Ep. 112: Beyond Formality: How Breaking the Fourth Wall Can Revolutionize Your Donor Relationships
EPISODE 112
Beyond Formality: How Breaking the Fourth Wall Can Revolutionize Your Donor Relationships
About the Episode:
Did you catch last week’s episode on ditching formality? I'm so excited to dive a little deeper into the concept today with the idea of breaking the fourth wall and why it's so crucial, especially as we approach the critical year-end fundraising season. Breaking the fourth wall is all about ditching the formality and inviting your audience, your donors, to be a true part of the narrative.
By creating these interactive, authentic moments, you can build deeper, more lasting relationships, not just transactional interactions. You’ll hear about examples from TV, film, and businesses that have mastered this approach, showing how it earns trust, boosts organic reach, and ultimately drives higher donations and retention. You’ll learn how to identify ways you can incorporate breaking the fourth wall into your upcoming campaigns and communications, whether it's a vulnerable email, a behind-the-scenes social post, or getting your team and advocates involved. The key is taking that first step to make your donors feel truly connected to your mission. Ready?
Topics:
What it means to break the fourth wall, which is most often seen in entertainment, but how you can apply it to your nonprofit
How breaking the fourth wall increases authenticity, story creation, and extends your reach to build deeper relationships
Examples from Toms, Charity Water, Patagonia, and more on how they’re breaking the fourth wall really well
The collateral benefits (support, engagement, participation, etc.) you may experience when breaking the fourth wall
Action steps you can take today to start the process of breaking the fourth wall
Think you’ve reached out to “everyone” in your network? Out of ideas to get noticed and get funded? Generate leads for your nonprofit or social impact business: https://www.splendidcourses.com/prospect
Christina’s Favorite Takeaways:
“Breaking the fourth wall is how you build relationships, not transactions.”
“Authenticity beats perfection any day of the week.”
“Breaking the fourth wall extends your reach through real voices of and around your organization, allowing them to exist and to be spotlighted.”
“When you use this process, you're going to naturally see more engagement, more social shares, more forwards, because people feel like they are a part of the conversation.”
“The power of one person feeling deeply connected to you is huge.”
Episode Resources:
Listen to last week’s episode – Driving Donor Action: Navigating 3 Phases of Campaign Growth
The Adventure Project Began Because I Got Fired by Becky Straw
FREE Resources from Splendid Consulting:
How to Work with Christina and Splendid Consulting:
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*Links may be affiliate links which means I may earn a commission at no cost to you.
Christina Edwards 00:27
Hello, my friends. I'm so excited to bring this topic to you today. This has been one that's been on my list for a while now, and I've been really researching and developing this idea of breaking the fourth wall, why it's so important, especially moving in to the fundraising year like moving into year end. Before I get into that, I want to share a couple of announcements and reminders. So inside my group, coaching program, the purpose and profit club, we're doing this work. We are creating donor movements, not transactions. And I want to take a moment just to talk about what that is. What does it mean to create a donor movement, and how can your organization actually start or grow a donor movement? This may be, this idea of getting people together and championing your cause, your end ditching that solo fundraising cycle where you're the only one, you and your ominous brand are the only ones trying to boost up visibility and funding. That's not what we're doing. So how can you create a movement? Let that idea percolate, and if you have questions, I want you to schedule a free game plan call with me. It's linked here in the notes. You can book a call with me, and we can talk about your game plan for year end and if the club is right for you. So inside the club, like I said, we've had so many organizations really work on like, what is the plan for year end and what does the next few months look like? So that we don't feel depleted and exhausted going into January, we actually feel like we did it. We hit the target this year. And not from this like frantic energy, but from this energy of like this year was like no other so that's what I want you to think about as we move into today's topic, which will tee up very, very nicely. So last week, we talked about the idea of ditching formality to really prime your audience. And when we think about audiences, we're thinking about donors. We're thinking about potential donors. These may be subscribers, followers, volunteers, champions, people in your world, people slightly outside of your world, maybe through friends of friends, colleagues, members. Right? How do we want to start to develop? How do you want to start to develop more rooted, more real, more authentic relationships with them? I uh, so breaking the fourth wall is something that we see a lot in TV and film. So if you've ever been to a theater performance, like what you see as you're watching