A series of events have made a big impression on me recently about the value of being able to tell a story well.

Last Monday night I attended a presentation by Scott Harrison of Charity: Water. It was the best presentation I’ve ever sat through regardless of venue or subject matter. For those of you who don’t know, Charity Water raises money to drill wells around the world so that people have clean water to drink. It only takes a few videos of kids/moms/hospitals using and drinking muddy water to let you know that it’s a worthy cause, but Scott has a gift of making you feel compelled to get involved and then to tell everyone you know. He has enlisted Oscar winning actresses to donate their time to the cause, convinced Saks 5th Avenue to donate their window space along 5th avenue, and convinced people of all ages across the country to donate their September birthdays to raising money for clean water. I bet he’s done more for raising awareness and money for clean water in the 3 years that he’s been doing this, than anyone else combined in the prior 30 years. Charity: Water is that good. You’ve got to check them out: www.charitywater.org.

Now, for my money, I’d rather give money directly to one of Charity: Water’s partners, LivingWater (www.water.cc), as I think that they do a great job in spreading the Gospel message while they deliver fresh water, but that’s not the point of this blog.

On the other end of the spectrum, you have a group like the Mailbox Club. We visited one of their installations in India during our recent DurhamCares trip to Chennai. The Mailbox Club is amazingly effective at spreading the Gospel message to kids all around the world. They do so through a series of lessons that they give to kids who then take them back to their villages and returning with them completed in one month’s time. The lessons are often the only printed material that these kids have. Most importantly, they’ve reached millions of kids by working strategically with local churches and volunteers rallying indigenous support for this incredibly effective (less than $1 per kid per year) ministry. The problem, VERY few people know about them. Want to know why? Look no further than their website (www.mailboxclub.org). They don’t have a Facebook group or a Twitter account…..they don’t know how to tell their story.

In a day and age when there are thousands of charities vying for the public’s attention and the general noise has resulted in a donor base that is confused, overwhelmed and disinterested (note the mention of a previous blog of giving level of households making more than $100,000 of less than 1% to Durham charities) not for profits need to be better than ever at telling their stories and engaging their donors and public.

In our experience at DurhamCares, we’ve found that those charities most effective at delivering service to the needy are those that are the worst at fundraising and telling their story. That’s part of the reason that we were founded as we aim to help charities like PSS and the Durham Eagles get the word out. There’s no one better than Mimi Every at counseling a young woman who is newly pregnant, and there is no one better than Don Jones at teaching at-risk kids how to play football and excel at school…....but they are downright lousy at building community through marketing (websites, facebook, twitter, blogs, videos etc.)

We can help out these charities, but they are in desperate need of more help. Do you have any marketing skills? Do you know branding and positioning? Do you know how to set up a Facebook Group? Can you help a charity tell it’s story? Do you want to help these charities scale and engage their community? Well, please let us know! Through our volunteering matching service, we’ll hook you up with an opportunity either locally or internationally that can greatly use your help.

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