How The Smith Family is evolving their storytelling
There's a lot of fluff surrounding purpose-driven marketers, but it takes real grit to tease your story out of the myriads of charities and NFPs.
On this episode of The CMO Show, Mark is joined by Lisa Allan, Head of Fundraising at The Smith Family, who talks competitive landscape, the value of measurement, and the strategic role of storytelling for charities.
Economic headwinds, project-based funding, social shifts, natural disasters – charities operate in the kind of complex landscape relished by none, but experienced by all.
With all that going on, what key areas of focus will move your marketing needle and cut through a crowded sector? What makes your charity different, and what are the strategies you can add to your toolkit to help communicate that to your audience?
Lisa highlights how a shift to strength-based advertising has helped alleviate the tensions that come with emotive stories.
"At The Smith Family, we were really able to look at our advertising and think about how we could communicate more effectively to achieve much longer-term goals - rather than just getting the support for this campaign or getting the sponsor on for a child," Lisa said.
“By looking at it through a long-term lens as opposed to short-term, you would actually put weight on different elements of your story as you’re telling it, or your advertising.”
According to Lisa, integrity and applying an ethical lens go hand in hand with the sensitive nature of the work.
"The key frame that we use for our ethical lens is putting ourselves in people’s shoes. From our perspective, from that integrity and that ethical standpoint, child protection also is extremely important."
“Any of our materials, any of our communications, need to be suitable to all audiences, and those audience lenses you would flip between what the organisation needs, what a potential donor, sponsor, or partner might need, and what the family and the students that we support might need.”
Combining storytelling with spokespeople, community engagement, and measurement, is one way to create clarity from noise and make a real impact.
Jump right in and learn how to incorporate storytelling into your own marketing mix.
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Credits
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The CMO Show Production Team
Producer - Pamela Obeid
Audio Engineers – Ed Cheng & Daniel Marr
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Transcript:
Mark Jones:
Like most industries, the fundraising industry has been overhauled in recent years. Gone are the days when selling made up the bulk of a fundraiser’s job. Now, it’s all about combining real-life stories with data to create an impact. But there’s no shortage of good causes to support these days. So how do you cut through an oversaturated market? How can you communicate your point of difference to your audience?
[Music]
Mark Jones:
Hello, Mark Jones here, thanks for joining us on The CMO Show. The CMO Show is a podcast made for and by marketing leaders, created by ImpactInstitute, and proudly supported by Adobe. Now, we’ve been talking about purpose-driven marketing for years. It sounds glamourous, or worthy, and it is to an extent, but the truth is it takes real grit to find and tell a story that truly different from all the different charities and NFPs out there. Fortunately, our guest today has that challenge sorted.
I’m very excited to introduce Lisa Allen, Head of Fundraising at The Smith Family, an iconic charity in Australia. Lisa has more than 25 years of experience in marketing and fundraising - 18 of those years at The Smith Family. We chatted about the importance of using storytelling in the marketing mix. So let’s jump in to hear about how The Smith Family has grown from humble beginnings in welfare support, to scale up and transform around an education agenda. So let’s dive in.
[Music]
Mark Jones:
Lisa, thanks for joining us.
Lisa Allan:
Thank you Mark, pleased to be here.
Mark Jones:
I’ve got to say too, it's always fun to meet another San Franciscan. I was a San Franciscan for three years, so the connection there is always fun for me. Tell me about the journey to Australia and give us the career snapshot.
Lisa Allan:
Yeah, no, definitely. So yes, I'm a Californian and I like to proudly state I'm a Northern Californian, so grew up above the line of San Francisco, was there, so spent first 10 years of my life in the Bay Area and my parents see changed after that. We actually moved north of the Napa Valley, and once I graduated high school and went to uni in Northern Central California, actually landed back in San Francisco. So I've been working in not-for-profits for over 20 years here in Australia. I've had the fortunate privilege of working at both WWF Australia, which was a global brand but here in Australia, so obviously got to work to localise, I suppose, and really understand what it was like to immerse myself in the Australian environment as a newcomer. Absolutely fabulous and really enjoyed my six, seven years there. Was able to transform their individual giving program, which was quite exciting at the time, and really set them on a growth trajectory.
Mark Jones:
Lisa, one of the fun things about your time in Australia is 18 years at The Smith Family. Just on that alone, what keeps you at any organisation for 18 years?
Lisa Allan:
I often say it's been like three different roles or three different jobs because I've had three different CEOs all with very different focus, I think, and impact on the organisation. So if you don't know much about The Smith Family, The Smith Family has been helping Australians for well over a hundred years. And across that time, we had been working to deliver in a range of ways, and what I'd say is really probably our first 60 to 70 years were built around welfare supports. So a lot of that was handouts.
