Before starting Fifty & Fifty, I spent my early design years working through the ranks of a few different agencies. I eventually landed a position as an Art Director at Digitaria, a well known digital agency here in San Diego. I spent my time there working on marketing sites for consumer-based Fortune 500 companies. Working there allowed me to improve my skills and get better at designing for clients.

A few years later, I started seeking something more fulfilling. I wanted to make a difference with my time and I needed to see if I could make the world better. So I left. But my heart has always stayed with the people who taught me everything I know. I ended up joining my friends who were starting Invisible Children, a nonprofit fighting to free child soldiers in Africa’s longest running war.

Storytelling Makes a Difference

Although the job description was the same–build amazing websites–there was an innate challenge to overcome that was unique to the nonprofit space. There was no product to sell, yet there was a sale to be made.

A story needed to be told. There were characters and global challenges and the need for heroes, but it all came down to the story. Over the years I came to realize that simple storytelling was enough. Enough to engage thousands of people to give up their time and money to join something bigger than themselves.

My experiences equipped me with the know-how to start an agency centered on this idea of storytelling. But what my small team and I found out early on was that most nonprofits weren’t ready to do it. They lacked the funds to invest. They weren’t convinced that digital storytelling was going to help. There were systems in place to keep things the same and nobody was ready to disrupt the norm. Many nonprofits were happy asking for people’s change, but were unwilling to give anything back to make donating worth while.

I won’t say that we’ve solved this problem just yet, but I will say there was a clear revelation that helped us convince clients to think differently. The idea was simple: You have a product. You just need to learn how to sell it. Even though there isn’t a physical product, becoming a donor triggers similar desires the end user.

Every product a consumer buys is really just a promise. Shoes that promise to be more comfortable. Food that promises to help you get the body you want. They are all the same in that they are convincing you that your life will be better if you’d only reach out and buy what they are selling.

Giving is no different. In fact, it’s probably closer to the concept of improving someone’s life than any physical product you can ever buy.

Nonprofits Must Learn to Sell

So, what now? Well, if you are a nonprofit, learn to sell. Learn what your company does best–what your donors love about you and why they give to you–and sell it. Figure out the features and elements of your product that people fall in love with and sell them too. I know it sounds cliché and heartless, but it isn’t.

Every organization we work with has a different mission and a different audience. It takes time to figure out who you are selling to, what they want, and how much they’ll spend to feel connected to your organization. Those are all valuable factors that not only, but help people feel connected to a cause. In the end, that is what they are buying. They are purchasing a product that allows them to play a part in improving the world, and that feels really good to many consumers.

So tell amazing stories. Convince people that you have the product they want. If you don’t communicate how becoming a donor will change someone’s life, someone else will.