Six Narrative Templates Every Nonprofit Should Have
Written by Kelly Burnett
Most nonprofit organizations have developed a mission, vision, and impact statement, but what we often miss is the story that weaves these three together. The right story during a conversation with a foundation, in a grant proposal, or at your first sit-down with a potential donor will draw them in to continue reading or want to learn more.
We encourage our clients to develop a narrative portfolio to pull from during these key conversations, as well as equip their staff and volunteers to communicate about the organization to the fullest, without the in-house jargon. With just six types of interconnected stories, your staff, grant writers, and board members will be able to communicate clearly about the mission, impact, and vision, all with a good hook!
Six narratives every nonprofit needs:
Our Origin Story is a compelling narrative that highlights the “why” behind the nonprofit’s creation. This might be in the classic “superhero origin story” sense with a passionate founder, or perhaps it is more nontraditional, like describing the specific unaddressed community need, highlighting the original volunteer board or a merger, or emphasizing a recent mission shift.
2. Our Impact Story highlights how your nonprofit’s intervention led to a personal or community transformation. It is meant to provide evidence that your approach works. Andy Goodman, nonprofit consultant and storytelling expert, refers to this as the “emblematic success story” in his so-called ‘sacred bundle’ of stories. You can find this and more tips in Goodman’s e-book, Storytelling as Best Practice here. For sectors where privacy is a concern, you can change the specifics or combine the stories of several constituents to protect their privacy.
3. Our Focus is a narrative that puts your mission, origin, impact, and constituency into context. This is your opportunity to use numbers (sparingly) to illustrate your impact. To convey a sense of urgency, it is told in the present day, avoiding jargon and in-house language. Many nonprofits use this story as an elevator pitch and include it in their employee onboarding materials.
4. Our People is a narrative that considers the nonprofit’s diverse network of stakeholders, including staff, volunteers, donors, and those receiving its services. This story can incorporate a few demographic statistics and numbers. It can also be used to highlight office culture, or the longevity of the organization’s relationships in the community.
5. Our Strengths is a similar narrative to Our People, but is told through the lens of the inherent value and strengths of the community or your constituents. It is the opposite of a savior story or a victim narrative; instead, it focuses on building upon what is already working well in the community and how to leverage its internal resources. This is a good place to include your organization’s differentiator, or what makes your approach different from that of similar nonprofits in your sector. For funders, the challenge lies not in identifying a worthy cause, but in selecting the organization that will use their funds most effectively to address it.
6. What’s Next? is the narrative version of an organization’s vision. It should paint a vivid picture of what the community will look, feel, and act like once the mission is accomplished. If your organization has a logic model (which we highly recommend!), try breaking down the aspirational long-term impacts to a human level by describing how someone in the neighborhood in 10 years would embody these changes.
Talking with your program staff or long-serving board members and volunteers can be a great first step when searching for the human stories of your organization. Once you are comfortable with all six narratives, we recommend incorporating them into board and employee onboarding and/or hosting a Lunch & Learn with staff. Then, let the power of storytelling take it from there!
