From Ashes to Growth: How Engaging Content Changes Everything

The reduction of the little NSW town of Cobargo to ashes was one of many tragic flashpoints for Australians during the recent Black Summer. What many didn’t know at the time though, was that this same fire had also decimated Cobargo Wildlife Sanctuary – one of the very last wildlife refuges in the region.

As the Grant’d team watched on in horror from their homes in Sydney and Adelaide as the fires tore through Cobargo and beyond, we were yearning to do so much more than just donate to bushfire appeals – but how  was the question burning in our minds.

So when Chantelle Barker – founder of One Girl and Be.Bangles – approached us for help on behalf of the Cobargo Wildlife Sanctuary’s owners Sara and Gary, we jumped at the chance. The Challenge Chantelle had bought a rough draft sharing the story behind Cobargo Wildlife Sanctuary’s destruction to the table, along with the goal of securing the media coverage and financial donations that would power the Sanctuary’s recovery.

After the briefing with Chantelle, we got to work doing what we do best – wordsmithing. Using the draft provided by Chantelle, our priority was to establish the story’s capacity to shine as a beacon for help even as the bushfire crisis rolled on.

The Outcome

What came to pass was not something that neither the Grant’d team nor our client could have predicted.

Within days of establishing a Facebook page and leveraging the content we had prepared, the story of Cobargo Wildlife Sanctuary’s need had achieved national and global reach.

Through the attention generated, the Sanctuary was able to secure:

• Significant media coverage across both independent and major outlets, including Channel 9 and ABC Radio National.

• 5,900+ likes and 6,100+ followers on Facebook – all organic

• Numerous donations from national and international donors totaling $100,000 through GoFundMe

• Numerous donations of time and resources from the public in support of rebuilding efforts

• Multiple partnerships with high profile groups such as Green Heroes, US-based animal welfare advocates and death metal band ‘Cattle Decapitation’, and Team Rubicon.

Having exceeded the fundraising target by an overwhelming amount, early February saw the closing of the GoFundMe page, with the funds enabling Sanctuary owners Sara and Gary to rebuild a recovery enclosure for the rehabilitation of injured kangaroos, plant numerous native trees to replace those lost in the fires, and convert shipping containers into on-site living quarters.

At the time of writing, the rebuilding efforts continue, with the Sanctuary now also home to a mob of 18+ kangaroos who firmly represent the seeds of something that will become far bigger than that which was lost.

This result is made all the more exceptional when you consider that the Sanctuary was previously little known outside of their regional location, had not established social media channels until the aftermath of the fires, and was going up against high profile bushfire fundraisers such as the $52+ million Facebook campaign led by Celeste Barber.

Why it worked… and why you should try it

 This outcome triggered by just 758 words clearly showcases the power of engaging content  – something that is becoming increasingly relevant to non-profits in a highly competitive fundraising marketplace.

This is even more so in recent times, with a growing number of donors and grant makers shifting their funding priorities in favour of bushfire recovery efforts, and increasingly negative press around exactly how funding is being used and distributed by funding bodies and charities.

As a result, we are now seeing countless non-profit organisations beginning to struggle under the strain of increasingly limited financial sources. In this challenging climate then, your organisation’s chances of financial survival are strongly tied to its capacity to become heard .

And without question, harnessing and leveraging engaging content is one of the keys to solving this challenge.

How you can write engaging content

Here’s a little secret – you don’t have to be a professional copywriter to create engaging content! Although the story that we created now reads vastly differently to the story initially bought to us, Chantelle’s rough draft had already established the building blocks for engaging content. All we had to do was use it as a base… and here’s how we did it.

1. Understand your audience

Since this story was going to be distributed to media outlets, it would need to read as a human interest newspaper story that could be immediately published by time-poor journalists.

How we did it:  By adopting a journalist style of writing, we created a piece that carefully integrated facts throughout the copy. Given that the original draft presented to us was heavily based on dialogue between Sara and the interviewer to tell the story, we also selected the most meaningful quotes and wove them throughout the narrative in a way that heightened the impact of the story as a whole.

2. Provide the story with context

With the majority of a potentially national audience never having visited or heard of the Sanctuary before, imagery would be critical to creating a piece which readers could quickly resonate with.

How we did it:  By adding an opening paragraph that described the who, what, where and why of Cobargo Wildlife Sanctuary, we enabled readers to locate themselves into the crisis and visualise the story as they progressed through it. At flashpoints throughout the story, we also encouraged readers to continue locating themselves into the story by adding descriptions of what was being experienced by Sara and Gary.

3. Inject Humanity and Emotion

Given that emotion is what drives people to take the extra step of donating, enabling readers to establish an emotive attachment to the Sanctuary would be key. Although our insertion of context was the first step towards this, more needed to be done.

How we did it:  Following the opening paragraph, we added a simple statement that clearly placed the Sanctuary under threat yet required the reader to continue on to find out how and why; and what they could do about it. Throughout the story, we then continued to engage the reader by using a selective combination of emotive and descriptive language at the same time as staying true to the journalist style. Because after all, emotions can be provoked even in the absence of emotive language.

4. Control the flow of storytelling

 All good stories should have a narrative structure, specifically designed to lead the reader through the emotional journey that you want them to experience. In the case, the goal was to allow readers to walk with Sara through the highs and lows of her journey in a way that would leave them with a strong desire to help.

How we did it:  We restructured the story to clearly follow the classic plot structure which, after establishing context, leads readers up a hill of suspense to Sara and Gary’s crisis point and then guides them back down to the ongoing reality for the Sanctuary. Instead of giving the story a full resolution as is the narrative norm, we ended with a small kernel of hope which readers could grab onto, and a way in which they could actively nurture that hope for both themselves and the Sanctuary.

5. Seek Clarity and Brevity

And finally, clarity and brevity are absolutely key to holding the attention of readers long enough for them to reach the end of the story that you want to tell them.

How we did it:  Through an intensive editing process, we worked to ensure that every sentence had a specific role in the story as a whole, and that no unnecessary words were used. Shorter sentences were favoured over longer ones. Not only did this increase readability, but it also enabled many snippets of the story to later be repurposed as Facebook posts that went on to generate further attention and support for the Sanctuary.

These are just the first of many techniques that you could leverage on your journey of creating engaging content. And trust us when we say this, engaging content belongs everywhere  – whether it’s in your next grant application, tax appeal, funding proposal, or even your social media posts. Mastering the art of engaging content to purposefully target those who hold the purse strings will unquestionably elevate your fundraising efforts and help catalyse the change you seek… just like it did for Cobargo Wildlife Sanctuary.