8 tips for interviewing a nonprofit beneficiary

By Dionna Dash

You’ve identified a beneficiary with an inspiring story that you want to tell. Perhaps the person is an older adult who has been using your nonprofit services to age with dignity, a family facing food insecurity who has less worries because your organization gave them access to essentials, or a parent of a child with disabilities who is finding resources and opportunities through your nonprofit.

The next step is to interview this beneficiary so you can gather details about how your nonprofit helped them, which can be shared via blogs, social media posts, impact reports and more.

This step of the process can be intimidating, even for those who have conducted interviews before. But with the right preparation, you’ll become a pro at asking insightful questions and getting thoughtful answers in return. 

The following eight tips are a great place to start your journey to interviewing with ease.

1. Do your research

One of the worst experiences as an interviewee is when it’s clear the interviewer knows nothing about you. Doing some research of your beneficiary beforehand can go a long way, both in guiding the questions you ask and in establishing a rapport with the person. 

Oftentimes, many of those pesky background information questions can be avoided by searching beforehand for how this beneficiary has been involved in your nonprofit.

2. Record the conversation

Before the interview begins, be sure to ask the beneficiary if you can record the meeting or phone call. Having the full transcript of the interview will allow you to verify information during the writing process and make sure that direct quotes are accurate. Be sure to also take your own notes during the interview in case there are issues with the recording. 

In some states, it’s illegal to record an interview without express permission from all parties, but either way, it’s always a good idea to ask for consent. Don’t forget to also ask if the beneficiary’s story can be used in other marketing materials aside from the article, like fundraising emails or a direct mail letter.

3. Ask the right questions

To get heartfelt, genuine answers, you need to ask the right questions: ones that are open-ended. 

Start with a list of pre-written questions based on what you already know about the person’s story. Having points to refer back to will help keep the conversation flowing and ensure that you get all of the necessary information you need.

For example, if your nonprofit runs a food pantry, you could say:

 How has our food pantry been helpful, if at all?
 Have you used our food pantry?

That being said, if the conversation starts heading in a new, unexpected direction, go there. Your prepared questions are a guideline, not a rubric. Oftentimes, new narratives are discovered during the interview that can be stronger than the originally imagined premise of the story. 

4. Schedule enough time

Make sure to give yourself ample time for the interview, just in case it runs long. Usually, an hour is enough. Based on your prepared questions, use your judgment to determine how long you think it’ll realistically take, and then add in some buffer time. And if your interviewee needs to reschedule for any reason, be flexible. 

5. Ease their worries

Making both the beneficiary and yourself as comfortable as possible before the interview begins will help the conversation flow more smoothly and will promote more honest, genuine answers to your questions. When dealing with an apprehensive interviewee, one way to help calm them is to offer to send your questions beforehand. This will give them some time to brainstorm their answers and feel more ready for your call. (Just keep in mind that this strategy can cause some of their answers to sound a bit scripted or rehearsed.) 

6. Ask for a photo — or many

Additionally, be sure to ask for a photo or photos of the beneficiary. Better yet, candid photos of the beneficiary receiving your organization’s services can be very powerful. If none are available, see if the beneficiary would be open to having some photos taken of them.

7. Lead with heart

When writing a beneficiary story, you want to use quotes that express sentiments, not reiterate facts. It’s still okay to gather background information to flesh out your narrative, but make sure to keep factual statements in the copy of the article, not in the quotes.

8. Put your nonprofit second

When telling a beneficiary story, your nonprofit isn’t not the main character. Your organization helped this person at a critical time in their life, but this story is the tale of their journey, and it doesn’t end with your nonprofit. Ideally, the services they received from your organization helped them to go on and achieve other things independently, highlighting the long-lasting impact of your nonprofit and inspiring others to make a donation in order to keep making stories like this happen.