Nonprofit Storytelling
In my career I’ve seen too many grant proposals and strategic plans that look like academic research papers. I’ve been guilty of them myself. While there is a place for lining up rigorous facts and citing all sources, for many documents created by nonprofit organizations, simplicity, directness and the old fashioned art of storytelling are key.
Many years ago I learned about Theory of Change and the Logic Model. What struck most about these frameworks for planning, was that at heart, they were simply about telling a
compelling story that made common sense. If a plan doesn’t tell a story about something that is important to us, what’s the point? If it doesn’t satisfy common sense, no indexed tables or spreadsheets full of data can be fully convincing.
A few weeks ago I heard the wonderful nonprofit storytelling consultant Andy Goodman speak to a standing room only crowd about how organizations can dramatically improve their grant proposals and publicity materials by following some old-fashioned story guidelines: start with a protagonist we care about, interest us in the goals she or he is trying to accomplish, show us the barriers that pop up along the way, and finally, show us the results of the journey.
One example he gave was about a volunteer in a school literacy program - an older man, perhaps in his sixties, who would be dropped off every morning at the school, where the children were always waiting outside to walk him into the classroom. For several hours each day, children took turns reading to him, while he just seemed to stare absently out the window. But each time a child made a mistake in the reading, the man immediately corrected the child and asked him to read the passage again. Every day after class this volunteer went home with the next day’s readings, and his wife read them over to him until he had them memorized. You see, this extraordinary mentor was blind!
When I’m tempted to fall back into stilted, pompous “nonprofitese,” I want to recall this volunteer and remember that those who work in the nonprofit field, and those they serve, are people that grew up with and respond to stories. Stories about aspirations, challenges and, ultimately, some sort of resolution or success. If I can keep this in mind, the grant proposals, strategic plans, press releases, brochures and websites that I create will better be able to reach, touch and interest others in our work together.
You can find out more about Andy Goodman and sign up for his newsletter, online classes, etc. at his website: www.agoodmanonline.com
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