I don’t remember learning how to read — I just remember picking up books and reading. In middle school, I used to write short stories for all my friends. Then in high school, I thought I might become a journalist.
What I’m saying is that I’ve always been a writer. It’s just fortunate happenstance that I found my way into communications work, and that I’ve been getting paid to write since 2018, something that feels like a dream some days.
The desire to write anything, in any form, is how I found myself working in communications and marketing. Finding the heart of a story and figuring out how to land an ask is an incredible feeling, and that’s why clients find stories at the center of all we do at Sunrise. In every offering, which you’ll get to read more about below, we’ll center your story and engage your supporters in action.
Communication Planning: Don’t Miss a Beat
Strategic Communications
Strategic communications encompasses your entire communication ecosystem. Starting with an annual communication plan, you’ll be able to see what your marketing team needs at a glance so none of your most important programs or events slip between the cracks.
Digital and Content Strategy
Do you feel overwhelmed when you consider all of the ways to engage online? Documenting a digital strategy and an additional content strategy is one way to fight back against that feeling. With these critical tools at the ready, you’ll be able to incorporate stories into your marketing efforts more easily and effectively.
Digital Marketing: Storytelling for Online Communities
Website Management
The best place to tell your story is your website. Yes, this is a living and changing online space and updating your events might take up all of your comms staff time. But if your story isn’t being told on every page, you’re missing opportunities!
Email Programs
Your email program should include a mix of content ranging from volunteer outreach to fundraising to — you guessed it — impact stories. Treat your email subscribers like a community, and they’ll support you like community members do.
Social Media Management
Think it might be difficult to whittle a story down to 280 characters — or even 1,000? You’d be right. But as difficult as it might be, it’s equally as necessary. Engagement doesn’t have to hinge on negative emotions; hope, happiness, enjoyment, and solidarity are equally as engaging.
Nonprofit Specialties: Stories That Engage
Peer-to-Peer Fundraising and #GivingTuesday
Every year, we hear from nonprofit professionals that they don’t want to bombard their supporters on #GivingTuesday. We all have full inboxes that day, but many of us also give to organizations in our inboxes. When your emails, giving page, and social posts focus on storytelling, your community will enjoy hearing from you. Leave the groans to the organizations not telling stories!
Annual Reports
Funders look at your annual reports for a handful of reasons. They want to know about your finances, but they also want to learn about your impact. Through impact storytelling, you’ll engage funders beyond questions about overhead costs and start to connect with them personally.
We all bring the personal into our work — nowhere more than at nonprofits. Kids need to be picked up from school; we need to complete our home and work to-do lists; our personal values should align with our professional lives.
Bring the personal elements of your work into your marketing with stories. Use storytelling to encourage funders to commit to support or to boost your volunteer sign-ups. Don’t miss opportunities to connect and engage. With Sunrise, your stories are always at the forefront.