In the nonprofit world, a story bank is like a life jacket.
It keeps you:
- Afloat
- Abreast
- Alive
But, many nonprofit professionals don’t know about them, don’t use them or don’t know why they should use them.
The thing is, we’ve all been in situations where we could have used a story bank:
- The website blog needs to be updated and you don’t know how to repurpose content
- The annual report is due, you’re running out of time and you need to show your work
- That grant application deadline is looming and your stories aren’t really stories
If you ask any nonprofit professional if they’d like to avoid these scenarios on a regular basis, they would say absolutely and unequivocally that they’d like to.
We already know why stories matter and what purpose they serve in our lives. They make us laugh, cry, think and take action. Also, they help us remember important details. Furthermore, they give us opportunities to better understand the world around us.
That’s why we use them all the time. It’s why nonprofits and companies alike rely on them to show their work.
So, how do you avoid the mad dash for stories?
A story bank.
What is a story bank?
Many people describe story banks as “exactly what it sounds like”: a bank (think collection) in which you store stories (think impact stories, case studies, success stories etc.) for later use.
For example, if you operate in the nonprofit sector, you could withdraw stories from the story bank if you have an upcoming fundraising campaign, a report due or some other purpose.
They’re not wrong.
However, I think it’s more helpful to understand a story bank as a system, process or infrastructure because of the function it serves. So, I would define a story bank like this:
A system that uses a schedule of processes and specific tools to collect, develop, store and share stories.
The goal here is not to just gather stories and store them somewhere to collect dust until you’re ready to use them.
Rather, the goal is to establish a system of gathering stories that corresponds with – and eventually builds – your capacity for authentic storytelling without breaking the bank (see what I did there?).
What does it do?
A story bank organize your nonprofit’s stories to avoid the hassle of last-minute story requests for, well, anything. This way, you can find them, develop them or repurpose them without having to scramble for them.
More importantly, a story bank develops your nonprofit’s storytelling rhythm. In other words, once you’ve got your process down to a science that works for you, you can streamline the process and adapt where you need to. What this does is make choosing tools and enacting techniques to best support you much, much easier.
Lastly, a story bank shows your constituents your values in action. Beyond the actual stories themselves, the story bank process enables you to build and maintain meaningful relationships with the people you serve and the key stakeholders you answer to.
By “banking” your stories, you are demonstrating that people’s experiences and the stories that house them are always important, especially within the values, mission and vision you’ve already stated. This is how you inspire, educate and connect your nonprofit to people.
How does a story bank work for a nonprofit?
The best way to understand how it works is through scenarios. Let’s take the scenarios at the beginning of this post to illustrate how a story bank works in the nonprofit sector.
The website blog needs to be updated and you don’t know how to repurpose content
A story bank gives you options for repurposing content for your website blog. Because it is a system, it also helps you do this much faster. With the right tool, you can see all of your stories and story content at once, which can help you determine which story is best for your blog at a specific time. Even more, you can schedule it into your editorial calendar!
The annual report is due, you’re running out of time and you need to show your work
Oftentimes due to a lack of resources, nonprofits are often scrambling to interview grantees and participants for stories. Even if your nonprofit starts collecting stories months in advance, the situation can turn last-minute due to any number of delays. So, it’s a huge gamble
A story bank allows you to pick from a wide array of stories. By the time your annual report is due, you are picking stories as opposed to developing them.
That grant application deadline is looming and your stories aren’t really stories
All stories are not made equally and they each serve different purposes for different target audiences. That is to say: Every story you have/develop isn’t the right one for your grant application. With a story bank, you can choose the right story that best captures whatever you want to communicate.
If your stories are organized by target audience, for example, you can easily select the right stories from a relevant pool of stories vs. all the stories you have or the ones you want to develop. In other words, a story bank eliminates the hassle.
Why should your nonprofit have a story bank?
A story bank changes three fundamental things any nonprofit can benefit from:
- Storytelling capacity
- Team engagement
- Repurposing content
A story bank increases your capacity to tell stories because it enables you to have a consistent stream of information that can be organized and developed into a story. It directs people to the actual work that needs to be done as opposed to the idea of what needs to be done (because there’s so much!). Also, it gives you more options to increase your content output.
For example, let’s say your nonprofit is hosting anti-poverty events every week for the month of October. At each event, your communications team member(s) (Let’s call them “M”) goes to each one to talk to people about their experiences, what anti-poverty means to them and how they would address poverty if they were Prime Minister for a day.
Now, let’s say the M has video and audio interviews, testimonials, pictures, artwork from some of the events and GIFs from online engagement. This is overwhelming, right? But it doesn’t have to be.
With a story bank, M doesn’t have to file and organize each piece of information alone. Rather, their team members can do so using the taxonomy, guidelines and rules that everyone in the organization is familiar with (capacity-building).
Also, people can start the development process for these stories depending on their own needs (team engagement). Furthermore, when people have developed, stored and shared the stories, anyone can repurpose it to give the story new life and exposure (repurpose content).
The great thing about story banks is that once you develop them, you don’t have to develop them again. Instead, you tweak them according to your goals and needs. When you build infrastructure that works for everyone, you win every time!
So, how does a nonprofit start a story bank?
A story bank works like any other system: It needs parts, processes, tools and techniques. Here’s a basic overview of how it all can work:
Step 1: Figure out your purpose
Before you do anything, creating a plan that clarifies the purpose of your story bank and how it might best serve you. Consider these questions:
- What are our goals?
- Why do we need a story bank?
- What does our team need to know to support the establishment of a story bank?
- What do we need in a story bank (think components and processes)?
Step 2: Build your system
Once you determine the purpose of your story bank, you now need to define the parameters of your story bank by building the infrastructure you’ll use to run your system. Consider these questions:
- What will be our strategies and guidelines for collecting, processing and sharing stories?
- How will we index story information (think tags, categories, keywords etc.)?
- What are acceptable formats for storing and hosting these stories?
- What will our work processes be like and who will be involved (think content governance)?
- What tools and techniques should we use to do this work?
- How do we continue to engage our storytellers beyond collecting their stories?
Further reading: Narrative Arts’ Guide to Building a Story Bank
Step 3: Determine parameters of stories
With this infrastructure in place, you can now figure out the parameters of actually pursuing and developing these stories. Remember, stories are not just things that are lying around. They come from people and are often informed by personal experiences.
Therefore, it’s important to align the way you collect stories with the values of your organization. Consider these questions:
- Who will be our storytellers and how will we determine that?
- What are we looking for in these stories (and why)?
- What training or professional development do we need to collect stories?
- What are our guidelines for editing and polishing stories?
Step 4: Confirm how you’ll share stories
Now that you’ve developed the stories, you need to figure out how you will share them. Consider these questions:
- How do we want our target audiences to find these stories?
- Where should we be sharing these stories and how often?
- What tools will we use to determine that?
- Do these stories align with our communications strategy, strategic goals and other important organizational documents?
- What are some ways we can repurpose these stories?
Over to you
A story bank can sound like a daunting task to complete. However, it doesn’t need to be. Remember, the best kind of story bank is the one that works with the capacity you have right now. You don’t need to use all the tools, techniques and processes that everyone else is using. Do what’s best for you to start building your capacity and stop the scramble for stories in its tracks.