Introduction
Storytelling in the nonprofit sector is important for one simple reason: Storytelling creates a strong connection between your organization and its key stakeholders. In other words, storytelling humanizes the work you do by connecting your mission, vision and values to the behind-the-scenes work that not everyone gets to witness. When you tell stories, you give people a privileged look into your organization. Specifically, you show people who you are, why you do your work and what impact that work has with stories.
Let’s dive a little bit deeper into how nonprofit storytelling is must for the entire sector.
Table of Contents
Why nonprofit storytelling matters
The benefits of storytelling for nonprofits
Why storytelling is so hard for nonprofits
How I can help you tell your story
Why nonprofit storytelling matters
Storytelling matters because it shows the heart of the work you do at your nonprofit, social impact business or charity. Stories help people understand your organization’s world – who’s in it, why they matter, why they should matter to everyone and more. In this way, they function as examples of the empathy, authenticity and trust you value as an organization and expect to grow with your key stakeholders. Storytelling makes your nonprofit’s mission real and its vision clear.
Beyond your world, stories are normal parts of of our day-to-day encounters. Whether it’s the story your neighbour tells you about the raccoons wreaking havoc on their front porch or the stories you overhear on the train, you experience stories all the time. When they’re good stories, they cut through the vast amount of information you’re bombarded with every day.
What happens without storytelling?
Without storytelling, the nonprofit sector is left with business strategies that overshadow what makes us human: Our complexities, contradictions, choices and changes we experience. Seriously, if your nonprofit, charity or social impact business doesn’t have stories, you aren’t just lacking stories. Instead, you’re lacking stories and other key capacity-building benefits, including:
- Trust with your target audiences: Cold, hard facts and big numbers only go so far.
- Transparency about your organization: People will find it hard to believe the credibility of organizational or management changes or decisions.
- Authority on particular topics, ideas or issues: It may be hard to trust an organization’s voice.
- Differentiation from the rest of the sector: An absence of stories indicates a lack of strong positioning.
Unfortunately, you’re left with few ways to cut through the nonprofit sector crowd. Here’s the thing: You wouldn’t be alone! In our sector, storytelling sometimes happens in these tiny silos that are hard to break through. You shouldn’t have to fight for storytelling when the benefits of storytelling are, and I kid you not, endless.
The benefits of storytelling
Creatively engage with your key stakeholders
No, I’m not suggesting that you tell fairytales and craft true crime stories. Rather, I’m suggesting that you use storytelling convey your brand messaging, mission and values in a compelling way. In other words, get creative! There are so many ways to tell a story. Tell one in a way that resonates with your key stakeholders. Think about language, tone, voice and structure. Stories can pull at heart strings, present new perspectives and etch themselves in memories forever.
Build trust and credibility
Storytelling demonstrates your organization’s authenticity and values in action. Stories offer people entry points into your brand identity. When people can relate to what you’re conveying in stories, they’re more likely to engage, trust and legitimize your organization in their minds and hearts. As well, they’re more likely to share your stories. When that happens, you’ve got yourself a group of people who feel a sense of community. This sense goes a long way towards brand loyalty, engagement and growth.
Differentiate your organization from the rest
Storytelling is an excellent way to be unique among the nonprofit sector crowd. It sets you apart from others because the stories are your stories. In other words, no other nonprofit organization, charity or social impact business can claim your stories. Remember: Storytelling makes your mission real and and your vision clear. By crafting and sharing stories that effectively do that, your organization doesn’t just stand out. It stands out and gives people a reason to care about your work.
Define a shared purpose
Storytelling is the best way to create a shared experience. Everyone loves a good story! They show us how we deal with life’s challenges, major milestones, successes and failures. We remember stories because they make us feel something. We may not recall all the details of a story. But we’ll remember if it made us laugh, cry, sigh, roll our eyes or joyfully scream. That’s why when you tell stories, you give people opportunities to gain shared experiences. This is how you help people see themselves in your organization and answer your calls to action.
The best types of stories
There is one thing that nonprofit storytelling training and conferences can’t teach you: Which stories are best for your nonprofit. In fact, I’d argue that no one can teach you that. Why? It’s not a question for anyone but the people in your organization. Think about all the types of stories in the sector. Different kinds of stories serve different purposes. Here’s a sample:
- Donor stories for fundraising
- Digital stories for marketing and communications
- Impact storytelling for annual reports
- Social media stories for user engagement
- Visual stories for social media growth
There are a million storytelling techniques, formulas and approaches out there. Exactly none of them will rank nonprofit stories from best to worst in terms of type. It’s up to you and your team to decide how to best serve your target audiences. So, you need to learn about them.
