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What you’ll get from this post: A field guide to nonprofit storytelling that ditches the polished veneer and leans into vulnerability, community, and the go-giver mindset. You’ll walk away with a framework for telling stories that actually connect, a new way to think about generosity, and a five-task action plan you can start this week.

Why Your Nonprofit’s Story Feels Stuck (And What a Small-Town Insurance Agent Can Teach You About Fixing It)

Most nonprofit communicators face a familiar issue. You have an inspiring mission and real impact. Yet, when it’s time to write an appeal, film a video, or post on social, it sounds like every other nonprofit.

Safe. Polished. Forgettable.

You know the tone. “We’re making a difference in the lives of those we serve.” Nobody reads that and feels anything. Nobody shares it. Nobody picks up the phone to ask how they can help.

Kyle Gagner would tell you the problem is simple. You’re performing instead of being alive.

Kyle is an insurance agent in Cavalier, North Dakota, population roughly 1,300. He’s also a dad of four, the founder of Levi’s Hope (a nonprofit advocacy group for children with rare muscle diseases), and a public speaker whose platform, Kyle Speaks, is built entirely on one premise: stop pretending and start telling the truth.

On a recent episode of Tellwell: The Podcast, Kyle sat down with host Max Kringen to talk about what happens when your life gets turned inside out, and you choose to let people see the mess. The conversation wandered from meal trains to jello metaphors to the go-giver mindset, and it landed somewhere really useful for anyone trying to tell a nonprofit story that actually moves people.

Here’s what we unpacked.

The Moment That Broke the Script

Kyle’s son Levi was born with a ridiculously rare, life-limiting muscle disease. Those are Kyle’s words. Not softened. Not wrapped in clinical distance.

That diagnosis did what diagnoses like that always do. It wrecked the plan. It shook Kyle and his wife spiritually, emotionally, and physically. Everything they thought they understood about how life was supposed to work got rewritten in a hospital room.

But here’s what matters for nonprofit storytelling: Kyle didn’t hide the wreckage. He let people see it. He and his wife built Levi’s Hope out of that raw, unfinished material. Not after they’d processed it neatly. Not after they had a polished narrative. While they were still in it.

That’s the first lesson. The stories that create the deepest connection are almost never the ones you’ve cleaned up and rehearsed. They’re the ones where the audience can feel the seams.

Think about the last fundraising video you watched that actually got to you. Was it the one with the soaring music and the scripted voiceover? Or was it the one where someone paused mid-sentence because they were trying not to cry?

If your nonprofit is sitting on raw, unfinished stories and waiting until they’re “ready” to share, you’re waiting too long. The mess is the message.

What a Meal Train Teaches You About Donor Behavior

When Kyle’s family was going through the hardest season of Levi’s diagnosis, their small town did what small towns do. They showed up. But Kyle made an observation that’s worth sitting with if you work in donor engagement.

He called it a “proverbial hug.” The community squeezed his family. Not physically, because, as Kyle put it, “North Dakotans don’t touch.” They did it through casseroles. Hot dish. The meal train.

Kyle had been a cynic about meal trains before he was on the receiving end of one. Turns out, that’s how people give hugs. They make you hot dish.

Here’s the donor behavior insight buried in that story. People don’t give because you asked them to. They give because they feel connected to a human being who needs something real. The meal train works because it’s tangible, personal, and requires almost no explanation. You don’t need a case statement to convince someone to make a casserole for a family in crisis. The story does the work.

Now think about your nonprofit’s donor communications. How much of your energy goes into convincing people that your cause matters versus showing them a specific human being they can rally around?

Kyle’s community didn’t rally around Levi’s Hope the organization. They rallied around Kyle, his wife, and their son. The organization came later. The connection came first.

Bad example: “Our organization served 347 families last year with critical support services. Your gift of $50 provides one family with a week of meals.”

Good example: “When Levi was diagnosed, our neighbors didn’t ask what we needed. They just showed up with hot dish. That’s what your gift does. It shows up.”

The second version doesn’t have a single statistic. It has a story. And it works harder than the first one ever could.

The Go-Giver Mindset: Why Controlling Generosity Kills It

Kyle brought up The Go-Giver by Bob Burg and John David Mann during the conversation, and the concept maps perfectly onto nonprofit fundraising strategy.

