story telling how non-profit organizations can successfully utilize emotion-based personal narratives to market their programs
Table of Contents
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Introduction
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What makes a good personal narrative
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Techniques for acquiring personal narrative
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Tips for using visuals
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Creating a content calendar
Storytelling for Non-Profits
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About the Author Victoria von Dohlen is the development and agency relations manager at a non-profit organization in Winston-Salem. She oversees fundraising, public relations, grant writing, marketing and communications. She is a graduate of UNC Greensboro, where she received a bachelor’s degree in English education. After graduating, she joined the AmeriCorps where she served as a marketing coordinator and fell in love with marketing and communications. Since 2017, Victoria has served on the Board of Directors of the Association of Fundraising Professionals and is a 2017 graduate of Dale Carnegie. In 2019, she launched thisinspiredcozylife.com, a personal lifestyle blog that features advice regarding budgeting, affordable gift ideas, health and more. She is currently pursuing her Master’s degree in Digital Communication at UNC Chapel Hill and is enrolled in Leadership Winston-Salem. She lives in High Point with her husband, two dogs and three cats.
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Storytelling for Non-Profits
intro duction
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Storytelling for Non-Profits
Successfully utilizing social media strategies and positive emotional personal narratives as free advertising can help alleviate non-profit marketing barriers.
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Non-profit organizations rely heavily (often solely) on donations to operate. Whether through grant funding, fundraisers, individual donations, or supporting a businessarm of the organization, sharing non-profit programmatic impact through emotional personal narratives can positively impact donations and organization support. The purpose of this toolkit is to help non-profits use positive emotional personal narratives to market their programs with the ultimate goal of doing just that – increasing donations and organization support. This toolkit will take you through four primary focuses for effective storytelling: 1. What makes a good personal narrative; 2. Techniques for acquiring personal narrative; 3. Tips for using visuals; and 4. Creating a content calendar.
rytelling Storytelling for Non-Profits
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What makes a good personal narrative will include information on positive versus negative storytelling, components of a story, the consideration of the audience, tips to inspire action and more. Techniques for acquiring personal narrative will include a list of potential interview questions, incentives for storytelling, interviewing tips and more. Tips for using visuals will focus on the usage of photos, captions, tips for writing headlines, pull-quotes and more. Finally, creating a content calendar will take us into an example of a content calendar that can be replicated, the frequency of posts, avenues and platforms for using stories and more. Research shows that using a positive emotional programmatic success story can help viewers and listeners remember the ad and the non-profit far better than a negative emotional ad; help maintain a positive view of the non-profit;
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lead to trust and satisfaction in the non-profit; encourage the use of electronic word of mouth to help spread information about the organization; help supporters and potential supporters understand and often contradict preconceived notions of what a recipient of non-profit organization services may look like; and so much more. The opportunities and benefits of marketing through storytelling are limitless. Let’s get started.
Storytelling for Non-Profits
what makes a good personal narrative
life liberty & the
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We grew up learning the components of a story from our favorite fairy tales and bedtime stories. We know that a good story has a beginning, a middle and an end. We know it needs a setting. Where does the story take place? Describing the scene helps us envision the story. We also know it needs characters and we want to
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story
see those characters face a challenge. That’s what's going to help make the characters relatable. And once they face and overcome their challenge, it’s what will inspire us to be able to do the same. Now let's take it a step further.
Storytelling for Non-Profits
"GIVE SOMETHING OF MEANING TO YOUR AUDIENCE BY INSPIRING, ENGAGING & EDUCATING THEM WITH STORY. STOP MARKETING. START STORYTELLING." Laura Holloway, Founder and Chief of The Storyteller Agency
As non-profit organizations, we have to consider our audience. According to research by Damon Kiesow, we must consider WHO is the audience? Is it potential donors or volunteers? Is it your board members? That will make a difference in answering the next question. WHAT is the story? Answer this question by working backwards. What are you trying to accomplish? Knowing your audience and the purpose behind your story will also help you decide WHERE to distribute the story. Where do you connect with your audience members? Is it a specific newspaper? Is it your website? WHEN are you publishing? How much time do you have to gather your sources and write? Is this a good time for a news source to pick up the story? WHY will people read this? Does the story use positivity and emotion to inspire? Does it give people hope in humanity? Ask yourself what will keep readers interested. HOW are you measuring impact? Will you use Insight analytics? Will your impact be measured by the number of people who complete the Call to Action?
