Impact storytelling for nonprofit fundraising and communications
Your impact is real but you communicate it through data and activity lists — donors and partners can't connect emotionally with what you actually do.
What you'll achieve
A bank of compelling human-centred stories that bring your data to life and inspire funders, partners, and supporters to act.
How a Nonprofit Builder consultant helps
- Work with your team to identify, develop, and frame stories from your programmes, and build the templates and guidelines for ongoing storytelling.
Key deliverables
- Story bank, storytelling framework and templates, messaging guidelines, staff training session on story collection.
Related projects
More from Communications & messaging
Advocacy campaign strategy & design
“You want to influence policy or shift public discourse but your advocacy efforts are unfocused — you don't know who to target, what to say, or how to mobilise others.”See project
Brand identity & visual guidelines
“Your visual identity is inconsistent across documents, social media, and presentations — it looks amateurish and undermines the credibility of serious work.”See project
Communications strategy development
“Your communications are completely reactive — you lurch from one announcement to the next with no plan, no consistency, and no shared sense of what you are trying to say.”See project
Often paired with
Impact assessment & reporting
“When a funder asks 'what was your impact?', you can only provide a list of activities you completed.”See project
Case for support development
“Donors don't fully understand why your work matters — your pitch is different every time and never quite lands the way you want it to.”See project
From the resource library
Free tools and guides to get started
- 9.2C119
Dóchas Guide to Ethical Communications
A guide from Dóchas, the Irish network of international development and humanitarian NGOs, for anyone who produces images and stories about the people NGOs work with. It updates the 2006 Dóchas Code of Conduct on Images and Messages. It sets out 3 core values and 4 commitments: authentic representation, contributor-led stories, informed consent, and doing no harm. Each commitment has practical steps, reality-check questions and a final checklist. Signatories follow 10 minimum requirements.
Start hereCurrentKey manual or guideFree - 9.2C118
Stories Worth Telling
A guide from Georgetown's Center for Social Impact Communication and the Meyer Foundation, based on a review of storytelling at more than 150 social impact organisations. It covers 5 building blocks of a story: character, trajectory, authenticity, action-oriented emotions and a hook. It then walks through a story cycle of planning, production, distribution and evaluation, and ends on building a storytelling culture. Companion checklists and tools include a culture self-assessment and a story bank guide.
ClassicKey manual or guideFree with sign-up