The premise is dead simple. If you want to receive, you have to give first. And the giving can’t be a transaction. The moment you start giving with the intent to get something back, people see through it instantly.

Kyle then did something unexpected. He compared generosity to jello.

Stay with me here.

A solid square of jello sits in your hand just fine. It’s wiggly. It’s there. It holds its shape. But the moment you start squeezing, trying to control it, the jello shoots through your fingers and you’ve got nothing.

Generosity works the same way. Leadership works the same way. And, critically, donor relationships work the same way.

How many nonprofit fundraising strategies are built on squeezing? Follow-up calls two days after the event. Three email touches before the ask. The perfectly timed “impact report” that’s really a stealth solicitation. Donors feel the squeeze. They always feel the squeeze.

Kyle’s alternative, borrowed from his own life and community, is surrender. Put the jello in the fridge. Keep it chilly. Let it be what it is. Be the keeper of the thing, the guide in the story, not the person white-knuckling it into a shape.

For Max Kringen and the Tellwell team, this principle manifested in concrete ways through the WellTold Conference. The idea was simple: give the nonprofit community a love letter. Bring in speakers that these organizations could never afford on their own. Nourish them with incredible food and an incredible experience. Give first. Give wildly.

What happened? The return came in droves. Not just in clients, but in trust. In invitations to speak and train. In people reaching out and saying, “Can I borrow your brain for a little bit?”

That didn’t happen because Tellwell had a clever follow-up sequence. It happened because the giving was real, and everybody could feel it.

So what does this look like for your nonprofit?

Start with your events. Most nonprofit galas and fundraising dinners are designed around the ask. The entire evening builds toward the paddle raise or the fund-a-need moment. Everything before that is scaffolding for the squeeze. What if you flipped that? What if you designed an event where the primary goal was to genuinely nourish your supporters? Feed them extraordinary food. Bring them a speaker who changes how they think. Give them an experience that has nothing to do with their wallet. Then see what happens.

Or look at your email strategy. How many of your emails ask for something versus give something? If the ratio is skewed toward asking, you’re squeezing jello. Try sending three genuinely useful, no-ask emails for every one appeal. Share a story with no donation link. Send a resource your supporters can actually use in their own work. Build the trust account before you make a withdrawal.

The go-giver mindset isn’t naive. It’s strategic. But the strategy only works when the generosity is real. People can smell a fake gift from across the room.

“Just Be Alive”: The Authenticity Framework That Actually Works

Authenticity is one of the most overused words in marketing. Every brand claims it. Very few deliver it. And the reason is that most organizations treat authenticity as a strategy rather than a surrender.

Kyle’s version is different. When asked about vulnerability in public speaking, he didn’t give a five-step framework. He said this: “Being alive means not pretending to be anything that you are. Just be who you are. Just be alive.”

That sounds soft. It’s actually incredibly hard. Because being alive in front of an audience means admitting you don’t know what you’re doing. It means telling a room full of people that you yell at your kids and your pressure release valve involves some colorful language. It means showing up without the armor.

For nonprofit leaders, this has real implications for how you communicate.

Stop leading with credentials. Kyle introduces himself as “just a dude.” He’s an insurance agent. He loves to giggle. He screams at his kids. He collects none of the professional armor that most speakers hide behind. And that’s exactly why people listen to him. Because he sounds like a person they actually know.

Stop waiting until the story is finished. Kyle and his family started sharing Levi’s story while they were still living it. They didn’t wait for a resolution or a neat ending. The ongoing, unfinished nature of the story is what makes it powerful. If your nonprofit is in the middle of something hard, that’s the story. Tell it now.

Stop sanitizing the voice. Kyle cusses. He talks about his kids’ “MPHs” (you’ll have to listen to the episode to find out what that means). He compares leadership to jello. None of this would survive a typical nonprofit communications review. And that’s exactly why it connects. Because it sounds like a real human being wrote it, not a committee.

Think about your own organization’s voice for a second. How many layers of review does a social post go through before it goes live? How many people soften the language, round the edges, strip out anything that might raise an eyebrow? By the time it’s published, the life has been edited out of it.

