Pre-Order - Ships July 10th

Stories That Raise Money

How to Tell Nonprofit Stories That Make Donors Care, Give, and Give Again

Fundraising gets easier when you stop guessing what to say to donors.

Every appeal, email, gala speech, donor report, and donor conversation asks the same thing of you:

Make someone care.
Then invite them to give.

That sounds simple. But most fundraising messages skip the part where caring gets created. They explain the need. They describe the program. They share the statistics. They say the work matters.

And the donor nods.

Then moves on.

Stories That Raise Money gives you a simple, repeatable way to create caring before you ask.

The system is simple:

Story. Offer. Ask.

The Story makes the donor care.
The Offer shows what their gift will do.
The Ask invites them to act.

When those three parts work together, fundraising stops feeling like begging and starts feeling like an invitation.

This book will help you:

Find the small human moments donors actually remember

Turn program updates, reports, interviews, and everyday conversations into usable story material

Choose the right story for appeals, thank-yous, impact reports, urgency, crisis, campaigns, and donor conversations

Shape stories so donors feel what matters instead of just reading the facts

Connect every story to an offer donors can picture

Ask in a way that feels clear, natural, and generous

You do not need to be a professional writer to use this book.

You do not need a dramatic cause.

You do not need a perfect story sitting in a file somewhere.

You need a better way to see the stories already around you.

That’s what this book gives you.

What’s inside

Stories That Raise Money walks you through the full Story. Offer. Ask. system.

You’ll learn why donors give, what stories do inside the donor, how to find the right moment, how to collect better story pieces, and how to turn those pieces into fundraising messages that move people to give.

The book covers:

• The difference between stories that inform and stories that make donors care
• Why donors need a specific person, problem, and hopeful future
• How to spot the scene inside a story
• The eight story types every fundraiser needs
• How to collect stories from staff, volunteers, reports, interviews, and conversations
• How to build emotion honestly, without guilt or pressure
• How to create offers donors can picture
• How to make asks that feel natural instead of desperate
• How to use Story. Offer. Ask. in appeals, emails, events, donor meetings, campaigns, and reports

Praise for Stories That Raise Money

“Reading this feels like having a coach sitting next to you. It doesn’t just explain storytelling. It helps you see what’s working, what’s missing, and what to do next.”

— Donna Swaffar, VP of Communications, United Way Kaw Valley

“This book gives clear action steps. I finished it and immediately had my entire team start reading it.”

— Debbie Harvey, Founder & President, Holistic Haitian Alliance

“Nobody’s doing it like this. You’ve taken storytelling and made it tangible. You kept the feeling, but made it practical.”

— T. Clay Buck, Founder, Next River Fundraising Strategies

“This felt like the heart of the Nonprofit Storytelling Conference packaged into a book. Powerful, useful, and easy to understand.”

— Jeff Bauknecht, Grants Manager, The Museum of Flight

Who this book is for

This book is for fundraisers, executive directors, communications staff, board members, and nonprofit leaders who need donors to care enough to give.

It will help you if you write appeals, emails, donor reports, campaign copy, gala scripts, thank-you notes, or major donor talking points.

It will also help if you’ve ever looked at a blank page and thought:

I know our work matters.
I just don’t know how to make donors feel it.

About the author

Chris Davenport is the founder of the Nonprofit Storytelling Conference. A former documentary filmmaker, he has helped thousands of fundraisers use story craft to move donors to give.

Order your copy

If you’ve ever wondered why your message isn’t landing, or how to make donors care without guilt, pressure, or begging, this book will give you a clear way forward.

Order Stories That Raise Money today.