We also had hospitals. We had refugee centres and things like that. What we realised it was same generations of family keep coming back to The Smith Family. So we were a band aid, we were providing a handout, not a hand up. We're about scale and impact now. So what's it look like to truly optimise our delivery based on all of the challenges that we see going on in the local environments at the moment and what are we doing to get even better, I think, as an organisation and how do we take our programmes to 100,000 kids or 400,000 kids, whatever the case may be, because we're really only limited by our internal expertise and those that will support us to get us there. So it's been a very inspiring journey.
Mark Jones:
And in that time, you've gone from national marketing manager to head of marketing to head of fundraising. Tell me about that journey. Do you think of yourself as primarily a marketer? Do you think of yourself now more in that fundraising external role? What's that professional identity that guides you?
Lisa Allan:
Yeah, no, definitely. It is a very interesting question to think about. So I mean, I am a marketer. I'm a marketer and I'm marketing a service, I suppose. So I think when you think about it, not-for-profits don't exchange a tangible product, we exchange a feel-good factor. What does that look like? So from a fundraising perspective, we're having to then leverage all those goodwill pieces and really pull that together, but think about our audiences and think about what are the different audiences that we have.
So across my time at The Smith Family, and I, like you said earlier, started as a campaign marketer, so I was in charge of our appeals and the appeals that most listeners probably would see us in markets. So we have a Christmas appeal, we have a tax time appeal, and we do a back-to-school appeal. Makes a lot of sense. But what I've been able to do across my tenure is just start to increase my responsibilities end-to-end with our supporter base, and so it's with those that come behind we invite in to help us with our great work.
Essentially, I've taken responsibility start to end across that supporter base. So that's when you see the Head of Fundraising exists from everything we send out into market to invite supporters into the organisation, all the way through to how we manage that donation, ensure a receipt gets sent out and make sure people understand the impacts they have, remittance reports for our partners.
Mark Jones:
How would you say that your experience helps us understand the changing role of fundraisers? Because if I can reflect back what I've heard, there's sales and marketing, there's brand, and there's the storytelling piece, and then there's also interpreting the data. Now, has that always been the role of a fundraiser? Because if I go back 10 years, my perception, and correct me if I'm wrong, was that it was more in that direct sales kind of space, right?
Lisa Allan:
Charity marketing fundraising 15 years ago really did shine a light on a problem and in so many words help us or the child or the animal or the environment gets it, what is it that we need to do. So really heavy emotion I think is what we were using to convert and sell. What you've seen is a real transition as people have ... As organisations, I think as we've matured, as the market's matured, and what you have is probably our stakeholders or our supporters or our customers getting a lot more savvy and really wanting to see a lot more about the impact that charity are making, not just bringing us along in some of that highly emotional advertising that goes on.
Mark Jones:
I was chatting with your current CEO, Doug Taylor, at an event recently and I said, "Excuse the way I'm positioning this, but I quite often see Smith Family ads on the back of a bus, and sometimes the kid's happy and sometimes the kid's sad. Which one works better just from a curious marketing perspective?"
Lisa Allan:
So the viewer has to have some stake in that story with us. So what I'd say if I'm putting a fundraising hat on is not necessarily, so not necessarily sad kids, but you want a kid that actually is relatable, is proud, is able to achieve. So what we're doing with our advertising often is instead of only highlighting, and this talks to that, what we were just talking about, that evolution, I guess if I looked back 10 years ago, the advertising we were creating as a team was actually highlighting problem and leaving the tension with our customer there. So their donation helped that child solve a problem and they were isolated, they were missing out, they were left behind because of poverty.
We've now actually shifted focus from the impact on the child to the fact that poverty is actually the issue. So poverty is the challenge that we collectively need to help solve. So what we're trying to do is not only to highlight that almost poverty is our villain in the story now, and what we're doing is we're able, as I guess those that who are able, to support us, are able to remove the obstacles that these families experiencing poverty experience so they can gain those skills to change their life.
Mark Jones:
Absolutely. And you've shifted the focus from the child to the issue. I'll let you know, Doug said they actually both work well in similar ways, and I don't know whether he's just being diplomatic, but he said, "The sad kid works and the happy kid works." I think what's always fascinated me about this most sincerely is when you look at the emotive component of Smith Family storytelling and advertising, in particular, it's quite confronting and challenging because it forces me to stop and think about both the issue and the child. So tell me about how you approach the strategic problem of choosing emotion?
