Good Storytelling: an Overview of the Basics for Fundraising and Advocacy
October 27, 2015 | Read Time: 3 minutes
Great storytelling captures people’s attention and drives them to action. When facts and characters, logic and emotion, and cause and effect work together artfully, the resulting stories affect us in a deep way.
As data take on a larger role in nonprofit communications, many groups have realized that stories bring the numbers to life, and together they powerfully convey a group’s impact.
“The stories are really what make the data matter,” says Connie French, director of communications and marketing for Health Leads, a Boston charity that recruits college-student volunteers to help low-income people connect with social services. “Percentages and numbers don’t really mean anything until you see them through the lens of something like a child suffering with asthma.”
In the articles and resources below, you can find expert advice for collecting, telling, distributing, and measuring the effectiveness of your organization’s stories.
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ManagingStrength in Storytelling
A renewed focus on an age-old method of motivating people to take action yields impressive results, and some big names are taking notice. -
Storytelling SummerAre You Really Telling Stories?
A story has to have a protagonist who wants something and who faces obstacles—and it has to have an ending. -
Opinion4 Essential Elements of Storytelling
Practice, consider your audience, and other tips for telling stories that will bring about change. -
Storytelling SummerDon’t Tell a Boring Story
Learn how to connect with your listeners, even on complicated issues, and make them feel empowered to help. -
Storytelling Summer4 Questions to Develop Your Storytelling Strategy
Ask yourself what you want to achieve, who can help you, and how you can reach and appeal to your audience. -
StorytellingHow a Hero Can Save the Day—and Rally Support
Two groups share lessons in how to tell stories about people fighting for change. -
Advice
7 Ways to Make Your Nonprofit’s Storytelling Stronger
Choose creative narratives, avoid jargon, and provide a firsthand perspective to make your stories resonate with supporters. -
Storytelling SummerHow to Turn Audience Emotion Into Action
Make sure your listeners can see themselves in the story, helping to solve the problem, then give them a way to get involved immediately. -
Advice3 Tips for Telling Stories That Move People to Action
Using data alone — or telling stories that focus just on an individual — can backfire. Here are better ways to frame a story that can change people’s minds. -
Storytelling SummerReaching New Audiences Through Storytelling
Advice for doing more than just “preaching to the choir” with your message. -
Storytelling SummerBalance Small Wins and Long-Term Goals in Your Storytelling
Share your victories, but don’t focus on them so much that your audience loses the big picture. -
Marketing and CommunicationsIn Storytelling, Focusing on Solutions, Not Problems
Some groups are adopting a storytelling genre that focuses on how communities rebuild and recover after natural disasters and other difficult times. -
Storytelling SummerTechnology, Imagination, and Organizing With Storytelling
In the final Storytelling Summer post, two questions on how people tell and consume stories now—and why a strong story transcends medium. -
Great StorytellingLessons in Nonprofit Storytelling From a Live Performance
Stories don’t have to be told through short online videos. There’s something powerful in hearing a story unmediated and straight from the source. -
Storytelling SummerNavigating Privacy and Other Issues for Ethical Storytelling
Advice for protecting the people you serve while telling their stories and determining who “controls” a story. -
AdviceAdvice: How Do You Know Your Stories Are Making a Difference?
Active Voice Lab helps artists and advocates figure out what’s working and what isn’t.
