A Complete Guide to Nonprofit Storytelling

As a nonprofit founder, telling stories about your work, impact, and community is critical to forwarding your organization's mission. Effective storytelling has the ability to inspire action, build strong connections, and create lasting change.

But crafting a compelling story can be challenging, particularly when it comes to communicating complex issues and engaging diverse audiences. That's why we've put together this article on storytelling for nonprofit founders. 

We'll explore the key elements of powerful storytelling and provide tips and strategies for crafting a compelling narrative. Whether you're just starting out or looking to take your storytelling to the next level, this post will help you tell a story that resonates with and inspires your supporters. 

Four Immediate Benefits of Compelling Storytelling for Nonprofits 

Storytelling is a powerful tool for nonprofits, offering many benefits to help them further serve their communities. By sharing a compelling story, nonprofits can help stakeholders, grant makers, volunteers, and board members understand and connect with their mission. Here are four additional benefits of storytelling for nonprofits.

• Build Connections. As a nonprofit leader, building connections is critical to achieving your organization’s objectives. Storytelling has the power to build a connection between your nonprofit and your audiences, helping create a sense of shared values and a deeper understanding of your organization's mission. 

  Building connections is not only important for fundraising, but it can also help nonprofits engage volunteers and build a strong network to secure grants and other funding.

• Increase Engagement. Engagement is a key factor in the success of every nonprofit, as it helps foster interest with your supporters. Storytelling can help develop and increase engagement. 

• Well-told stories engage donors, volunteers, and potential partners, increasing the visibility of your organization. You can leverage this engagement further by involving members of the community in discussions and decision-making processes, enabling you to learn from diverse perspectives and cultivate collaboration.

• Demonstrate Transparency. By telling authentic stories, nonprofit founders can demonstrate transparency and build trust with their audience, showing that they are committed to their cause and willing to be open about their experiences, successes, and failures.

• Inspire Others: Storytelling enables nonprofits to share their journey with their supporters, including the challenges they face, the progress they make, and the lessons they learn along the way. This can help build a supportive and collaborative community of changemakers.

How to Tell a Great Story for Your Nonprofit

Just as your nonprofit needs a strong business plan, your stories need a writing plan encompassing elements that will achieve the objectives you’re trying to reach. Following are tips for structuring your story.

Create an Outline

First, organize the critical components of your story in an outline. Initially, identify your target audience and determine the intended impact of your nonprofit's story. Decide on the tone of your story and the emotions you want to evoke in your readers. Additionally, reflect on the problem that your organization is trying to solve, the proposed solution, and the desired outcomes. Once you have fleshed out the answers to these questions, you can move on to creating your narrative.

Consider answering these questions: 

• What is the problem your organization is trying to solve? 

• What is your organization's solution to the problem? 

• What are the results your organization hopes to achieve? 

Once you've fleshed out the answers to these questions, you'll be ready to start crafting your story.

Stay True to Your Nonprofit's Mission

When you begin writing your story, stay true to your organization's mission. Highlight the great work your organization is doing on the ground, and use the same tone your organization typically uses when sharing information. With conversational language, you’ll be better able to build an emotional connection with your reader.

Share Individual Stories

When telling your nonprofit's story, showcasing one specific person or family you’ve impacted will allow your readers to build a connection with who you help and your organization’s work overall. Before sharing specific stories about an individual, get their approval! It’s crucial to ensure the subject is comfortable sharing their story publicly. Keep them involved in the writing and approval process.

Use Direct Quotes

Featuring a direct quote in your nonprofit’s impact story establishes credibility and helps bring it to life. If your subject's quote is too long for your impact story, use a few sentences that best relate to the story you are trying to tell. In this case, provide context for the quote and inform the person who provided it how their words will be used. Keep the full quote in an accessible place for future reference.

Include Your Best Photos 

Compelling photos that support your impact story will help build the emotional connection with your readers and add visual interest to your story. Pictures are also a great way to promote your story on your social media channels! 

Capturing Testimonials to Illustrate Your Impact 

Capturing testimonials from people touched by your nonprofit's work is a powerful way to create compelling impact stories. Here are some tips to get started:

1. Start with a plan. Determine what kind of testimonials you need, who to talk to, and how you'll capture their stories. This might involve contacting past clients, donors, volunteers, or community members.

2. Choose the right questions. Develop a list of questions that will help capture the information you need for your impact story. These questions should be open-ended and designed to elicit detailed, specific answers.

3. Offer guidance. Provide guidance to the person you're interviewing about the kind of information you're looking for. This might include details about the impact of your nonprofit's work on their life, how they became involved with your organization, and what they hope others will learn from their experience.

4. Use multiple formats. You can capture testimonials in various ways, including email, video recordings by phone, recorded Zoom or Google Meet video calls, or callouts you get on social media posts. Experiment with a mix of formats to connect with different audiences and diversify how your message is presented. 

5. Respect privacy. When capturing testimonials, be sure to respect people's privacy and confidentiality. Ask for permission before publicly sharing their story, and use only the information they have permitted you to share.

6. Follow up. Once you've captured a testimonial, follow up with the person who shared their story. This can include thanking them for their time, telling them how their story will be used, and keeping them informed about your nonprofit's progress and impact. This can help build a stronger relationship with the person and create a sense of ongoing engagement with your nonprofit's work.

Resilia Can Help You Tell Your Story!

To make storytelling easy, the Resilia Nonprofit Platform includes the Story Builder tool, which enables you to capture photos, videos, quotes, and stories and use them in board presentations, grant applications, fundraising, and more.

Using the tool, you can easily publish your stories to your linked social media accounts to grow your network – and even add a donations button for fundraising campaigns.

The Platform also offers courses, articles and templates to guide you step-by-step through effective storytelling.

SIgn in to your account, or sign up for the Resilia Nonprofit Platform today!