Lisa Allan:
Yes, and we've done a piece of work probably, I want to say, about two and a half, three years ago that actually did look at this reframe, and we've purposely ... It's interesting, the sector calls it a bit of a shift to strength-based advertising. I think if you were to look at The Smith Family against some of the more traditional charities, you might actually find that nuance. I wouldn't go 100% it talks to the smiling image or the happy image of the child. If we were to play only in that space, I think we wouldn't get the traction in the support that we receive.
So there is a bit of a play, I suppose, or a balance we need to take with that stuff, but we were able to look at our advertising and actually start to think about how we could communicate more effectively to achieve much longer term goals than just getting the support for this campaign or getting the sponsor on for a child. I think if you look at it with a lens that is the short-term need versus the long-term need, you actually would put weight on different elements of your story as you're telling it or your advertising.
We are in Australia and the families, the brilliant families and the talented kids that we support are also here. So we wanted to work together to help solve these problems, also make sure that we were stopping that blaming discourse that might go on. You see it across social, "Why are they having kids if they can't afford them?" And it's often not the fault of a family or a child that they're in this situation. And then ultimately, what we really wanted to do was to promote the understanding of poverty as a societal issue with a collective solution and the fact that our programs have actually bottled that really nicely and it's not the only solution, but I think it's a very attractive and very impactful solution that we're here to offer to our customers to help us get behind and give more support to more families. So we then took that into the way we storytell and we essentially use a couple of different narratives, one is that is human potential now.
So when you see our ads in our advertising, it really talks to the fact that poverty can prevent some children from reaching their full potential. So what is it that we can be doing to remove those obstacles so they get to participate fully? The other one's around shared goals. So again, just an appeal to our goals or our aspirations that I think generally we share as Australians in a society, and essentially, those things that like we talked a little bit before, but having a fair go or a just society and what does that mean to give everyone an equal chance, and we need to do that to help families that are low SES in Australia because they have a whole bunch of limits and obstacles to being able to achieve the way other families can.
Mark Jones:
Tell me about the integrity and ethical side of how you think about the work because I really like the way that you've just phrased and described the strategic framework for the story. You have an ethical lens too? How does that work?
Lisa Allan:
Probably the key frame that we use for our ethical lens is putting ourselves in their shoes. So what would that look like? So any of our materials, any of our communications needs to be suitable to all audiences, and those audience lenses you would flip between what the organisation needs, what a potential donor or partner might need to what the family and the students that we support might need. So how do we build that and what does that look like? So I think from my perspective, those three are paramount, and we'd be definitely using each of those lenses before we sign off on anything that we're doing. I think from my perspective that integrity and the ethical standpoint, we know child protection also is extremely important to us. Our programs are set up in a way to ensure that there is anonymity at its best for our families as they need to be able to get on with their lives. Our sponsorship product does talk about a real child and you get a profile of a real child, but it follows all those child protection checks and balances and privacy checks and balances in the background.
Mark Jones:
You mentioned impact, which at ImpactInstitute is probably our favourite word. I want to pick up on that because something I have really admired for a long time is the fact that you guys have an impact framework.
Mark Jones:
You've taken this really seriously and you're doing some amazing stuff in terms of measuring and reporting on the long-term sustained positive change you're having on these people and families and just give us a quick overview of your impact framework. What is it and what does it mean?
Lisa Allan:
Definitely so we know impact creates trust, so for me, that's absolutely paramount. But for the organisation, like I said, we are data nerds at some level, so have collected data first for centuries, really.
Mark Jones:
Huzzah!
Lisa Allan:
I know. I love it. I love it. So we actually evaluate on three levels. So we run a range of programs, a range of programs that are there to enable children to fully participate at school. We're tracking each of those programs. So those programs have then the fidelity behind them to better understand those participating in the program if they've gotten the aim, the objective of the program. We then look at short-term results that are looking at improved numeracy, improved literacy rates, digital inclusion rates, things like that that we can show those programs feed into. And then there's a longer-term view that we take so the advancement, the attendance, the tertiary continuation, as well as then going on to further employment, volunteering or the workforce. So we then can track over the course. The whole idea of Smith Family support is we get in early, we start early. So if we can get a kid as they're coming into kindergarten and we're supporting them throughout their education, they're going to be much more likely to attend. So hand over our heart, we know the dollars we're investing are getting to those families to remove those barriers of poverty and see them excel and gain those skills to change their own life. So this is not about us giving them anything, it's about enabling a child to be the best they can be.
Mark Jones:
What I love about that is that you're using the data to improve the services and the approaches that you're taking to that work, the programs and so on. So that's really key, but how you measure, you mentioned that you're finding out from the students, are we just talking traditional surveys? I mean, just briefly, how do you technically get the data? Because we're talking about kids here, this is firstly, not easy, and secondly, there's all the usual privacy constraints.
