When nationally-recognized communications consultant Andy Goodman works with nonprofits, he teaches them six
categories of stories that he feels every nonprofit should collect; it’s what
he calls a nonprofit’s “sacred bundle.” Below he defines the categories and
helps you think about how to approach developing stories to fill your own
bundle.
The nature of our challenge story: This story describes the problem that you are trying to address with your programs/services. “Too often, we express this as a number,” warns Goodman. “One student drops out every 26 seconds; there’s been a 17 percent increase in X,” he adds, “but people don’t respond to numbers the same way they respond to stories.” If nonprofits want those outside of their organizations to understand what they’re doing, they need to tell them a story about people, families, and communities, which illustrate the challenge.
The creation story: This is the “how we started” story. “It’s primarily for internal use,” Goodman says, “but I think everybody who works in an organization should know it.” This story shares who started the organization, why it was started, and when it was started.
The emblematic success story: Are you having an impact? This story, primarily for external use, is the story that says “yes” but also that your organization makes a difference in a particular way that’s unique. “Particularly, in the nonprofit world, there’s so much overlap in what organizations do that if I’m an environmental organization, and I’m fighting global warming, and we’re making progress, well great,” Goodman says. “But why should I give my money to you as opposed to the Environmental Defense Fund or Union of Concerned Scientists, or World Wildlife?” This story shares your unique approach and why it works.
The values story: These are the stories through which your organization shows how it lives into its core values. Many organizations have the same set of core values--collaboration, integrity, respect, etc.—so to be unique you need to describe how your organization specifically lives into those values and expresses those values.
The striving to improve story: This story is for internal use and says “sometimes we fall short, sometimes we outright fail, but we always learn from our mistakes and do better next time,” Goodman says. These stories are healthy for internal culture—they are the stories that you can use to show empathy. “You can throw your arm around someone’s shoulder and say, ‘you know, it happens, we’re humans,’” says Goodman. The where we are going story: This is a story that says if your organization does its job right, this is what it will look like in five to 10 years. “But all too often we will sort of confine this to numbers: If we do our job right, there will be 10 percent less of this; 17,000 people will experience that,” says Goodman. “Again those are numbers, and they don’t get people’s blood racing.”
“But if you can give them a vision, actually take them into that world and say ‘Let me take you into Boston, in the year 2020’ and walk around the streets and show you how it’s different because of your nonprofits’ work—now you have something that people can feel,” adds Goodman. (For an example of this see the Anti-Defamation League video “Imagine a World without Hate”.)
The nature of our challenge story: This story describes the problem that you are trying to address with your programs/services. “Too often, we express this as a number,” warns Goodman. “One student drops out every 26 seconds; there’s been a 17 percent increase in X,” he adds, “but people don’t respond to numbers the same way they respond to stories.” If nonprofits want those outside of their organizations to understand what they’re doing, they need to tell them a story about people, families, and communities, which illustrate the challenge.
The creation story: This is the “how we started” story. “It’s primarily for internal use,” Goodman says, “but I think everybody who works in an organization should know it.” This story shares who started the organization, why it was started, and when it was started.
The emblematic success story: Are you having an impact? This story, primarily for external use, is the story that says “yes” but also that your organization makes a difference in a particular way that’s unique. “Particularly, in the nonprofit world, there’s so much overlap in what organizations do that if I’m an environmental organization, and I’m fighting global warming, and we’re making progress, well great,” Goodman says. “But why should I give my money to you as opposed to the Environmental Defense Fund or Union of Concerned Scientists, or World Wildlife?” This story shares your unique approach and why it works.
The values story: These are the stories through which your organization shows how it lives into its core values. Many organizations have the same set of core values--collaboration, integrity, respect, etc.—so to be unique you need to describe how your organization specifically lives into those values and expresses those values.
The striving to improve story: This story is for internal use and says “sometimes we fall short, sometimes we outright fail, but we always learn from our mistakes and do better next time,” Goodman says. These stories are healthy for internal culture—they are the stories that you can use to show empathy. “You can throw your arm around someone’s shoulder and say, ‘you know, it happens, we’re humans,’” says Goodman. The where we are going story: This is a story that says if your organization does its job right, this is what it will look like in five to 10 years. “But all too often we will sort of confine this to numbers: If we do our job right, there will be 10 percent less of this; 17,000 people will experience that,” says Goodman. “Again those are numbers, and they don’t get people’s blood racing.”
“But if you can give them a vision, actually take them into that world and say ‘Let me take you into Boston, in the year 2020’ and walk around the streets and show you how it’s different because of your nonprofits’ work—now you have something that people can feel,” adds Goodman. (For an example of this see the Anti-Defamation League video “Imagine a World without Hate”.)