Storytelling for Non-Profits
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01 02 03 6 tips 04 05 06 to inspire
action in storytelling
Our ultimate goals as storytellers in the non-profit world is to share impact and inspire people to take action. It is through positive emotional storytelling that people are able to, sometimes for the first time, understand the difference non-profit programs and services make for people that are just like them. Use these tips to motivate your readers to act on behalf of your organization.
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Stories that support solutions can be powerful and offer hope. Think: An interview with an insider, a changed agent, an expert.
Lead with shared values. Remind the audience that we are all in this together and why our efforts matter.
Include a Call to Action. What do you want to inspire and motivate people to do once they've heard or read the story?
Use direct quotes. Hearing directly from the interviewee about their experience helps connect the audience to the story and the message.
Using pictures helps put a face to a story, often challenging a person's preconceived notions of what a recipient of non-profit services looks like.
Research shows the use of positive emotional narratives has a greater impact on storyrecall. People are more likely to donate and get involved as well.
techniques for aquiring personal narrative
Capturing the Story From making the connection and securing the interview, to writing the story and effectively sharing it with your audiences, storytelling can come with challenges. Being adequately prepared to face those challenges, however, can make all the difference. Master the tips below from research done for Writing and Editing for Digital Media to help you capture positive emotional stories.
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CREATE INCENTIVES
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DO YOUR RESEARCH
Getting connected with story opportunities can sometimes be challenging. Help alleviate those challenges by offering incentives for people to share their stories. If your work has cool swag, give interviewees a "swag bag" to say "thank you for sharing your story with me." If your work sells event tickets, give interviewees two tickets to an upcoming event. If the interviewees feel appreciated, they are more likely to recommend you to a friend.
Figure out as much as you can about the interviewee before the interview. This will help you develop good interview questions and figure out what questions to ask first. If your interviewee has done several interviews in the past, study those interviews. Give your interview an edge by asking questions other interviewers haven't asked before. Be familiar with the subject. What do you need to know to develop smart questions?
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The key to a good interview is genuine curiosity. You have to want to hear what the person has to say.
HAVE GOOD QUESTIONS
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ADJUST AND REACT
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BE PREPARED
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Use your research to help create good questions. Don’t be too tied to your list, however. Flexibility is key. Build up to more challenging, difficult, potentially uncomfortable questions. Better questions are open-ended, not ones that can be answered with a yes or no. Jot down questions as they pop in your head during the interview. Prioritize your questions by asking yourself, "What questions most need answering for this to be a successful interview"?
Knowing what to do when your interviewee gets uncomfortable or starts to dodge questions can help produce a better interview. Pay attention to the body language of your interviewee and know when you've lost their attention. Learn when to push harder and when to pull back. Don’t be afraid of silence. It is often these moments of quiet reflection that lead to the best quotes of the interview.
Get there early to acquaint yourself with your surroundings. Make sure your recording equipment is working correctly, you have adequate storage on your equipment, and you know how to use the on/off and record/stop recording buttons (sounds ridiculous but it's important). Bring a notebook and a pen to take notes. Have your interview questions ready and the interviewee's phone number in case you need it. Be ready to go on time.
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Potential Interview Questions "Tell me about yourself" is sometimes the only question you will need to help the interviewee feel comfortable and get the information you are looking for. When that doesn't work, however, it is important to be prepared with additional, tailored questions to help lead the conversation. See below for examples of interview questions: Your First Name: Your Last name: Your Current age: Where do you live? 1. Tell about yourself. 2. Tell me about your diagnosis. When did it occur? 3. What was your life like before your diagnosis? 4. What has your recovery process been like? 5. How did you get through this difficult time? 6. What is the status of your illness now? 7. Has your perspective on life changed since your diagnosis? If so, how? 8. How do you maintain your life-changing perspective in this world that constantly takes people and life for granted? 9. What have we not talked about that might be important? BONUS TIPS FOR A GOOD INTERVIEW Have a sense of humor. Make it fun! If you can't be funny, be organized and energetic. Take good notes. Use more than one method to record the interview. Develop a few throw-away questions you can pose to buy time to catch up on your note-taking on the information that matters. Have your interviewee fill out a media release form to give you written permission to use the story.
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Storytelling for Non-Profits
tips for using visuals
5 Tips for Using Visuals to Help Your Story Stand Out
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In addition to adding a spark of creativity (a play on words, humor, etc.), a good headline should follow a set of rules. See below for the basics for writing a good headline: Use present tense Write a good headline Omit articles Omit present-tense forms of the verb “to be” FAMILY LOSES Replace “will” with “to” EVERYTHING IN Replace “and” with a comma or semi-colon numerals rather than spelling out FIRE, GAINS Use numbers to save space HOPE Omit end punctuation Figure 1.1 Attribution is important, even in a headline Use single quote marks
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Every medium should include a visual. Whether it's a blog post, a story delivered in print, an article on the web, a video, or any other medium, pictures can help tell a story and create an emotional connection. Give a story a face A picture of the interviewee, the interviewee and their family, a beforeand-after picture, a picture that elicits joy, or a picture of someone experiencing grief can often tell a story or provoke a feeling that words can't. Can't use a picture for privacy purposes? Using a direct quote and/or a pull-quote (see pg. 18) can help connect a story with a person, creating a similar effect.