Lisa Allan:
100%. So it's interesting to think about The Smith Family because we essentially are a national, well, we are a national charity, but we have the largest national datasets of children's education or attendance at school and part of every partnership with the family, and that's the way we work. So we are in partners together to help enable that family and that student. Our programs are definitely focused on students, but we have lots of supports for families as well. And in that partnership, one of the things that we collect in exchange is information about a child's attendance. Obviously with our programs, we're able to track everything from attendance all the way through to a full engagement in a program or not. We then do surveys at the end of each of those programs. And what we're doing is collecting that data into one big national database. So each child has a unique identifier. We're able to use that information and then do data collection and essentially data pooling. So it is amazing to see just the power of data and being able to focus efforts and energy when things might go off the rails for a family, and they might've had a death in the family or lost a job or needed to move, and how we then can work with the schools to provide the support that we can provide to help them through some of those things.
[Music]
Mark Jones:
Data is a big conversation here at The CMO Show, and for good reason. It’s a driving force for CMOs, of course. Without your data, we risk relying on gut feel and experience alone – and that’s not enough. In Lisa’s case, it’s interesting to think about how The Smith Family is using data. And I wanted to how they’re using data to drive their storytelling.
[Music]
Mark Jones:
The next question of course is, how do you use all of that data in your storytelling?
Lisa Allan:
Spouting the facts is pretty boring when it comes to a story or when it comes to any sort of communication. So what I'd say is stories actually bring all this stuff to life. We have over 3.3 million Australians living in poverty, and that includes 1.2 million young people. So I could talk about 1.2 million, but that doesn't mean much, but if I put a story behind that and actually show you one child's story, and our current appeal is a digital essentials appeal. So it's actually talking about a child Mila who is just starting high school without a computer and how hard that is to start. Computers and technology, especially as you get into high school, are an essential item that is required. So we can bring that to life in talking about what that means for Mila without the computer where all her peers have the computer. We talk about the stress mum goes under because she can't provide that for her child. And what we then have is Smith Family provides a scholarship and the scholarship does have a financial component to it that can be used to purchase school essentials and things like for younger children that might be a uniform so they look like all the other kids and they can fit in and feel like they belong, they can fully engage in their education because they're not able to do those things if they don't have all those things they need. For Mila, it's the laptop as she hits high school.
Mark Jones:
How many strategic insights go into the choice of Mila? So for example, the problem set, the emotions, all of the data that comes together around maybe the interventions that it required. You hear what I'm saying? Because it seems to me the choice of Mila is extraordinarily strategic.
Lisa Allan:
Each of our pieces of fundraising are centred around a real case study. So we're fortunate enough to have 65,000 kids on scholarship or our child sponsorship program. So we've got 65,000 stories essentially that we can lean on. And what we're looking for, ensuring that we want to show the diversity of the approach, so our families have huge, the representation, I suppose, over 70% of our families are single parent families. So we want some connection points.
I think what I'd say is we often talk about deep human truth being one of those connection points. So what is that deep human truth that we're looking at as we start to form up a case study or a story? Because if we can get that connection with viewer or customer, we're going to have traction from the get-go because they can see themselves in that. So definitely looking for deep human truth. We need to think about then the channels that we're using because we should be composing our stories based on the needs of channels. The needs of a direct mail pack are very different than the needs of a LinkedIn post, are very different from a phone call that might be happening to talk to a potential supporter. So how are we collecting that totality of experience in story to make sure that we're feeding our stories appropriately or sharing our stories in the bite-sized morsels and pieces to continue engagement with the customers and the supporters that we are talking to?
Mark Jones:
That is fascinating. Tell me about then the next piece, which is amplifying the story. How do you take it from insight to execution and then sharing it on any and all channels? What's the approach that you take there?
Lisa Allan:
What I think of first is who am I talking to? So I remember starting at The Smith Family and I said, "Who are our donors? If we sat them around a table, what do they look like?" So we stay quite close to that information. We know who we're talking to, we know different audiences by channel or if we're targeting a campaign. That's probably the first place we start with that amplification, so how can we be fulfilling their needs and how can we be fulfilling based on where they consume and the media that they have. So what I'd say is we need to understand what moves and what motivates and inspires them and find that personal connection. And we often hear people playing back at us kind of, "I was that child. I know that child or I've seen that child." So that lens tends to help us think about the framing, especially by audience types. I think being quite authentic too and not overly engineered or polished. We are a not-for-profit. We're not going to be the most beautiful video that you put together. Stories, we need them to represent the authenticity of the families that we are here to represent. And then other thing, I think it's around ensuring that what we're pulling together resonates. So is it who I am and who I want it to be or even is it representing people like us doing things like this? So we're belonging to a community of like-minded people and we're creating that impact together to amplify that message and feel like there's a lot more groundswell and support behind this, and my gift, my contribution to this is actually going to make a tangible difference and shift that dial. I think there's something about the passion and the credibility of an organisation and demonstrating that we can stand behind our work and our outcomes. We talked about emotion before, but I think we don't want to overdo it or we don't want to stage it. So I think the fact that every piece of communication has a true story behind it, and hopefully we represent that with the integrity that our viewers or listeners or supporters, whoever it might be, are consuming those things.
