Nonprofit storytelling uses personal narratives, data, and measurable outcomes in crafting a message that helps supporters better understand an organization’s cause. 

This workshop from Data you Can Use will help your organization use storytelling to elicit an emotional response, action, or other behavior. It will include steps needed to craft your message and create your story while adapting it for diverse groups of people. The stories you create can be told in the first or third person and involve real people or situations. They can be told anywhere in your nonprofit communications strategy, including social media, blog content, website testimonials, newsletters, grant reports, and annual reports.

Storytelling is an effective communication technique for several reasons:

• Stories are memorable: Dates, figures, and statistics can be hard to remember. But how often do you forget a compelling story? Not often. Data doesn't invoke an emotional response unless we connect it to a story. Remember: "No data without stories and no stories without data."
• Stories create human emotion: It's easy to write off statistics and figures because no faces, lives, or names are associated with them. Stories pull at our heartstrings because we imagine what our lives would be like if we were in a similar situation.
• Stories inspire people to act: Because a great story can cause powerful emotions, people are more likely to take immediate action (potentially by donating to your cause).