Foundations Should Start Hiring Storytellers

It is often said that foundations contribute two assets to social change — money and knowledge. But too many foundations fail to capture and share a critical part of what they know: the stories that explain what they do, why they do it, what they learn, and what difference it all makes.

Every foundation sits on a treasure trove of stories that represent its values, its goals, and its impact. These stories are complex, comprehensive, and engaging, and they are the face of social change, the catalysts for moving people from apathy to action. And they personalize the message.

These are the stories that foundation staff members see every day — the accounts that explain how people and communities are affected by a wide range of social problems and how new approaches can make a difference.

As grant makers increasingly focus on accountability and transparency, they support evaluations, gather data, and measure and publish results. But without the stories behind the data, these efforts end up seeming like buying a ticket to the movies and getting a a PowerPoint presentation.

Recently, some foundations have begun to recognize the importance of documenting their progress through narratives. Annual reports increasingly include the voices of grantees. Newsletters and Web sites profile organizations that are making a difference in their communities. Video clips and podcasts are streamed online. But very few foundations make comprehensive story gathering a standard feature of their operations over time.

Foundation staff members and grantees are simply too busy to handle this work in such depth. Many do not have the skills. As a consequence, foundation reports are still laden with clinical jargon, and the real stories are left in the heads of staff members and grantees.

Grant makers need to dedicate a staff position to this work. The position could be the responsibility of a senior fellow or it could carry its own title: storyteller, story gatherer, or writer in residence. It need not be a full-time job, but the person who gathers the stories must develop long-term relationships with the foundation’s staff, its grantees, and the people the foundation seeks to influence and serve.

How can these stories be used?

Comprehensive storytelling offers many benefits. It helps program officers understand the spirit of work accomplished early in a grant cycle, before results can be expected to show up in data.

It can help foundations engage organizations as partners in social change, educate policy makers and other leaders, motivate community members to join efforts to reform policies and systems that do not work, and explain a foundation’s work to the news media.

Storytelling can also help build dialogue and collaboration between foundations, help to get out the word about programs and practices that work, and articulate what is not effective so that others will not make the same mistakes. Finally, when done consistently over time, storytelling documents the legacy of a foundation.

If the writer in residence does a good job, the work will also build storytelling skills among staff members, trustees, and grantees. Foundation officers will have compelling material for their speeches, and foundation staff members within the organization will be better educated about one another’s work.

I discovered the joy of storytelling over the past six years when I followed the Massachusetts state child-welfare agency through a process of systemic change that is transforming its work with families of abused or neglected children.

My assignment, supported by Casey Family Programs and the Marguerite Casey Foundation, included documenting the transformation and producing regular written reports and case studies. I sat in on countless meetings, interviewed the agency’s leaders and caseworkers, and spent time with families in the system.

I found a true excitement for change among employees of this large bureaucracy.

Because I visited regularly and staff members got to know my work, they trusted me to witness their struggles as well as their victories. I met parents who used to call the agency a “child snatcher,” but who now sit at the table with social workers and administrators to redesign policies and practices. I saw social workers change their approach to families, no longer defining parents in the system as “perpetrators,” but reaching out to ask what parents need to keep their children safe and help their families thrive.

I captured these stories. My reports were distributed to the more than 3,000 employees of the child-welfare agency across the state, who read and discussed the changes that were affecting their work lives. The reports were distributed to Massachusetts legislators, who determine budgets and regulations for the agency. The reports were shared with members of news media, so that they, too, could understand the human considerations behind the changes put in place.

Casey Family Programs, which works to improve child-welfare systems in numerous states, put the reports on its Web site and sent them to key child-welfare leaders across the country. This led to meetings between Massachusetts and Wyoming child-welfare officials, for example, on how to collect and use data. Casey staff members also shared examples and strategies from the Massachusetts experience in other states.

Proving the cause and effect of social change, of course, is an elusive commodity. But if foundations fail to document their chain of stories, no one will know, even if they are successful. Foundations and nonprofit organizations will remain captive of a perpetual cycle of reinventing the wheel.

Storytelling this extensive is a major investment. But I believe it is an essential ingredient of successful social change. Foundations are privileged to shape and witness change. If they are truly reflective about their grant making, they will collect their stories over time and offer them as gifts to others who share the goal of making the world a better place.

Joanne Edgar is a communications strategist based in New York. She was a founding editor of Ms. Magazine and director of communications for the Edna McConnell Clark Foundation.