them, you're watching these actors perform a musical, perform a play, they're on Broadway, they're singing, they're dancing, they're doing their thing, and you as the audience attendee, are sitting in a seat watching them. It's almost this idea of like an aquarium, right? There are behind a, you know, invisible sheet of glass, and you're watching them perform. You are not interacting with them, right? You are consuming the content that they put out. All right? So we see it in theater. We see it on TV, so occasionally, not all shows do this, but it's fun when they do. You'll see this idea of breaking the fourth wall. If you've watched the office, they did this really well. There would be these moments where Michael Scott would look straight at the camera, eyeballs right to you, the viewer, and like linger a little too long, give you a little wink, give you a little smirk or a joke, right? That's breaking the fourth wall. It's not just a theater trick, though, and I want to show you today why it's so important for you to start doing this now, and what it does like, what it creates for your audience when you do this. And by the way, like very few nonprofits are doing this, so you're going to stand out if you implement this fourth wall technique. So if you've ever been to an improv show, here's another example. So I showed you, like the Broadway example. Again, you're sitting in seats. You're just like sitting there watching. Now, what happens at an improv show. What do they do? The entire thing is breaking the fourth wall. They are literally interacting with you, the audience. They're saying, Give me a color, give me a place, right? And you're shouting out the answer. You're raising your hand. We need a volunteer. Come on stage. Think about how interactive that is. Okay? How. Can you make your stories, make your appeals, make your campaigns more interactive, and if you're like most people, you're like, Okay, we're not a theater company. We're not doing improv shows. I have no idea. Christina, stay tuned, because I'm going to share lots of examples to get your creative juices flowing. So recently, we're going to link to it. There was this viral, viral, viral moment online. I think it originally, originated on Instagram, but I'm sure it went everywhere, like the Today Show picked it up. I'm sure it was all over Tiktok too, like all the places now, there is a smallish real estate firm in the southeast, I want to say, like a Carolina, what happened to the tune of 77 million people seeing this single video is they headlined it asked my Gen Z employee to edit a Video for me, and this is what I got. Okay, so imagine a real estate agent. They've got this. This guy has a suit on, and there's a beautiful property behind him, and that's the headline. Immediately you're like, wait, what? What are they about to let us in on this is not your average property tour. And sure enough, it's not. So you watch the video and the Gen Z video editor, just put together a series of outtakes all in one of a just the real estate agent exhaling. So it's like 15 seconds of like size, exhales, eye rolls. It's hilarious. And why did 77 people, million people watch it? What's so great about that? Well, they're breaking the fourth wall. They're letting you in on a little something, like we're having a moment together that's funny and not so serious and not so buttoned up, right? It is literally interacting with the viewer, causing people to share it, causing people to DM it, to their friends, to again for like, news outlets, media to pick it up. Okay? So maybe it's a video where you just kind of ditch the formality, where you have an interactive conversation, where there's an outtake reel. Maybe it's even that. So what? Why break the fourth wall? Let's go through that, and then I'm gonna share some other really cool examples breaking the fourth wall is how you actually build relationships, not transactions. Think about it. How do you have a transactional relationship with a donor? Well, it's very much like Get Get out your credit card, you get a receipt back, and I'll see you next year, when we ask again, right? Very transactional versus reciprocal, building real connection in relationships, sending email newsletters that prompt responses, telling stories that people are prompted to share on their own networks without you even asking them, to the tune of this other video, right? When people are just compelled, they're like, Wow, this happens on social all the time. It happens on LinkedIn all the time, where one executive director might share a really personal story relating back to their mission, their organization. Suddenly we see Share, share, share, share, right? Breaking that fourth wall. It's not so formal. The next piece is it earns trust and loyalty, right? Authenticity beats perfection any day of the week. What's true here? What's true in that video, is, man. It reminded me of the first time I recorded a video and it was outtake city, right? And then, instead of it being such a problem, it's like Finding some lightness of levity in the imperfections, right? I Yeah, breaking the fourth wall allows you to tell stories that stick they're they're stickier. There's some marketing guru that talks about that, right? This idea of like you're creating a story when you do this that is interactive and stickier than something that is formulaic. Okay, you are inviting your audience to be a part of the