Nonprofit Storytelling Conference -- Speaker Submission

The Speaker Roster for the 2024 Conference is Full

If you're interested in attending the conference as an exhibitor click here or as an attendee click here

If you'd like to learn more about being a speaker on Tactical Thursdays, our weekly e-learning series, click here.


Storytellers are the most powerful people in the world

Hey, storytelling friends!

The Nonprofit Storytelling Conference is celebrating 11 years of helping nonprofits raise more money and tell stories that generate enthusiasm around their cause.  

If you’re passionate about storytelling and fundraising, and your superpower is teaching busy nonprofit pros how to do both better, we’d love to hear from you.  (That superpower means helping attendees take specific action steps that will transform their fundraising and marketing.)

A few things to note if you want to join our speaker family: 

  • You pass the BBQ test.  From the very first conference, we’ve chosen speakers who would also be fun to hang out with at a backyard BBQ.  That means having a personality that is warm, fun, and personable.
  • You find value and joy in traveling to conferences and speaking in front of people.  We do not pay our speakers, however, we’re intentional about working with you to understand your marketing goals and offer opportunities for you to connect with our extensive community beyond just the conference.
  • You are comfortable teaching at a tactical level.  That means speaking less on the WHY and zeroing in on the HOW.  For our attendees, knowing they’ll leave your session with the comfort and confidence to try a strategy on their own is the main reason they’re at our conference.  As a speaker, you’ll teach clearly defined and easy-to-understand steps for a strategy that solves a specific problem. 
  • You are a big fan of collegiality, relationships, and lifelong learning.  We look for speakers confident enough to admit if they don’t know the answer to a question and knowledgeable enough about the sector to point to other speakers or exhibitors at the conference who may have better answers.

Okay, so you made it this far.  Still interested?  One last thing.

While we’re always on the lookout for great session ideas, we’re on the lookout for submissions related to the following topic areas especially (examples are actual session ideas requested by our attendees):

  • Digital fundraising (e.g. how to use social media to find new supporters; how to help ambassadors tell their stories on giving days)
  • Diversity, equity, and inclusion in fundraising (e.g. how to fundraise with a racial equity lens; how to ensure you’re serving your staff, beneficiaries, and donors equally)
  • Donor engagement (e.g. how to deepen relationships between the thank you and the next ask; how to bring surprise and delight to your donor community) 
  • Data and prospecting (e.g. how to find that next big gift; how to leverage data to find and tell stories)
  • Leadership development (e.g. how to stick to the goals you set; how to manage up, down, and sideways with less friction) 
  • Team building (e.g. how to build better partnerships with program staff; how to mind the marketing/communications and fundraising gap) 

we do things a little bit differently here.  We plan the story arc of the Storytelling Conference based on what our guests would like to

experience then we then craft the conference sessions to meet those very specific needs.  Our final step is to search for the experts to who match the qualifications requested by our guests.   This is usually

by recommendation. 


Just so you know, in order to create the Nonprofit Storytelling Conference experience we ask the speakers come a day early for orientation and coaching.  The speakers stay for the entire conference to be available to the guests in an ongoing collaborative workshopping atmosphere.  Speakers often call on one another during sessions to illuminate an issue and/or bring a particular storytelling perspective to the group.  

We share the wisdom in the room.


First time presenters pay for their own travel and accommodations.  If our guests find your information compelling, relevant, and immediately useful in their organizations, they’ll want you back!

If your content fits into the story arc a future Nonprofit Storytelling Conference, and you are able to return, we are able to offer a travel stipend and accommodations.


With that in mind, if you can answer a few questions, that would help us know where and when you may fit into future conferences: 

  1. When did you learn the power of storytelling in your profession?
  2. Who is your ideal audience?  What is their biggest struggle?
  3. When your session is over, what knowledge, tools and step-by-step strategies will your audience leave with?