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The most effective nonprofit storytelling does not report your mission, it builds it. When you shift from documenting what happened to creating opportunities for people to opt in, you transform curious supporters into committed long-term partners.

What Does It Mean to Build Your Story Instead of Report It?

Building your story means creating experiences that invite people into your mission rather than simply telling them about it. Reporting sounds like annual impact numbers and event recaps. Building sounds like weekly touchpoints, multiple on-ramps for engagement, and narratives that make people feel like co-authors rather than passive audiences.

Andrew Jason knows the difference because he has lived on both sides. He spent nine years as a journalist at Spotlight Media, reporting on the Fargo-Moorhead community. Then he joined Emerging Prairie and Grand Farm, where his role shifted from documenting stories to creating them.

“There is a little bit of an internal narrative shift that takes place,” Andrew explained on a recent episode of Tellwell: The Podcast. “You start to recognize that the work you do has real tangible benefits in the real world.”

That shift, from reporter to builder, holds the key to nonprofit storytelling that actually connects.

Why Do Most Nonprofit Stories Fail to Connect?

Most nonprofit stories fail because they optimize for information instead of invitation. The annual report hits inboxes and disappears. The gala comes and goes. The social posts get a few likes but fail to move anyone to action.

The problem is not your mission. The problem is the posture. Reporting mode treats your audience as recipients of information. Building mode treats them as potential participants in something meaningful.

According to the Fundraising Effectiveness Project, donor retention rates hover around 40-45% for most nonprofits. Nearly half of first-time donors never give again. One reason? They never felt like they were part of the story.

Andrew puts it simply: “The audience will come as far along in the story as you take them. If you do just a high general overview, great, they’ll ride along with that. But if you can do a really in-depth, long-form journalism article, people will follow that for the most part if it’s well done.”

Depth creates commitment. Surface-level communication creates surface-level relationships.

What Does “Start Small, Move Fast” Mean for Nonprofits?

Start small, move fast means running low-stakes experiments quickly instead of planning one high-stakes event for months. It means building momentum through small wins rather than betting everything on a single campaign.

When Grand Farm launched in the summer of 2020, they had almost nothing. Forty acres of land, a porta-potty, and a tent. No fancy facilities. No polished brand. No strategic plan that had been workshopped for six months.

What they did have was a willingness to experiment.

“Throughout that summer, in kind of a COVID environment outdoors, we hosted about 50 different COVID-safe events,” Andrew said. “We had some that were really successful, had several hundred people at a 40-acre farm. And we had some events that nobody showed up to.”

Here is the part that matters: “What was great is we stopped doing those.”

Fifty events in one summer. Some worked. Some flopped. The ones that flopped got cut. The ones that worked got repeated and refined.

This approach works because it reduces the cost of failure, generates real data about what your community actually wants, builds momentum through small wins, and creates multiple opportunities for engagement instead of one annual gala.

How Do You Invite People to Opt In?

Inviting people to opt in means offering participation instead of demanding attention. The typical nonprofit model involves asking, convincing, and sometimes begging people to engage. There is an underlying desperation to it. Please come to our event. Please donate. Please volunteer.

Inviting people to opt in flips the dynamic. It says: Here is what we are building. Here is why it matters. Would you like to be part of it?

Asking creates pressure. Inviting creates curiosity.

Andrew learned this from a journalism professor: “The audience will come as far along in the story as you take them.” The same principle applies to donor engagement, volunteer recruitment, and community building.

At Grand Farm, this looks like multiple on-ramps for participation. “The light one is just come to an event, participate in the ecosystem,” Andrew explained. “Two would be let’s do some testing out at our farm, get you engaged, doing demos, whatever the case might be. And then we can just do deeper and deeper levels of engagement.”

Over the last year, Grand Farm has welcomed over 5,000 visitors from 30 different countries. Most of that growth came from a simple invitation: Here is what we are doing. Want to join and participate?

How Do You Create Multiple Touchpoints With Your Community?

Creating multiple touchpoints means building several ways for people to interact with your mission at different commitment levels instead of relying on one or two big events per year.

Most nonprofits focus almost exclusively on high-commitment engagement. They want board members and major donors and dedicated volunteers. But those relationships do not appear out of nowhere. They are built through consistent low-commitment touchpoints over time.

Andrew described Emerging Prairie’s approach: “The fact that Emerging Prairie has a lot of different touch points with the community, whether that’s at our weekly Startup Brew that we host every Wednesday, whether that’s at our coworking space in downtown Fargo, whether that’s out at Grand Farm. We have a lot of opportunities that we can touch the community and get people involved.”

Level 1 (low commitment): Come to an event. Follow on social media. Sign up for the newsletter. These require almost nothing but create familiarity.

Level 2 (moderate commitment): Volunteer for a single project. Attend a workshop. Make a small donation. The participant is now invested, even if modestly.

Level 3 (high commitment): Join the board. Become a monthly donor. Lead a volunteer team. These are your champions.