Mark Jones:
Effectively you're going to rely on peer-to-peer sharing word of mouth to get that amplification or is it really just that's the overall strategy because, of course, part of my question is around, well, how much money do you spend on advertising versus your channel mix, right? Because I think there's probably a couple of intersecting ideas there.
Lisa Allan:
Correct. So what I do know is I can say to you that the Australian charitable public, so those that give, it's a very personal decision as to why you give. Often, things are driven by experience. My own personal experience and my social circles might or might not know all that detail. It might or might not relate to them. Might be something, like I said, mum or dad passing away with breast cancer or cancer of some sort or something like that, so very personal. So I think the word of mouth piece is quite an interesting one. I think where you get the word of mouth is where we're able to connect. We talked about it just a little bit before, but when you connect those groups and you get into those like-minded communities, you just see that take-off like wildfire and the conversations and the passion that comes in and the excitement of being able to contribute and talk to someone that is like me because I couldn't have found you otherwise often in my own social circle possibly, but in a broader sense. So word of mouth is super important, especially if we get the right people together and can get them influencing. But it is definitely not a strategy to rely on because if I were to ask a supporter to get another supporter, I think most of that would be wildly unsuccessful, to be quite honest. So it is about then how we find our advocates is what I'd say to you, so where are we going to find those people that are truly behind the work that we do. What we find is we, and this is not going to be a massive surprise if I was sharing a secret, but those involved in the education space like to support us. So you have people, teachers and people in administration roles are involved in university or some sort of further education piece. They're the people. People are partners. So we've got a number of corporate partners that support us. Their team members, very on board, and often what you'll find in a corporate partnership is the fact that sometimes that preference to support us is actually coming from the team members. So you've got advocates inside the business that are helping to share a story.
Mark Jones:
Lisa, we are out of time, but just in closing, what would you say is the best insight that you'd love to share with the listener, the CMO, head of marketing through the lens of the approach you've taken to your work? What do you think is the most important approach that you've taken consistently that's led to the best results?
Lisa Allan:
I'm going to say growth mindset. So we can always do one better, right? So regardless of the massive amounts of effort that goes into any one piece of communications or marketing or campaign or piece, how can we make it better next time? So this idea that we're constantly learning from our activity, we're asking our customers or our prospects or our supporters how we can improve? We're analysing our metrics, we're looking at our performance, and we're aiming for the slightly higher star the next time. What's that look like and where can we go next and how we as an organisation, how we as a team can continue to do better? So it's just that constant curiosity and desire. And let's remember, marketing is a constantly moving beat. Customers are moving. We've got cost of living crisis happening on us at the moment. There's a whole bunch of changes and pressures. How can we continue to do better every day and learn from where we are and have a little bit of a vision to the future but make sure that we're doing the best we can in the moment?
Mark Jones:
Lisa, that is fantastic. I'm a big fan of the growth mindset. Thank you so much for sharing your story. I've taken away so many amazing insights, and I just feel really inspired, encouraged by the work you and the team are doing. So keep it up.
Lisa Allan:
Thank you for allowing me the opportunity.
Mark Jones:
It's such a pleasure. I'm sure the listeners will be cheering you guys on with a new level of energy. So once again, Lisa Allan, thank you so much for joining us on The CMO Show.
Lisa Allan:
I appreciate it. Thanks so much, Mark.
[Music]
Mark Jones:
That was Lisa Allen, Head of Fundraising at The Smith Family. Her final takeaway is one that really resonates with me – a growth mindset and the idea that you can always be better. The other big idea that came through was Lisa is so passionate about her work.
It’s really encouraging to hear her story, and of course, The Smith Family as a whole. Despite the difficulties it’s a really great reminder that we can always go one better, and keep improving.
You’ve been listening to The CMO Show, created by ImpactInstitute and supported by Adobe, and I’m your host, Mark Jones. We’ll catch you for the next one – thanks for tuning in.