Why Great Fundraising Starts with a Great Story

In this episode of The First Day from The Fund Raising School, Bill Stanczykiewicz, Ed.D., is joined by Carla Knorowski, Ph.D., a veteran fundraiser and advancement leader whose work has included institutions such as The Henry Ford, the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum, and the U.S.-based foundation supporting Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris. Knorowski shares how she became involved with fundraising for Notre-Dame shortly before the devastating April 2019 fire and how the crisis transformed an effort originally focused on long-term support into an urgent global campaign to save, restore, and rebuild one of the world’s most recognizable landmarks. The experience offers fundraisers a vivid example of how powerful storytelling can connect donors to a mission, even when they may live thousands of miles away from the organization or cause.

Knorowski explains that effective storytelling begins with understanding the many different reasons people may care about an organization. For Notre-Dame, some donors were drawn by religious faith, others by history, literature, architecture, cultural heritage, or their own personal experiences visiting the cathedral. To organize those possibilities, the fundraising team developed what Knorowski describes as a “taxonomy of storytelling,” essentially a catalog of stories designed to appeal to different donor interests. She encourages nonprofits of every size to develop a similar approach, identifying stories that can speak to various motivations while weaving multiple points of connection into broader communications. Rather than relying on a single story for every audience, fundraisers can build a collection of narratives that help prospective donors recognize something personally meaningful within the mission.

Bill and Carla also discuss the importance of making the donor a central character in the story. Knorowski describes Notre-Dame itself as an initial protagonist, the fire as an antagonist, and firefighters, artisans, supporters, and donors as additional protagonists who became part of the cathedral’s recovery. That framing allowed donors at every giving level to see a tangible role for themselves. Instead of simply announcing that hundreds of millions of dollars were needed for restoration, fundraisers could invite someone to “protect the protectors” by helping restore the cathedral’s gargoyles or to “buttress a buttress” during the exterior restoration. Those smaller, vivid stories made an enormous campaign feel accessible and helped communicate that a gift of a few dollars could still be part of a much larger achievement. Donations ultimately came from all 50 states and more than 50 countries, demonstrating how storytelling can bridge geography, background, and even differing religious traditions.

The central takeaway is that data can demonstrate progress, but stories give that data emotional meaning. Knorowski emphasizes that metrics remain essential for accountability and continued donor engagement, yet “a compelling story is more powerful than compelling data” because stories help people understand why their participation matters. The restoration of Notre-Dame became a story not simply about repairing stone, timber, and architecture, but about preserving centuries of human history, responding to devastation with hope, and giving people an opportunity to contribute to something larger than themselves. For fundraisers, the lesson applies far beyond a world-famous cathedral: whether an organization helps a child learn to read, strengthens a community, preserves history, or improves someone’s quality of life, the most effective stories show donors how their philanthropy becomes part of that change. By cataloging stories, connecting them to different donor motivations, placing donors inside the narrative, and pairing emotional storytelling with meaningful evidence of impact, nonprofits can turn fundraising communications into invitations to make a lasting difference.