This Fundraiser Raises Money Through Storytelling, Data And A Racial Equity Lens

How do you unlock your fundraising potential? For Kristina “Steen” Joye Lyles, the answer is in tools and skills we already have: storytelling, data, and racial equity advocacy. As the Head of Equity & Impact, Senior Partnerships Director at DonorsChoose, Steen is fundraising for the tech nonprofit, which connects students and teachers with the resources they need for a great education. We sat down to discuss her approach, and how any fundraiser can apply these tools to their own work.

Shannon Farley: Most founders tell us they hate fundraising. You do it for your full time job. Tell the skeptics what you love about fundraising.

Steen Joye Lyles: As a fundraiser in the nonprofit sector, I sit at a unique intersection: I bridge resources to the communities that need it most. Facilitating this economic redistribution is incredibly fulfilling. I’m a corporate lawyer by trade, and just like the law, I’ve found fundraising to be both an art and a science – it requires a knack for sales and nonprofit management, but also a deep understanding and respect for the communities being served. Balancing and interweaving these two critical perspectives draws me to this work.

Farley: Fundraising can seem unapproachable to those who are new to the craft. But you have a theory that everyone has tools inside of them they can leverage to raise more money. Can you walk us through what some of those tools are? 

Joye Lyles: Approach fundraising with an entrepreneurial mindset. At DonorsChoose, our founder Charles Best empowers everyone to think like an entrepreneur in all aspects of our work. I bring this advice to every conversation with funders. This means tailoring your product by understanding your partner’s needs and thoughtfully aligning your work. It also means developing the “why” behind your work, so you can bring funders on a narrative journey into how their support will make an impact.

Farley: Tell me more about bringing funders on a narrative journey. What does storytelling – a critical tool for all fundraisers – look like in practice?

Joye Lyles: In every pitch conversation, I lean into three perspectives: my own identity, the experiences of the teachers and students we serve, and the needs of the philanthropists who make our work possible. As a partnerships team driven by storytelling and data, we’ve built a storytelling bank that gathers stories about our teachers, their projects, and how they relate to our partners’ interests. With this array of narratives that bring our work to life, I’m able to tell the stories that are most relevant in any fundraising conversation.

Farley: You mentioned your team is driven by storytelling and data. How do you strike the right balance between each in fundraising? 

Joye Lyles: Successful fundraising means drawing from both. I leverage stories from teachers about the impact of a new set of books on their students, and the collective impact a funder has made in driving a more equitable education system. 

At DonorsChoose, data tells us a story, too. We’ve built an extensive database of educators across the country, and optionally invite teachers to share demographic information. Through the demographic data we have for nearly 200,000 teachers, we can unearth trends like the most requested book titles by Black educators, or the most requested resources by women math and science teachers. This data is incredibly valuable to funders looking to make a deep impact in educational equity. 

Farley: It’s clear you’re innovating in your use of data. Are there other ways you leverage data to strengthen your fundraising work?

Joye Lyles: Yes! We fail forward at DonorsChoose, including on our fundraising teams, and data helps us do that. This means learning from every funder conversation. We leverage AI to break down use of verbal crutches or allotment of time I speak on a call versus our funder. We’ve also developed a practice of following up with funders, even after they’ve decided not to fund our programs, to better understand why. This allows us to recalibrate on future conversations, and to express our gratitude even when funders don’t become our partners. 

Farley: What’s a top fundraising tip you’d share?

Joye Lyles: Speak intentionally to a funder’s budget right away. This practice removes the cloak and frames your entire partnership in transparency.

Farley: Your new role, Head of Equity & Impact and Senior Partnerships Director at DonorsChoose, unites two seemingly disparate functions. How does your role bridge equity and fundraising?

Joye Lyles: Infusing equity into our fundraising efforts is the crux of my role at DonorsChoose! I’m focused on applying an equity-forward lens to the way we impact students and teachers, which I’ve done by building a portfolio of equity-forward partnerships that intentionally center and celebrate communities of color, underrepresented communities, and marginalized identities. We apply this same equity lens to the funders we solicit: we intentionally invite philanthropists of color to support public school classrooms through our platform, which allows students and teachers of color to see themselves in their donors. 

Farley: We’re in the midst of a racial reckoning. How does the current racial climate impact your work as a fundraiser at an organization doing racial equity work?

Joye Lyles: As a Black woman from the South, I lean into my own experiences with race in education. I think about my grandmother every day in my work. Raised in the Deep South, Grandma was a daughter of a sharecropper and had to stop attending school in 3rd grade. She couldn’t read or write, but was one of the most brilliant people I’ve ever met. Given her incredible knack for baking, I imagine she would have been a tremendous chemist. 

I reference Grandma because she represents the why and what I’m “selling” as a fundraiser…opportunity. The opportunity for students, especially students of color from low-income households, to access the resources they need to learn. In every funder conversation, I address this head-on: the impact of racial inequity, and how DonorsChoose is moving the needle in a more equitable education system. It’s through this racial equity framing that I’m able to best advocate for the opportunity that Grandma deserved – and that so many students deserve today.