Kyle’s approach inverts that entirely. He leads with the imperfect stuff. The cussing at his kids. The failed attempts at creativity. The admission that he doesn’t really know what he’s doing. And paradoxically, that’s what makes him credible. People trust the person who admits the mess more than the person who pretends everything is fine.

Your nonprofit can do this without dropping f-bombs in your annual report. It starts with letting your staff and your clients sound like themselves. Let the executive director record a video where she stumbles over her words. Let the program manager write a blog post that says “honestly, this year was harder than we expected.” Let the real voices through. The polish is what’s killing your connection.

The Legacy Pivot: From Hero to Guide

Kyle turned 40 recently, and he talked about a shift that happens when you stop building your own story and start thinking about what you’re building for the people coming after you.

He called it the realization that “what we have now is built from the shoulders of people that have gone before us.”

This matters for nonprofit storytelling because so many organizations accidentally position themselves as the hero. We served this many people. We raised this much money. We launched this program.

The most effective nonprofit stories do the opposite. They position the organization as the guide and the donor, or the community as the hero. Kyle figured this out instinctively. He talks about being “the keeper of the thing” or “the guide in the story.” Not the main character.

If your nonprofit’s communications are full of “we” statements, try flipping them. Instead of “We provided 500 meals,” try “Your generosity fed 500 families.” Instead of “Our team built a new community center,” try “This community built something together.”

The shift is subtle. The impact on donor connection is massive.

Your 5-Task Action Plan (Start This Week)

Here’s how to put Kyle’s lessons into practice. Each task has a time box. No excuses.

Task 1: Find Your Unfinished Story (30 minutes)

Sit down with your team and identify one story you’ve been holding back because it doesn’t have a clean ending. A client still in process. A program that’s struggling. A moment that was messy. Write it down in 200 words, raw and unedited. That’s your next social post.

Task 2: Audit Your Squeeze (20 minutes)

Pull up your last three donor communications. For each one, ask: does this feel like a hug or a squeeze? If it’s a squeeze (heavy on the ask, light on the genuine human connection), rewrite the opening paragraph to lead with a specific person’s story instead of an organizational need.

Task 3: Kill One “We” Statement (10 minutes)

Find one sentence on your website or in your current appeal that starts with “We” and flip it to “You.” “We provide resources” becomes “You make resources possible.” One sentence. Ten minutes. Do it today.

Task 4: Record a 60-Second Unscripted Video (15 minutes)

Grab your phone. Hit record. Talk about why you do this work. No script. No bullet points. No second takes. Post it. The stumbles and pauses are features, not bugs.

Task 5: Read The Go-Giver (3 hours)

Kyle recommended it. We’re seconding it. It’s a three-hour audiobook on Spotify. Listen on your commute this week. Then ask yourself: where is our organization squeezing the jello?

Resource Hub

Kyle Speaks (kylespeaks.com): Kyle Gagner’s growing speaking platform. Book him if you want your audience to laugh, feel something real, and walk away with a new perspective on leadership and vulnerability.

Levi’s Hope (levishope.com): The nonprofit advocacy group Kyle and his family founded to support children with rare muscle diseases. Watch the original Levi’s Hope film on YouTube for one of the best examples of raw nonprofit storytelling you’ll find.

The Go-Giver by Bob Burg and John David Mann: The book that frames generosity as the ultimate growth strategy. Available as a three-hour audiobook on Spotify.

Kyle Gagner at Farm Bureau Financial Services (fbfs.com/find-an-agent/kylegagner): Yes, he’s also an insurance agent. And yes, he’s probably the most interesting one you’ll ever meet.

WellTold Conference (welltoldconference.com): Tellwell’s annual conference for nonprofit leaders. If you want to experience the go-giver mindset in action, this is it.

Tellwell Resources (wetellwell.com/resources): Guides, case stories, and tools for nonprofit communicators who want to tell better stories and build deeper donor relationships.

Next Post Tease

Coming up next on Tellwell: The Podcast, we’re digging into how nonprofit leaders can build a communications calendar that doesn’t fall apart by February. If your content strategy feels like a New Year’s resolution that dies by week three, you’ll want this one. Subscribe so you don’t miss it.

Listen to the full episode with Kyle Gagner on Tellwell: The Podcast, available on YouTube, Spotify, and Apple Podcasts.