5 Foolproof Ways to Successful Storytelling That Raise Money

3. Conflict escalation

Once a conflict is introduced, you want to get your audience beyond curiosity—to the point of needing to know the outcome. This requires you to escalate the conflict and increase the tension in the story until it reaches a climax.

In other words, you allow your audience to suffer a little with characters to feel their pain and frustration. When our empathy is triggered, we become receptive to whatever comes next because ending their suffering ends our own.

For example, the folks at the Grameen Foundation laid on a few more hurdles to be overcome:

• Unpredictable weather
• Cattle diseases
• Little to no education
• Limited opportunities for daughters to climb out of poverty

The foundation drew a portrait of Justine’s life that made the reader eager to learn if there could be a resolution.

Here’s another example:

Many years ago, the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, where I worked, needed a new boiler. I wrote a grant proposal so we could buy one. Sounds dry as dust, but I told a story. A story about real people. You see, the violinists need to have warm, supple fingers in order to expertly bow their instruments. Without a working boiler, we had no hot water. So they couldn’t go run their hands under the sink before a performance. Their stiffness made their playing stiff. They were paying thousands of dollars to train to become the musicians of tomorrow, yet they were swaddled in mittens while attempting to play sensitive instruments. Can you imagine how that might feel? Apparently, the foundation to which we applied could—we got $50,000!

4. Climax

This is the point at which the story could go either way. The obstacle can be overcome, or the main character can fall into the abyss. A climax scene is the most exciting and critical part of the story because it shows how a conflict finally is resolved. Show the climax scene in detail so your audience members can clearly see it in their imaginations and feel it in their empathic brains.

For example, instead of just saying that the Grameen Foundation trains “knowledge workers” to help educate people like Justine, it wrote:

The turning point was when her neighbor, Mrs. Chebet, became trained as a Grameen Foundation Community Knowledge Worker.

Mrs. Chebet was given a smartphone loaded with a database of information on the region’s weather, good farming practices, how to treat crop and cattle diseases, and where to get the best seeds at market prices.

She told Justine how to prepare for bad weather, collect rainwater for irrigation and stop the bacterial wilt that was affecting her banana trees. She also told her where to buy the best seeds, so Justine would no longer have to worry about the fake seeds being sold at market.

5. Resolution

The goal of every story is to illustrate a point. The conclusion has to clarify that point for the audience members in such a way that they’ll want to act. People remember what they hear last, and you want them to carry that with them so they don’t forget.

For example, in the Grameen Foundation story, we’ve been following the point that Justine’s destiny and life trajectory could be changed—if it could be made to intersect with a person who would educate her and give her the necessary tools to overcome the obstacles in her path. But “knowledge workers” don’t just fall out of trees. And that’s where readers come in. With their philanthropic gifts, they can fund a knowledge worker and change a woman’s life. And the life of her family. And her village. Hence the compelling call to action.

You can open the door to a transformed life right now—one gift touches many people.

Remember that storytelling is something people naturally gravitate to. We're wired that way. So if it's your job to build a bridge between the world's most pressing problems and the people who want to solve them, storytelling should become your best friend.

Most people want to make our world a better and more caring place. Telling a compelling story designed to influence people to do something positive they’re already predisposed to do, something that matches their values and makes them feel good—is a fine thing. Don't you agree?