6 Storytelling Secrets for Nonprofit Professionals

Whether you are a business maven or a nonprofit pro, stories are a very useful tool to have as part of your arsenal. Stories engage target audiences like nothing else can. They can even change opinions and create new feelings and ideas in the hearts of listeners. If your goal is to inspire change in the mind and heart of your listener, then you must tell your story with conviction. To do so, your story must have a higher purpose, that is it must need to educate, to entertain, or to evoke a response of some kind. A really great story can do all three. It is important in conveying the story's purpose, your specific mission, through the story that you make it abundantly clear to your targeted audience what the mission is, why it is required, and who it is that is served by the mission. Speak directly to your audience. Know ahead of time what matters to them. You should come armed with foreknowledge as to their median age, their pains, their preferred activities, interests, and their economic needs. Paint the struggle. Make sure that the audience understands how they fit in. Most importantly, end with a call to a commitment to action.

Key Takeaways:

• Stories are the best way to reach an audience and encourage it to act.
• When telling stories, you should know what your story is meant to do and who you're telling it for.
• You should use the story to draw on strong feelings in the audience, and can even base it on them.

“Repeat after me: I have to know my target audience if I want to be successful at storytelling.”

Read more: https://bloomerang.co/blog/6-storytelling-secrets-for-nonprofit-professionals/