Storytelling. Not to be confused as a buzzword, for its roots are much deeper than just trends or tactics. Stories are a fundamental part of the human experience. Stories connect people to each other and the world around them.
Strong storytelling can be one of the most useful techniques in your communications toolbox.
To kickstart a series of blogs, we’re summarising why charity storytelling deserves your attention. This series will explore how you can enter a new chapter for your charity’s storytelling, one with even stronger impact.
What makes a story?
Storytelling belongs to everyone, fondly regarded across cultures and time. Storytelling is one of the adaptive traits we gained through human evolution.
Influencing with their balance of insight and emotions, stories show us what the world is like now and what’s possible. Stories do this by offering glimpses into the realities and transformations that people or communities have experienced, and the journeys they took along the way.
The foundation of stories are structures, subjects, emotions and actions, with ‘the story’ or ‘the plot’ the deliberate and imaginative interplay between these elements to stir feeling and memory. These features are what make it distinct from other outputs, like academic papers, recipes or manuals that impart information as an instruction or “matter of fact”.
Storytelling is both a science and an art, in that way.
Stories help us make sense of the world or build metaphorical ones around us. From fictional tales to people’s accounts, stories offer us knowledge, escape and connection.
The best stories give us more understanding of ourselves, society and cultures, not only defining who we are but helping us relate to other people, places and beings. Stories have held onto their significance throughout history as a method for capturing events and experiences, resonating in the moment or for years or centuries afterward.
If you need more on the building blocks of story, see resources on our charity storytelling hub.
Why do we need to re-examine charity storytelling?
Charity storytelling is distinctive in both its reason and effect. We’ve seen it throughout the many case studies, advice pieces and conversations shared with us through the years, like:
- Why we need campaigns that tell a different story – a case study which diverts usual storylines by showing the joy in hospice care.
- The storytelling tug of war: do stories empower or dehumanise? – a blog which explores when empowering storytellers turns to dehumanising them, and what to do about it.
- Creatives group: Ethical storytelling – an event to bring creatives together to discuss and develop how we work with storytellers.
The world in which we are communicating is shifting rapidly – from technological influences like artificial intelligence, changing social media algorithms and online trolling to geopolitical events and sharp ideological divisions.
In the age of information, where audiences are overloaded by content and false narratives, cutting through the noise is getting increasingly difficult.
And even if your story reaches people, there is not always a guarantee that the story will land the way you hoped.
Audiences are calling on organisations to be transparent and authentic. This is not only what they want but what they expect. This call also translates to audiences wanting to know much more about the impact being made by organisations.
It’s not enough to simply tell a story of your cause or the people nowadays. To reach goals, we must look deeper at ourselves and each other. And that ultimately comes back to not only the stories we tell, see, hear and support, but also how they are made.
So, our role as charity communicators means stepping back as much as we step in.
Being responsible means holding the space for storytellers and audiences. Encouraging them to express themselves and avoiding the urge to over process the work.
Ethics and purpose must be at the heart of modern charity storytelling.
It requires communicators to hone their skills, understand the context, and evolve their processes. This is all at a time when the sector is squeezed for time and resources. But developing your storytelling is not impossible, nor is it necessarily burdensome.
Throughout the series and our hub page you will start to discover:
- Definitions of storytelling and storytelling concepts
- Inspirational case studies and informative resources
- Questions, ideas and prompts
- Thought leadership from across the sector
We want to thank all the contributors to our site (past, present and future) and to resources shared in the wider sector. Without the generosity of these writers and speakers, this series wouldn’t be possible. And we want to thank all of you – for going on a journey with us to explore how to maximise your impact through your storytelling.
Discover more on the charity storytelling page
Contribute your storytelling skills and studies
We’re looking for case studies and thought leadership to build up this series. If you have something to say or share on charity storytelling, contact our comms team at comms@charitycomms.org.uk.
Photo credit: Photo by Ashutosh Sonwani via Pexels.
Acknowledgements: With thanks to Matt Chittock and Sarah Myers for their guidance and support.