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Figure 1.1: This headline substitutes "and" for a comma and uses a play on words. Figure 2.1: Without using words, the couple in the picture help evoke feelings of joy and happiness.
Figure 2.1
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Use an appealing graphic and catchy headline to make a good first impression to potential podcast listeners. This can be the difference between someone choosing to listen or Podcasts need good bypassing your podcast completely. visuals, too A podcast can be a powerful, asynchronous method of storytelling. Even though a podcast primarily uses sense of hearing to connect with audiences, graphics play a key role as well. Use content creation websites like Canva and Creative Market to help you create standout graphics for your podcast. Figure 3.1: This image uses a picture of the interviewee, the title of the podcast, the episode name and number, large and differing fonts and color to help the graphic stand out.
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Every image needs a caption. Use who, what, when, where, and why to help describe the image. Who is included in the picture? Use first and last names when possible. Are the people in the picture associated with a Describe the image particular group? Be sure to include official titles of the people in the picture where applicable. What are the people in the picture doing? When was the picture taken? Where are they? Why is this image significant?
Figure 4.1 Using "who, what, when, where and why," we can create a caption for the image above. The caption might look something like this: Amy Jones, Airman First Class with the United States Airforce, leads the race at the Airforce Marathon for Breast Cancer Awareness event in Dallas, TX on Saturday.
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A pull-quote can help draw attention to a particularly colorful, provocative, impactful quote, encouraging the reader to want to learn more. Place the quote to the left or right of the Use pull quotes story text, or use it as a break between paragraphs. To help the quote stand out, Pro-tip: Don't use try these tips: increase the font size, use a pull-quote to let all caps, use bold or italics, change the font and use brackets. You may also the reader know choose to repeat the pull quote in the everyone dies at body of the story or let the pull-quote the end. Don't serve as the quote in the body of the story. Once you decide to repeat the reveal too much. quote or not, continue to follow that Figure 5.1 pattern for the remainder of the story.
A pull-quote can help draw attention to a particularly colorful, provocative, impactful quote, encouraging the reader to want to learn more. Figure 5.2 Figure 5.1: This quote uses brackets, bold font, and a larger font size. It is placed to the left of the story text and does not appear anywhere else in the text body. Figure 5.2: This quote uses brackets, a different font, and a larger text size. It is placed in the center as a break between paragraphs, and also appears at the beginning of the text body.
TIPS FOR FINDING FREE IMAGES Finding images when you can't take your own doesn't have to be expensive or difficult. Check out the following websites for free image downloads: 1. www.canva.com 6. www.pexels.com 2. www.shutterstock.com 7. www.freepik.com 3. www.freeimages.com 8. www.pixabay.com 4. www.stockfreeimages.com 5. www.unsplash.com
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Storytelling for Non-Profits
creating a content calendar
Content calendars are gamechangers A content calendar is a useful tool to help you provide the content your audience cares about, like emotional personal narratives. It’s also a great way to keep organized and think through your organization marketing strategy. What platforms make the most sense for your audience? What platforms are most useful for storytelling? Work through the steps below to help you create your content calendar.
Getting Started
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KNOW YOUR AUDIENCE
Who are the people and groups associated with your organization? Are you trying to reach current and potential donors? What about clients, partners, and volunteers? How old are the potential volunteers you are seeking? What is their income level? Are they tech-savvy or do they prefer to read in print? Knowing this will help you determine the platforms you will use and the type of content you will produce.
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CHOOSE YOUR PLATFORM(S)* Whether it's Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, LinkedIn, TikTok, YouTube, Twitter, your website, etc., there are endless platforms for marketing and communications professionals to share their content. Choose the platform(s) that makes the most sense for your organization and your audience.
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DECIDE ON POST FREQUENCY How often and when to post should be determined by when your fan base is using the platform.** You should also consider the level of activity your organization engages in. Are there events every day or once a month? Are you making sure to adequately cover your content categories? You may decide to have a Program Spotlight week each month to focus on programmatic updates, or an Impact Week to share emotional personal narratives, for example.
