How to use case studies to increase donations

Publishing strong, emotive case studies on your website is an excellent way to reach potential funders and supporters. Whether they’re written stories or video interviews, case studies can help you to raise awareness about your cause and encourage people to make donations. Charities should make sure they can be easily found on their websites.

So why do people’s personal stories encourage people to donate? An article from Charity & Biscuits says that people want to read about other people. “We humans reserve our most emotional responses for each other. A good human story trumps pretty much anything as a fundraising and communications tool.”

Capital Content adds that readers are more likely to trust the positive things people say about your charity than the positive things you say about yourself. Also, an article on the Directory of Social Change says that “using the voices of the people you help” shows readers the difference your charity is making.

How to find case studies

1. Work out where potential stories come from in your charity. ChangeStar suggests mapping out your organisation, so you know where stories can be found and can speak to the relevant teams
2. Build relationships with the people who are in charge of case studies at your charity. Make sure you keep in regular contact with them so you can find out about new stories
3. Find appropriate case studies who are happy to share their stories. This means people who were supported recently so they are time-relevant, but who are able to talk about the difficult time in their life
4. Plan in advance. Speak to the people managing your charity’s case studies ahead of time to make sure you have the stories you need

How to write a strong case study

Carry out an effective interview. To get the most from the storyteller, do some preparation before the interview, including drafting open questions and checking your equipment works.

Get the best from the interviewer. You’re likely to be talking about emotive issues, so try to put the person at ease. You can do this by reminding them of how their story will be used, how it will help the charity, and thanking them for their time.

Listen to what they’re telling you. The person will sense if you’re genuinely interested in what they’re saying. During the interview, ask them ‘How did that make you feel?’ to get the person to talk about their emotions.

Write a strong opening. You need to grab people’s attention in the first few sentences of the case study. The Directory of Social Change suggests using emotion, intrigue, something shocking or odd to draw readers into the story.

Use the first person. Charity & Biscuits says to let people speak for themselves where you can. “Direct quotes sound more authentic because real people don’t speak in industry jargon or in cliches.”

Also, don’t use your charity’s house style or tone of voice as this could change the personality of the person who is telling the story. 

Show change. You need to demonstrate the change that your organisation has made to someone’s life. Use the ‘Before – During – After’ approach, which is broken down into:

• What was the person’s life like before using your service? 
• How did they hear about the charity and what services did they use? 
• How is their life different now?

Inspire people. To increase donations, you need to make the reader the hero of the story. This involves making people feel inspired and feel that they can help to create change.

Increasing online donations

Having emotive case studies on your website can boost donations. Eyes Down Digital says: “If you only have a few case studies at this stage, consider adding them to your donations page. If your stories are inspiring enough and include a clear call to action, you should see a boost in donations. If you use A/B testing, you could even run an experiment to see just how much of an impact your case studies make.”

The digital agency adds that once you’ve written a few case studies, you should create a dedicated case study webpage. You could also upload video case studies to your YouTube channel, Facebook Stories, or a podcast.