The mistake is asking someone you just met to jump straight to Level 3. The better approach is inviting them to Level 1, building the relationship, and letting deeper commitment emerge naturally.

What Creates Depth in Nonprofit Storytelling?

Depth comes from personal impact, specific numbers, and ripple effects, not from polished production or clever copywriting.

Andrew shared an example. During COVID, the North Dakota Department of Transportation launched an autonomous lead-follow truck system for work zones. Andrew saw the technology and connected it with agriculture applications. He reached out to Cradles Defense, a company that designs military systems, and asked if they had ever thought about agriculture.

That connection led to deployment at a farmer’s cooperative in Wahpeton. The technology has now driven over 50,000 autonomous miles on North Dakota highways.

The shallow version of this story: “We connected a technology company with a farm cooperative.” Accurate, but forgettable.

The deep version includes the specific numbers, the human impact, the career opportunities created for drivers who can now level up their skills. It makes people feel something.

Here is the framework for creating depth:

Start with the challenge. What problem were you trying to solve? Be specific.

Introduce the human element. Who are the real people affected?

Show the connection. How did your organization bridge the gap?

Quantify the impact. Use real numbers. 50,000 miles. 5,000 visitors from 30 countries. 61 organizations.

Reveal the ripple effects. What secondary benefits emerged?

Why Should Nonprofits Put People Before Technology?

Putting people before technology means designing solutions around human needs first, then selecting tools that serve those needs, not the other way around.

“We need to put people before technology and not design technology for people,” Andrew said.

Too many organizations get seduced by the latest tool, platform, or system. They implement technology and then try to fit people into it. The result is friction, frustration, and often failure.

The better approach starts with people. What do your donors actually need? What would make your volunteers’ lives easier? What would help your beneficiaries thrive? Once you understand the human needs, you select technology that serves those needs.

This principle extends beyond technology to every aspect of nonprofit storytelling. The relationships matter more than the systems. The people matter more than the platforms. The connections matter more than the content.

Your 2-Week Action Plan

Week 1: Audit and experiment (3 hours total)

List every touchpoint your organization currently has with your community. Events, emails, social posts, volunteer opportunities, everything. Count them. Most organizations discover they have fewer than they thought. Then identify one small, low-cost experiment you could run in the next 30 days. A casual coffee meetup. A behind-the-scenes tour. A pop-up presence at a community event. Keep it simple enough that failure would be painless.

Week 2: Create depth and invite (3 hours total)

Take one story your organization tells frequently and rewrite it using the depth framework. Add specific numbers. Include the human element. Show the ripple effects. Then map your current on-ramps at Levels 1, 2, and 3. Identify any gaps. Design one new Level 1 touchpoint that requires minimal resources but creates genuine connection.

The Bottom Line

Nonprofit storytelling does not have to feel like shouting into the void. But it does require a fundamental shift in posture.

Stop reporting your mission. Start building it. Stop asking for attention. Start inviting participation. Stop waiting for the perfect plan. Start with small experiments and iterate.

Andrew’s journey from journalist to ecosystem builder proves the principle. In one year, Grand Farm welcomed 5,000 visitors from 30 countries and worked with 61 organizations on technology demonstrations. They did it with 40 acres, a porta-potty, a tent, and a willingness to start small and move fast.

Your donors will feel the difference when you invite them to opt in rather than demand their attention. Your community will respond when you create on-ramps at every level. Your stories will stick when you add depth instead of polish.

Start small. Move fast. Invite people in. The rest follows.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the difference between reporting your mission and building it?

Reporting your mission means documenting what happened and sharing information with your audience. Building your mission means creating experiences that invite people to participate and become part of the story. Reporting treats people as recipients. Building treats them as co-authors.

How many touchpoints should a nonprofit have with its community?

There is no magic number, but most nonprofits have fewer than they think. The goal is to create multiple opportunities for engagement at different commitment levels. Weekly or monthly touchpoints are more effective than one or two big events per year.

What does “invite people to opt in” mean practically?

It means offering participation instead of demanding attention. Instead of “Please donate to our cause,” try “Here is what we are building. Would you like to be part of it?” The shift is from pressure to curiosity.

How do I create depth in storytelling without a big budget?

Depth comes from specificity, not production value. Use real numbers. Name real people. Show the ripple effects of your work. A smartphone video with genuine human impact beats a polished promo with generic messaging.

What if our small experiments fail?

That is the point. Small experiments are designed to fail cheaply. When Grand Farm hosted 50 events in one summer, some flopped. They stopped doing those and doubled down on what worked. Failure at small scale teaches you what to do at larger scale.

Resources

Grand Farm — Andrew’s work in agricultural innovation and ecosystem building. Visit grandfarm.com

Emerging Prairie — The startup ecosystem Andrew helps build in Fargo-Moorhead. Visit emergingprairie.com

Startup Brew — A weekly event demonstrating the “start small, move fast” approach. Visit emergingprairie.com/startupbrew

Tellwell Resources — Guides on donor engagement, brand strategy, and the Seasons of Story framework. Visit wetellwell.com/resources