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DECIDE WHAT TYPE OF CONTENT YOU'LL POST What does your target audience care about? Do they want to see the impact your services are having on the community? Most likely. Emotional personal narratives should then be a priority. What about upcoming events? How to donate and other ways to get involved? Programmatic updates? Use what your audience cares about to create the content categories of your calendar.
TIPS FOR DECIDING WHEN TO POST** This is how to figure out when your fans are on Facebook (AKA when you should post for the best chance of engagement): log into Facebook and click on the organization page you manage; Click on "Insights" under "Manage Page"; Click "Post Engagement." There you will see a graph detailing the number of your organization fans that are online for a recent one-week period. You can also see the total number of your organization fans online per day. Use this information to help you decide when to post to maximize engagement.
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Choosing Your Platform(s)* Social media platforms are useful in their own unique way, catering to different audiences and showcasing various types of content. Social media platforms also don't have a fee (unless you specifically pay for an ad), which makes it an incredibly effective marketing tool for non-profits when done correctly. Use the information below to help you choose platforms that fit your needs.
Platform user demographics
Uses for Facebook: Post updates, ask and answer questions, post business reviews, post pictures and videos, create captions, re-share content, tag, like comment, and direct message
What the data tells us: Facebook can reach a wide range of audiences, from age groups, education, age, etc.
Platform user demographics
Uses for Instagram: Showcase pictures and videos, create captions, connect content with hashtags, re-share content, tag, like, comment and direct message
What the data tells us: The age distribution is skewed more towards
22 younger users and, compared to Facebook, Instagram has fewer users overall.
Uses for LinkedIn: career-related networking, re-share content, post pictures and videos, tag, like, comment, and direct message, connect content with hashtags
Platform user demographics
What the data tells us: LinkedIn is a good platform to potentially connect with businesses and professionals through its user base, as many of the users have college degrees and higher paying jobs. Uses for Twitter: List and link company information, post updates, ask and answer questions, post pictures and videos, use hashtags to link conversation topics, re-share content
Platform user demographics
What the data tells us: While many people think Twitter is the most-used social media platform, it is ranked lowest according to the data presented in terms of usage. However, one of the main benefits of Twitter is the possibility of posts being widely shared and going viral.
Storytelling for Non-Profits
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Platform user demographics
Uses for YouTube: Post and watch, videos, create a channel, comment and respond to comments, use captions
What the data tells us: Similar to Facebook, YouTube is one of the more widely-used platforms and has the potential to reach a wide range of users. More thoughts on social media for non-profits Some non-profit sectors may not value social media as highly as others. However, that may be, in large part, due to the varying budgets of non-profit organizations which often dictates the staff and time available to dedicate to social media marketing for the purpose of fundraising like other larger nonprofits might (the good news? Disclosure is not a requirement for effective social media usage for donors, potential donors, and others interested in the non-profit). Effective communication is still key, however. See below for more ways non-profits can share impact through emotional personal narratives.
TIPS FOR USING PERSONAL NARRATIVES Non-profit emotional personal narratives can be used for more than websites and social media. Incorporating personal narratives into organization talking points and allowing program participants to be spokespeople for the organization can garner transformational organization support. Additional opportunities of contact with the non-profit through social functions and speaking engagements allow donors (or potential donors) the opportunity to connect with and create social ties with the organization.
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Storytelling for Non-Profits
Creating a Calendar Content calendars are the ultimate marketing tool and a content strategist's best friend. In one visually amazing glance, you can convey your company's content marketing strategy, target audience insights, content themes and content ideas. - Keesia Wirt, Creating a Beautiful Content Calendar Use the table below to help you create your own content calendar. A table like this can be made using a spreadsheet. Remember - a content calendar is never set-in-stone. Feel free to adapt the calendar to accommodate changes and opportunities within your organization.
B
F E
A D
H
G
C
A
List the platforms you plan to use. Be careful not to list too many. Remember to do it right, you will need to create unique content for each platform.
B
List the days of the week for the month and fill in the content based on the frequency you want to post. Pro tip: include the weekends.
C
Choose the times for your posts. Remember to post when the most fans are going to be utilizing the platform.
D
Mix up your content type throughout the month and use this section to help you create content themes.
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Break down the type of content you want to post. What kind of success story do you want to post? What specific event do you want to post about?
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Use this space to store captions for your posts. Once you are ready to schedule the content, you can copy and paste into the platform.
G
Use this space to store the link to a picture you will include with the post.
H
Is the post scheduled? Use this space to indicate "scheduled." Has the post already been published? Indicate "published" instead. Storytelling for Non-Profits
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