Ep. 71: Using Storytelling for a Crowdfunding Campaign with Amanda Cazzolla

Updated: Dec 3, 2020

This episode of The Storytelling Lab features Amanda Cazzolla, Director of Marketing at Reinvestment Partners. Amanda enrolled in my storytelling coaching sessions awhile back, and later created an incredibly successful crowdfunding campaign from the ground up! This episode is perfect for beginners who want to hear about the evolution of a great storytelling journey from beginning to end.

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A few months ago, I was contacted by a recent client of mine for story coaching.

Earlier in 2020, I had created a video for Reinvestment Partners, a nonprofit that provides housing counseling services (among many other programs) to over 900 families in North Carolina. One of their other programs, the Prescription Program, helped provide monthly stipends specifically for fresh vegetables and produce.

My company, Six Second Stories, produced a short documentary following one of the program’s recipients.

But now, Amanda Cazzolla, the Director of Marketing was reaching out to me to help them in a new way.

Reinvestment Partners, like many organizations, had suffered a loss of funding due to the Coronavirus pandemic.

On top of that, the people that they needed to serve had grown in number exponentially with an impending housing crisis.

And to make things worse, most of the work they did was in person with their clients and now their offices were closed because of Covid-19.

Their team had found a solution - a webform that allowed clients to enter their information and upload documents easily online.

But with their loss of funding, they couldn’t afford to implement the software.

Amanda had an idea.

Though she’d never run a crowdfunding campaign before, she thought it might be the answer to their problems.

She understood that it was a tough time to be asking for money, but had faith in their community and the former clients they’d helped get back on their feet.

One thing she did know, however, was that in order to make the campaign successful, she had to tell a powerful story.

Amanda booked four coaching sessions with me over the course of the month leading up to the GoFundMe Charity (crowdfunding for nonprofits) campaign launch.

I walked her through how to shoot and edit the video herself, how to write the pitch for the campaign page, and how to keep people engaged over the 30 day campaign.

It worked.

Their goal was $12,500 and they raised $12,900!

But it wasn’t easy. It took a lot of work and very strategic decisions to accomplish their goal.

After we finished and gave each other virtual high-fives, I realized that Amanda had a heck of a story to tell now, so I invited her on The Storytelling Lab to share it.

I know that many listeners out there might be considering a crowdfunding campaign and may be experiencing some of the same struggles that Amanda did.

If you’ve tried crowdfunding in the past and failed, are thinking about launching a campaign, or need to raise money in another manner, this is the episode for you!

Some of the highlights of our conversation:

Starting and implementing a large crowdfunding campaign around technology improvement - “Angella’s Hope for Home”
How to start and navigate a crowdfunding campaign
How the housing crisis in March impacted her clientele
Helping people stay in their homes
Designing a web form because of Covid-19
Losing tons of funding in the housing counseling arena
Preparing to be able to serve clients during Covid-19
Participating in a state-wide mortgage relief fund
Getting creative to keep business going during 2020
Reaching out to the community for help
Contacting Rain for coaching sessions
Using storytelling strategies to help reach people and access their emotions
Deciding how much information to share during the campaign
Figuring out the best way to reach the target audience
Crafting a story to help get her message across
The challenges of creating a campaign story