Read my blog about how to learn about your target audiences.
What should you learn about your target audiences?
In a word: Everything. Your audiences may overlap, but they aren’t the same. And, just in case you were thinking it: “Everyone” is not your audience. So, you’ve got to learn enough about your target audiences to engage them. Since there isn’t a surefire way to quantify “enough”, “everything” is the next best thing. You want to know things like:
- Day-to-day activities: How do your target audiences spend their days? Knowing this information will tell you when it may be best to send stories.
- Stories that have resonated with them: What are some stories your target audiences often come across? Why do they read them? What are some common messages of those stories? This information will help you tailor your stories.
- Discovery journey: How do they find your stories in the first place? If you know this, you’ll know how to best share your stories.
- Demographic and psychographic information: Who is likely to read your stories? What are their attitudes, beliefs and behaviours? Knowing this information will give you insight into why people care about and engage with your stories.
You may not have access to all of this information, but you may have some of it! Use what you have to avoid common storytelling mistakes that make storytelling so hard to get right.
Why is storytelling so hard to do?
I have two answers about why nonprofits struggle with storytelling. Firstly, I sincerely believe that many nonprofit organizations, charities and social impact businesses don’t notice the stories that are right in front of them. In other words, they look for stories in the wrong places. I’m not referring to asking the right people. Rather, I’m referring to how noticing stories is not the same as telling them. If you initially look for stories with the purpose of telling them, you’re going to miss a lot of great stories that need uncovering. You’ve got to find the story first before you tell it, not the other way around.
Secondly, many organizations don’t have the foundation or structure to craft their stories. Tell me if any of the following common storytelling mistakes resonates with you:
- Developing stories for the wrong audiences
- Too many stories about the organization, not enough about the work
- Lack of additional insights, perspectives or value that creates resonance
- Wrong language, tone, voice, format and structure for storytelling
- Lack of clarity about the purpose of the stories
- No budget (self-explanatory)
All of these mistakes are exacerbated with a lack of foundation or structure for storytelling. When I say “foundation”, I’m referring to clearly defined elements of your storytelling processes, such as brand messaging, audience analysis, proof points, value proposition and calls to action. These are things that will go into all of your stories, so they are they need to be established well.
When I say “structure”, I’m referring to how you craft your stories. A story bank is a system that uses defined processes, tools and techniques to collect, develop, store and share stories. The system is designed for future use. Since the future is always happening, a story bank is a system you can use long-term. It can help structure how you do storytelling. While it’s not the only system out there, it’s a great one for the nonprofit sector.
Check out my free story bank guide to get started
Lastly, I think that the nonprofit sector has to come to terms with an uncomfortable truth: Many organizations believe stories are a “nice to have” until they become a “need to have”. This idea leaves people scrambling, struggling and stressed out for stories because organizations need stories all the time. And it just doesn’t have to be this way.
Storytelling is not a transactional cost that will give you short-term satisfaction the same way, say, a chocolate bar would. Rather, storytelling is an investment in the future strategic growth, brand positioning and returns of your nonprofit organization, charity or social impact business. It’s a surefire way for the right people to become aware of your organization and find it on their own, online and offline.
How I can help you tell your story
I understand something that a lot nonprofit professionals don’t: Storytelling starts long before you contact anyone for a story. It starts with your current capacity, needs, goals, strategy and messaging. You want to ensure you have the capacity to take on storytelling in a consistent manner. My three-pronged approach helps you tell your story:
- Strategy: Storytelling without a foundation is like living without a heart. That’s why I help you avoid that. With a strategy, you get a solid reference point for all of your storytelling. A boost for your confidence.
- Messaging: Clear messaging is the secret to great storytelling. But it doesn’t matter if you can’t cut through the other things vying for your audiences’ attention. I help you develop and clarify your messaging with a structure that perfectly aligns with your stories, brand and strategy. A gut punch to your self-doubt.
- Brand consistency: Achieving brand consistency means that your stories, more specifically their messaging, can be repeated over and over again. This repetition gives your target audiences more than a single change to engage with your brand. I help you achieve brand consistency with detailed guidelines, assessments and evaluation and lead you to storytelling with a purpose.
Trust me: I know what it’s like to feel alone in championing storytelling throughout an organization. I have been in and out of these silos for years at a time. The reason I do my the work I do is because, like you, I don’t believe storytelling has to be scary or complicated.