight the significant impacts that an organization has made. For example, initiatives that assisted many people within the target demographic, a partnership with another organization that helped expand services, successful fundraising campaigns, and even events that garnered significant press coverage. What’s most important is that the story highlights how an organization is achieving its mission.
2. Gather and Organize Relevant Data
Having robust data collection methods within an organization is key. Once data collection begins, it can be integrated into success stories as needed, strengthening them and making funding requests more persuasive overall. A baseline amount of data can help demonstrate the progress made over time, the impact of a given initiative, and more. More sophisticated data can be more compelling, but will require a more refined approach to integrating it into the narrative. If the data cannot be used effectively to bolster success stories, it may indicate the need to collect new types of data or employ a different data collection method. There will likely be some trial and error in this process, but the information and compiled data will make the endeavor worthwhile.
3. Tailor Messaging for Different Funders
This might be the most crucial step. Even the most well-communicated, data-backed stories will not be of interest to a funder who does not fund what a particular organization is offering. Every funder has its own values and funding niches. Any request that does not align with those will be discarded on principle. The best approach is to have a clear understanding of what a potential funder supports and does not support, and to craft a funding request that clearly ties in mutual values. Once an organization establishes itself as a valid potential funding recipient, the data that is integrated into its narratives will help it stand out among the crowd.
Increasingly, nonprofit organizations are utilizing customer relationship management (CRM) software to facilitate documentation, data collection, and management. CRM software is often used to track donor information, but it can also help nonprofits keep tabs on what’s working—and who’s being helped. Although primarily used in the nonprofit sector for donor management, this software can also serve as a practical tool for tracking key metrics, such as participant data, survey responses, and other essential information. When thoughtfully implemented, they can significantly enhance a nonprofit’s data collection efforts. However, their effectiveness depends on the capabilities of the system itself, as well as how staff use the tools and how well they are integrated into the organization’s daily practices.
As a board member of a foundation once told me, every cause is a worthy one. Yet, especially in today’s funding landscape, no one cause speaks for itself. This is where many get stuck. We often overlook the fact that, despite a nonprofit’s obvious importance, many prospective funders are typically learning about a particular cause for the first time. Painting a vivid and inspiring picture of an organization’s achievements through data-driven storytelling instills faith in the legitimacy of a cause to potential supporters. It can be key to securing the financial backing it deserves.
Remember that you don’t have to work for a nonprofit to support one. Look for organizations that demonstrate both heart and results—those that tell real stories and share clear outcomes. Ask how your donation or time as a volunteer would make a difference, and support groups that answer with both passion and proof.
While no single nonprofit can solve every structural or systemic problem, together they serve as community pillars, with networks, knowledge, and resources that communities depend on and that are worth sustaining and expanding. A well-funded and well-managed nonprofit can make a meaningful impact. When many such organizations thrive—particularly grassroots initiatives created by and for the community—that impact grows exponentially. In this context, data-driven storytelling becomes a powerful tool to help a community understand and address its own needs.
