Storytelling for charity/humanitarian organizations: effectively encouraging interest, desires and actions

Abstract

In the article, we discuss storytelling and the effect it has when it comes to NGO’s fund raising projects. We research three stories about minority youth that were covered in the media and analysed them we using the recommended theoretical criterium for a good humanitarian story. We undertook an online poll, using the representative sample of the students enrolled in the DOBA Faculty`s Content Creation and Storytelling course. The respondents graded the stories based on seven indicators of effective stories, evaluated the level of empathy and made a declaration on the amount of appropriate donation. The poll was concluded with their personal thoughts on the restraints that they feel, despite the empathy, with the agenda of donations.

We conclude that there exist many disagreements concerning how the target audience of the humanitarian advertising respond to the pleas of NGO’s for donations. Most interviewers did express their affection for donating and for the general philanthropic activities. However, there is a disconnection between the affection for the idea and a practical act of donating. The intent of donating and the consumer practice are worlds apart. We have split the different objections to donating by groups and indicated possible solutions to overcoming them. Further research is necessary if we want to extract as much of the donating money as possible, since our research clearly shows that NGOs make mistakes when it comes to advertising their donating stories.