Introduction
There is a common misconception in the nonprofit sector about storytelling that I want to address: It’s that any story that demonstrates the impact of your work should have a neatly tied happy endings.
Nonprofit professionals have probably told you that the “success” in your success story has to be happy. I’ve probably written that here on my blog a time or two. However, I want to turn this idea on its head for this post. The idea of happy endings is stopping your nonprofit from engaging in storytelling that is ethical, authentic, and honest.
Happy endings (only) are a mistake
The best stories are ones that demonstrate the purpose of a story. That can include leaning into the motivations of your target audience and what emotions come with that. For example, let’s say personal experiences motivate your readers to act. You’d want to tell stories that are relatable and have numerous entry points.
However, as you know, all emotions aren’t happy ones. As human beings, we experience a range of emotions. Happy is just one of many. And it isn’t the emotion that we are feeling all the time. This is especially true in the nonprofit sector. We may feel sad, curious, fearful etc. because of the nature of the work or even the circumstances that led to the story existing.
Here’s a personal example:
Months ago, I wrote an impact story for the Laidlaw Foundation’s 2022-2023 annual report:
My goal was to help readers connect to the idea of second chances. I included entry points, which I underlined in blue, for readers to accomplish this.
The story is about a student who enrolled in the YMCAs of Québec Alternative Suspension program. This program supports suspended students with their school work, self-esteem and sense of belonging. As you read, you may think it will lead to a neat happy ending because of all the life-changing experiences and achievements the student had. But it didn’t.
The student is back in school and struggling to reconcile ongoing judgement from teachers and their newfound sense of accomplishment. Their experience shows how much further school systems and programs have to go in terms of supporting students.
If I wrote a neat happy ending to this story, I would’ve lost this point. By including this part, I hopefully demonstrated how important it is for young people to have caring adults/anchors around them. Programs like the YMCAs of Québec Alternative Suspension program make that possibility a reality.
I did think about ending the story with the student’s achievements to show how successful the program was (i.e., the second last paragraph).
But if I did, the ending would have represented inspiration under false pretenses. Additionally, it changes the entire story without the student’s consent, which is unethical. Furthermore, it would have downplayed the qualitative success of YMCAs of Québec Alternative Suspension program.
In their own words, the student described the sense of belonging and comradery they got from the program. That is a clear achievement by the YMCAs that deserves a nuanced highlight.
The white saviour complex
If all of your stories have happy endings, they probably contradict the mission of your organization. Also, they cloud the vision and call the values of the organization into question. For example, let’s say one of your organization’s values is closely related to diversity, equity and inclusion. If all of your stories have happy endings, they may come across very differently than you might have intended.
They can read as what is often called stories with a white savior complex. Essentially, these stories position a certain storyteller/character as the “saviour” of the people that they serve. The dynamic is often between white people who hold positions of power and more marginalized people who work under them or are beneficiaries of the services their organizations offer. However, anyone can reproduce that saviour complex when power dynamics and other inequities are present.
Film offers us some of the most obvious examples of white saviourism. Films such as the Blind Side and The Help position people of colour as those who absolutely need white protagonists to survive. Without these protagonists, no one else has a chance at life.
The “saving” in these stories is not necessarily from something like a fire. Rather, it’s saving people from their own situations. What makes it dangerous is that it disempowers people from building their own power to change their lives. Furthermore, it individualizes what are often systemic challenges that people are facing. White saviourism leaves the saviour out of any self-awareness work, accountability or the idea of giving up their power.
How white saviourism shows up in nonprofit storytelling (with happy endings)
Unfortunately, the white saviour complex can also show up in the process of crafting the story. For example, an interviewer may use biased interview questions to yield answers that support a story that they want vs. a story the interviewee is actually telling. Or, there may be an editing process that omits or changes information that is integral to the story but not apparently interesting enough to lead to include. It could even show up as the picture used alongside a story.
If you take anything away from this, it’s that intentionality matters.
Conclusion
Overwhelmingly, people who read impact stories know that nonprofits are collectively doing a social good. I’m willing to bet they usually have a great understanding of just how hard the work is. By defaulting to happy stories, it’s easy to underestimate what you think they understand.
Stories should be emotional if that is what the story calls for and it makes sense for the readers. You have to learn about your target audience to really do that. Without this knowledge, you may default to creating a story that appeals to the wrong things.
Storytelling is, among many things, a practice of ethics. A story should demonstrate an organization’s commitment to the values it publicly claims as its own. In order to craft the right story, it has to be authentic and accurate. That means that every story you craft is not going to have a happy ending, and that’s okay. A huge reason why your donors give is reading engaging stories that are transparent, authentic and open-ended.
Avoid the risk of appearing inauthentic and untrustworthy. Craft honest stories that represent a wide range of human emotions we all experience, in addition to happiness.