guest post // Telling Your Nonprofit's Story: 5 Best Practices to Try
By Cait Abernethy, UpMetrics
Everybody loves a good story. Storytelling is more pervasive than you might think; in fact, personal stories account for about 65% of our conversations. Stories make us feel something, make us question things, make us want to act. That’s why it’s so important that nonprofits engage in storytelling rather than disguising their impact beneath jargon or overly polished reports.
In this guide, we’ll explore five imaginative ways to elevate your nonprofit’s approach to storytelling that will help you craft compelling narratives and connect with supporters.
1 Align Your Data and Narrative
Stories grounded in data build trust, and data supplemented by storytelling elicits a stronger emotional reaction. Your nonprofit’s story and data should work together to create a credible and compelling narrative. Here are some tips to get started:
Create your impact report: Your impact report will provide you with statistics that will act as anchors for your narrative. UpMetrics’ guide to impact reporting suggests using the DeCAL method: First, define your objectives and the indicators of progress toward your mission you want to track. Next, collect data from all relevant sources—such as your donor database, event management software, and marketing tools—and connect them in a centralized system like Salesforce through integrations, so your team has a unified and up-to-date view of your constituents. Analyze the data for patterns and changes over time. Lastly, leverage your insights to inform decision-making and storytelling.
Introduce the people behind the percentages: When you share a standout statistic, it helps to hear about a specific story that demonstrates that statistic. Ask beneficiaries and volunteers for short interviews and permission to share their stories with your supporters.
Use infographics to aid comprehension: Simple visual aids clarify complex findings and make your content more legible to a wider audience. Plus, infographics make it easy to display your impact on digital platforms.
Braiding statistics and storytelling together enhances the impact of both. If your organization is new to impact reporting or wants to reduce staff burden and gain more valuable insights, explore impact measurement software.
2 Choose the Right Protagonist
Beneficiaries, volunteers, staff members, board members, donors—these people all play a unique role in your organization, and each member of each of these groups has a unique story. The question is, when do you share which story? Use these tips to select a central figure for your message:
Ask yourself who your audience is. Your main character should fit with your story’s audience and objective. For example, a beneficiary might be a good choice for a story intended to inspire donors to give, while a story from a staff member might be a powerful choice for a story you plan to share with funders.
Highlight change over time. The most compelling protagonists undergo a transformation throughout their story. This can be an internal change (learning something new or overcoming an emotional or mental struggle), an external change (a tangible change to their circumstances), or a combination of both.
Practice ethical storytelling practices. Always ask for permission from your main character to share their story. Meyer Partners’ guide to ethical storytelling emphasizes the importance of ensuring your main characters understand where you’ll share their story and what format the content will take. Respect their wishes regarding anonymity and the choice to share pictures, videos, or audio.
Once you’ve chosen a protagonist for your story, be sure you’re asking the right questions. Start with basic questions about their history with your organization and how their involvement has impacted their life. From there, you can explore more specific questions based on their answers.
3 Provide Structure for Your Story
At some point in your schooling, you probably learned about the prototypical narrative arc; all stories must have a beginning, a middle, and an end. The inciting incident, the climax, the resolution—all of these elements should still exist in nonprofit stories, too. Here’s how you can drape your story over these skeletal elements to give your nonprofit storytelling shape:
Beginning: The first “act” of your story should have exposition (necessary context and background for the story) and an inciting incident (an event that puts the story in motion and prompts the main character to take action). The beginning of your story will likely present the problem that your nonprofit is trying to solve.
Middle: The middle portion of your story should introduce the solution to the problem. It revolves around the climax, when your main character faces their most fearsome challenge or makes their biggest decision. Rising action precedes the climax and builds tension, and falling action after the climax leads into the resolution.
End: The end, or resolution, of your story sees the conflict of the story resolved. In nonprofit storytelling, it’s a good idea to include some indication of what the future holds or to broaden your story out from one main character and apply it to a larger audience—after all, your work isn’t done yet.
Following this structure helps your audience follow your story and remain invested in its outcome. Try mapping out your story in advance to ensure all of the elements are there.
4 Think Like a Writer
Your story can’t just say the right things. It has to say them in the right way. Honing your writing skills or hiring a professional writer ensures readers understand your story and remain engaged. Use these tips to make your writing the best it can be:
Language with sensory details and concrete scenes. Consider the difference between these sentences setting up a character’s financial struggles:
Lia was worried about her ability to provide for her son.
It was the third day in a row that Lia had to fill her son’s cereal bowl with water instead of milk. She suppressed the feeling of dread in her stomach as she slid the bowl in front of him and tousled his hair.
The first example communicates the information in a straightforward way, but the second provides a more visceral scene that still allows the reader to reach the same conclusion.
Use direct quotes and dialogue when possible. Conversation grounds the scene in a specific moment of time and provides an opportunity to share physical details about the speaker that reveal how they feel about what they’re saying.
Ask for feedback. Even the most experienced writers would be nowhere without their first readers and editors. Ask a few staff members, volunteers, or even your friends and family to take a look at your first draft. Ask them to share what they liked about the story, what questions they had while reading it, and what constructive criticisms they have.
When you dedicate time and thought to your writing, it shows. Readers can tell when a piece was thrown together haphazardly versus when it was crafted with intention and care. Following best writing practices will help your organization create unrivaled moments of genuine connection with supporters.
5 Guide Deeper Engagement
Your story should entice readers unfamiliar with your organization to become new supporters and prompt existing supporters to deepen their engagement. Make your story irresistible using these tips:
Design stories for multiple channels. Adapt stories for newsletters, social media, your website, and impact reports. Make it easy for supporters to find your story and share it on their own channels.
Provide a clear call to action. Readers should leave your story with a definite next step to further their involvement in your organization. Run A/B testing to see which CTAs are most effective.
A beautiful story that doesn’t inspire action is a missed opportunity. Give your readers everything they need to spread the word about your mission and become more involved themselves.
Your nonprofit is full of stories; the key is to bring those narratives out and use them in the right way. Writing credible, engaging, and effective stories takes practice, but it’s well worth the effort as supporters become more emotionally invested in your mission and inspired to become a part of your story themselves.
This guest post was written by Cait Abernethy.
Cait Abernethy is the Director of Marketing at UpMetrics, a leading impact measurement and management software company that’s revolutionizing the way mission-driven organizations harness data to drive positive social outcomes. With a wealth of experience across leading technology organizations, Cait is responsible for all aspects of marketing for the company and is passionate about helping the world’s leading foundations, nonprofits and impact investors to drive accelerated social and environmental change.
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