narrative. Think about that improv example, right? Inviting them in or the the IG, 77 million views example, inviting people to comment and share and have a laugh. Like, who else has had a video that was a total disaster, or who else struggles with with Gen Z's editing style? Or who else you know like these moments, who else feels this way too? It also extends your reach through real voices. This is this idea of opening up. Up the stories you should share, the fundraising campaigns you write, the street teams you create, and allowing the real voices in of and around your organization to exist and to be spotlighted. So the executive director doesn't need to be the one who's always writing the letters. The one person doesn't need to be the spokesperson, right? Like letting the people around your organization in service of your organization, your street teamers, who are your influencers, earn ambassadors creating movements on behalf of your organization. Let's go through some other examples. I want to share with you some ways that this shows up in the wild so that you can get some ideas of how you can weave it in to year end. All right, if you remember that show fleabag, which had a moment a few years ago, it's very cheeky, very hilarious, and the main character in it often will regularly turn to the camera and share her inner thoughts, creating a direct and intimate connection with the audience. So think about that. It's like you're saying something publicly, but she's like, dear reader, this is what I really mean. It's almost like a footnote, right? How could you have little footnote moments I mentioned to the office, right? So it might be Michael Scott, it might be one of the other characters, right? It's like we're all part of this inside joke, or we all know this thing that we're working towards, right? Breaking this usual barrier between the audience and you. How can you break the barrier between your supporters and you the organization. How can we just break it? So there are also other businesses. So I don't want you guys stuck on these media examples, TV shows, etc, but there are businesses, brands that do this. So for example, toms, the beat Corp, so they are a shoe company. They regularly engage with their audience by sharing stories for let me do that again. So toms, the B Corp, the shoe Corporation. They talk a lot about and regularly engage their audience by sharing their why, sharing kind of this behind the scenes with their customers, and having this level of transparency that makes their customers feel like they are part of their brand's mission, like they're contributing to a larger cause, charitywater does this well too. They use their storytelling to connect donors directly with the impact of their contributions. I recently shared a video on a webinar. I don't remember which one DM me if you want, if you want to link to it, but this idea of Charity Water right now is running these Facebook ads. And on it, it is a charity water employee sitting in a chair with a very plain background that looks like a film studio, a production studio. They're holding their phone and they and it says in a headline, Charity Water responds to the trolls and then popping up on the screen for the viewer to see our actual real life troll comments on their Instagram feeds, like, charities suck. Charities blah blah blah. This isn't blah blah blah, it's all the critics. And the ad is this video that goes on with the employee to basically myth bust and talk about their mission and like, address the obstacle, address the concern, address the troll, head on, and it's such a cool way of breaking that forth, while it's such an interactive way in an outside the box way of like, instead of going quietly and trying to delete that Comment, they went toward that comment and says, it's basically said, what's, what is an opportunity here for us to lean in and talk about who we're really for, and talk about what we really do, and maybe where people got it wrong, right? So Charity Water does this really well. They also share very personalized updates. They're great about letting more than just leadership. Be the spokespeople, the support team, the street team for their mission, Patagonia, I mentioned this recently. They had the entire campaign called, don't buy this jacket, right? Which is an example of breaking that fourth wall to deepen connection and provoke curiosity of thought of like, well, what do you mean? I can picture the comments on like a Facebook post for that, or imagine sending an email to your list that had something like that, like the amount of responses and replies you would get again starting that dialog, Wendy's, the fast food restaurant, will regularly use their. Social Networks, particularly x, where they're engaging with other fast food restaurants, like, they're very, very playful. And we've seen this a lot, and it's always these, like, kind of funny moments, right, where we see these ominous brands air quotes, and the people actually running the accounts, letting their personality shine. And it's so fun where you're like, oh, like, there's, there's hilarious humans behind these brands and letting them shine and have these moments that are pop culture moments, right? Do you remember when it was, I don't know what award show, but it was Arby's that tweeted at Pharrell, and they were like, hey, we want our hat back, right? And it was like a little bit of a joke, a