Nonprofits face a tough funding landscape. They hope better storytelling will bring more donations

Key Points

• Nonprofits like Brilliant Cities are increasingly leveraging storytelling to attract donations in a challenging funding environment.
• The Elevate Prize Foundation launched its own documentary studio, Elevate Studios, to enhance storytelling for nonprofits, resulting in significant audience engagement with over 3 million views on its first series.
• Documentary storytelling is becoming essential for nonprofits, with experts emphasizing the importance of connecting their narratives to larger global initiatives, such as the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.
• Brilliant Cities experienced a surge in donations following its featured episode, highlighting how effective storytelling can lead to increased financial support amid competitive funding challenges.

MIAMI (AP) — Cindy Eggleton has always believed in the power of a story.

But the CEO and co-founder of Brilliant Cities, a Detroit-based early childhood development nonprofit that supports learning in underserved communities, never expected someone to tell hers. And definitely not in a sleek documentary with a slick soundtrack and plenty of images of other Detroit institutions, such as General Motors, Diana Ross, and the historic Fox Theatre.

“It’s never been about me,” said Eggleton, adding that participating in the “Nevertheless: The Women Changing the World” documentary series on YouTube was her way of honoring her late mother, Geraldine, who inspired her to speak out and help others in their community.

However, as they face an increasingly uncertain funding landscape, nonprofits are focusing more on storytelling in outreach to donors – both big and small – and raising production values for videos and podcasts.

“Storytelling is how we’re able to draw people in and get them to connect to a deeper truth about themselves or about the world or a problem that needs to be solved,” said Elevate Prize Foundation CEO Carolina Jayaram Garcia. “It’s connecting those issues back to you as a human and not saying, ‘Well, that’s their problem. That’s all the way over there.’ The story allows it to be human.”

Elevate Prize Foundation launches its own documentary studio

The foundation launched the production house Elevate Studios earlier this year to tell more of those stories, Jayaram Garcia said. “Nevertheless: The Women Changing the World,” Elevate Studios’ first series, has already generated more than 3 million views on YouTube and will debut its second season in the summer of 2026.

“It’s been incredible to see the growth we’ve had on YouTube and how it’s resonated so quickly with so many people,” Jayaram Garcia said. “We know we’re on to something here.”

Philanthropic support of storytelling has been ongoing for decades, mostly through donors funding documentary projects. Open Society Foundations created the Soros Documentary Fund in 1996 before the Sundance Institute took it over in 2002, with the George Soros-backed nonprofit’s continued monetary support. The Ford Foundation formalized its funding plans in 2011, creating its JustFilms program that still supports 25-30 documentary films annually. Earlier this month, Firelight Media, a New York-based nonprofit supporting documentary filmmakers of color, launched the Firelight Fund, which will offer directors $50,000 grants for their projects.

But Lance Gould, founder and CEO of media strategy firm Brooklyn Story Lab, says what Elevate Prize Foundation and others are doing is different. He says it reflects both technological improvements that have lowered the cost of documentary storytelling and the rise of social media, which allows nonprofits to interact with donors directly.

“Being able to tell your story well is paramount,” said Gould, whose firm works with nonprofits to help them produce their own story-driven content. “But storytelling is not only about reaching viewers, it’s also about having the right message for the right viewers.”

He suggests that nonprofits connect their work to larger initiatives like the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals — an ambitious list of 17 efforts from eliminating extreme poverty and hunger to guaranteeing every child a quality secondary education by 2030 — to attract more attention and support.

How storytelling can strengthen connection

Gould, who was previously executive editor of The Huffington Post and editor in chief of The Boston Phoenix, said “everyone can be their own media company at this point.”

That’s a point Nicole Bronzan, vice president of communications and content for the Council on Foundations, hopes is not lost in the push for more storytelling.

“We don’t want people to feel that they have to make big technological investments in order to tell better stories,” Bronzan said. “We wouldn’t want anyone to feel like they have to have a big fancy studio, but certainly the news that folks are investing in storytelling is great for us and for the whole sector.”

In a Council on Foundations report released last year, “ A New Voice for Philanthropy: How Deeper Stories and Clearer Language Can Build Trust,” researchers, including Bronzan, reported that people had positive attitudes toward foundations, but most didn’t really understand how foundations worked. Bronzan said stories that provide more transparency about how donations are used and how those decisions are made help connect people to a nonprofit and its work.

“If you’re telling those stories,” she said, “I can only imagine that people will be more inclined to open up their pocketbooks and say, ‘Oh, OK, these are causes that need my support.’”

Documentary sparks donations

So far, that has been the case for Brilliant Cities, which saw an increase in donations after Eggleton’s episode debuted on YouTube.

“We have a funder who wants to increase his gift from $7,000 to $100,000,” said Eggleton, whose nonprofit turns a neighborhood’s vacant homes into community centers with family services ranging from tutoring to mental health support groups. She said new donors have also reached out. “It’s kind of incredible.”

Though Brilliant Cities doesn’t rely on federal funding for its services, Eggleton said government aid cuts have made a tough funding environment even tougher because the competition for non-governmental donations becomes even tougher.

“Everybody’s being told what’s being taken away,” she said. “People are pulling at grant officers and individuals with stock market gains. I think it’s more than the funding, though. I think it’s about really recognizing how the world already feels so disconnected and now feels even more so.”

Storytelling, Eggleton said, helps reduce that. By focusing on female changemakers, Elevate Studios makes an even stronger point, she said, adding she’s been quoting Spanish poet Antonio Machado — “There is no path/We make the path by walking” — as she explains the power of the series.

“This is the time that we really do need to figure out how we build empathy through stories and not necessarily saying, ‘You’re wrong or you’re right,” she said. “You just show the world what can be and what should be.”

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Associated Press coverage of philanthropy and nonprofits receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content. For all of AP’s philanthropy coverage, visit https://apnews.com/hub/philanthropy.