Building and Scaling a Nonprofit, Part One: Storytelling

Most people think building a movement starts with a brilliant idea. It doesn’t. It starts with a problem you can’t stop thinking about. Then comes the hard part: convincing other people to care enough to join you.

Yes, building and scaling a nonprofit takes passion and perseverance, but that’s not enough. You also need practical leadership skills and smart strategy — these can both be learned, practiced, and strengthened over time. Like any muscle, the more you use them, the stronger they become.

I didn’t have any of those muscles when I started Moms Demand Action. I wasn’t a professional organizer. I wasn’t a fundraiser. I wasn’t a lobbyist or a political insider.

I was a former communications executive and a mother whose soul was insulted by the Sandy Hook School shooting and frustrated that the voices of ordinary Americans seemed absent from the national conversation. I had every reason to believe I wasn’t qualified. And yet, at my laptop at my kitchen table, I started a Facebook page that would eventually grow into the largest grassroots gun safety organization in the country.

Along the way, I made just about every mistake you can make. I had to learn, often in real time, how to recruit people, communicate a compelling vision, raise money, build trust, navigate conflict, and create partnerships that multiplied our impact.

People often ask me, “How did you build Moms Demand Action?” But I think that the better question is: “What are the skills that allow ordinary people to build extraordinary organizations?”

Because those skills aren’t unique to gun violence prevention. They’re useful whether you’re starting a nonprofit, launching a community initiative, growing a business with a social mission, leading a local campaign, or simply trying to rally people around an idea you believe in.

In this series, we’re going to focus on three strategic pillars that are crucial to the success of your mission. I’ll be sharing how to develop a powerful brand narrative, how to fundraise with confidence, and how to build strategic partnerships.

Every successful organization begins with a story. Not a strategic plan, or a logo, or a mission statement.

It begins with a story.

Before anyone donates, volunteers, partners with you, or shares your work, they have to understand who you are, the problem you are trying to solve, and why you’re the one to solve it.

People don’t join organizations because they’re impressed by facts. They join because they’re moved by stories. That’s true whether you’re talking to one potential donor over coffee, speaking to a room of 500 people, posting on Instagram, in a podcast interview, or recruiting volunteers.

If people can’t explain your organization after hearing you speak for one minute, your story isn’t clear enough yet.