little bit of a nudge on his hat looking like the Arby's hat. Right? These moments of we're not only talking about fast food sandwiches right now, I'm going to give you a really great example of a nonprofit executive director that did this. Now we had Becky straw on the podcast. We will link to her episode. She is amazing. She is the co founder of the adventure project, and I remember last year, at some point, I'm on their email list, and I got an email that mentioned some version of how the organization began, because she got fired. And this is the executive director talking about her story of getting fired from Charity Water, fired, and putting that in writing. And it was like the boldest move. I loved it. It links to a blog post, and it talks about her story, because she was Charity Water, I think higher number three, so she really saw the organization get built up, and was a huge part of their success, and they're, like, learned so much in that process. She goes over that a bit in the episode, and I didn't know this part of her story until I got this email, and it was such a moment where I couldn't help but like, reply and break the fourth wall and be like, Oh my gosh. I had no idea. And she goes on to say, not quite fired, but basically, like, told, hang on, I'm gonna redo that one part. So she goes on to say, I got fired, even though it's been over a decade, it still stinks, partly because I'm often asked you were the third employee at Charity Water followed closely, closely with, why would you ever leave? So clarify, I wasn't technically fired. I was asked to resign, which doesn't change much. It's not like I could have responded with no, um, thanks. I'm good here. What a great story. Are you kidding me? The response rate on that had to have been exceptional. Where are you willing to go towards that authenticity, towards that vulnerability, in order to create these donor movements that have people going, Yes, oh my gosh, I want to support them. I want to support her. I want to support this mission forward. I believe her. I trust this organization. It's all about deepening this level of trust. When you follow this process, you so here is one of the like kind of collateral benefits of this process of breaking the fourth wall, you're going to increase your organic reach wildly, think about it. So organic is just a fancy marketing word for free, right? So you're not having to use ads or anything like that to get more visibility traction, eyeballs on your social content in particular, right? But when you use this process, you're going to naturally see more engagement, more social shares, more forwards, because people are like, Oh my gosh, I feel like I am part of this conversation. I feel like this is something I want to share with a friend. This can also increase your revenue and your donations. Why? Because personal connections is what you're creating here, even if you don't personally know every single donor in your CRM, every single follower in your platform, every single person who attends your backyard barbecue, every single person who attends your annual gala. How could you know all these people, right, but they start to connect with you. Have you ever had those moments where people are like, I'm thinking of moments where I'm seeing somebody I haven't seen all summer, and they're like, oh my gosh, you've been traveling so much, or how was your trip, or you've been so busy, and what? Why do they know that? Why do they know that? Yeah, because they're friends with me on Instagram or somewhere, right? And they saw I was in Panama, or they saw we just took this trip, or they saw a post I shared, or maybe a family member mentioned it to them, right? That's that piece. They feel like they're part of it. And so instead of starting back at square one when we see each other for the first time at six months, we're already in the middle of the book. Like, there's already that juicy trust developed. And so there's that, not that formality of like, oh, how are you, you know, like, when you see your dentist or something, right? We're like, trust in the middle, so that the next time you run a campaign, a fundraiser, an event, anything, you're going to see an increase in traction, an increase in active contributions, an increase in supporters, because they feel directly and deeply involved you with me, they want to donate, they want to advocate with you, because they have that stickiness going back to that idea, connection with your story, your mission, your outreach, feels stickier than the 10 other organizations that maybe they've donated to in the last five years. You stand out. Your staff stands out. Your mission stands out because it's way more personal. It's way more interesting. I think about the amount of direct mail appeals that I get, it's going to take a lot of work for it to stand out, because I'm in it, right? I'm getting a lot of pieces, but the ones that do are the ones that follow this process. There's a moment you could break the fourth wall with just a little handwritten note on top of an appeal, yeah, a little something, like a little something. How could you do that? You're also going to deepen engagement, right? So you're act, you're activating people and asking them through this process, maybe to become a part of your free team, right? Getting that participation, this is a great way to get some board involvement, right? That traditional outreach cannot match this, because traditional outreach is eater style. You're sitting at a Broadway show, you're shushed, you are supposed to watch, and then you're supposed to receive an email of solicitation of some sort. You're supposed to buy a ticket, you're supposed to get a, you know, remittance envelope, and you're supposed to give, and that's it. And then you go, No, give, and go, right? We're creating connection. We're creating these relationships, this reciprocity and this idea, okay, then with your street team, you're creating these true advocates. Okay, so you're asking them to share their stories. You're asking them to share their version of breaking the fourth wall. It's not so formal, it's not so buttoned up, that trust starts to be developed among their friends, their family, their followers, and that's that ripple effect. That's where the movement really starts and starts to gain momentum. You so here's your homework assignment. If you are in charge of writing any email newsletters, I want you to write one where you break the fourth wall. And if that feels too hard or ominous or broad, think of one moment, one story that you can break the fourth wall in you with me. If you are have access to your your organization's social networks, maybe you're in charge of content creation or have access to some of it, same piece, where can we ditch some of the formality and actually create a two way conversation? Do we want to even go live on LinkedIn or Instagram or Facebook with one of our street teamers, one of our board members, one of our vocal advocates. And that's how we want to do it. You could do this in a million different ways. Next piece, how can you do it in a broader sense, for year end? What are some moments, if I'm thinking about the next few months for your organization, and I'm like, okay, they hit their goal. I see it. They raise 100k this year end. It's happened. They did it. And I can see the campaigns you've planned. You've planned, hopefully multi campaigns. You're doing Giving Tuesday. You've got multiple year end, kind of tiered out, pieces going out. You've planned ahead for the election. And I think about those moments, and I'm like, Okay, how can they have these breaking of the fourth wall moments where they're giving their audience a little wave? I see you. I'm with you. Hey, ask yourself. How can you ask. How can you mobilize your board to help you with this process? Mobilize some of your staffers to help you with this process. What would it look like to use this method, this strategy, a few different times between now and your end and I will say your bottom line, if you do this, your revenue will increase at least by 20% on that campaign. Because, think about it, the power of one person feeling deeply connected to you is huge. One donor who is used to feeling like you're like this with your handout, right? And they're like, Yeah, I care about your cause. Check right? That very transactional piece all of a sudden, moving them over here, I'm moving them over here to this moment where it is a two way deep relationship. Don't get it twisted, though. This doesn't mean you have to take everybody out to dinners and coffees and long meetings and anything like that. These are like little weeks, little nudges, little Michael Scott moments throughout your campaign. Think about that. How could you do that? Is it a text message? Is it a one off email? There are so many different ways you can do it. So you're not allowed to listen to this episode and say, There's no way I can do it. No way, no way, no way. Anyway, there's something you can do today, something that's been helping me and a lot of our clients inside the club lately is there are a million different things that you could do today. There is more you can do than there is time. Yes, I'm with you on that, but that, that spiral of overwhelm will just keep you stuck right, and it will just keep you from doing anything. So if you're in that spiral of overwhelm where you're like, there's a million things I could do, and I can't do any of them, right, I would ask yourself this power question, which is, what is one thing I can do to break the fourth wall today? Just one thing. And that answer may be something that's scalable, like in an email newsletter, or that answer may be something like you in your phone and sending a text. And both are amazing, and both will result in deep in trust, deep in loyalty, higher converting fundraisers and higher donations, like higher retention, right? Because when people feel this way, they're less likely to leave. And let's leave with that thought of think about these two parallels. You're at a Broadway show, you leave, it's not the best, it's not the best form to leave mid show, but you can pretty much exit, okay, you're at an improv show. You ain't leaving in the middle of the show, because what's gonna happen if you stand up and you're like, Excuse me, excuse me, excuse me, the people on stage are gonna be like, Hey, where are you going? Or even, like a stand up comedy, like you're in it, you're here, you're in it with me. We're together. So how can you develop that togetherness with your audience in a way that feels good and warm and positive and not in a way that feels have to overwhelming stressed. Okay, I am here to support you. So if you have any questions, you are welcome to schedule a call with me, and I'm cheering you on for this year end you.