A Quick Guide to Impact Storytelling with Examples
Amidst the bills and junkmail, I found an envelope from one of my favorite nonprofits. Inside was a letter telling the story of how the organization helped boost the confidence of one beneficiary, ultimately resulting in a new job that enabled her family to move to a safer neighborhood. By the end of the letter, I was in tears. I answered their ask by immediately going to their website to make a donation.
That’s the power of an impact story. It moves people to donate, enroll, or get involved. Every nonprofit and informal education program has stories they could share, but collecting and shaping these stories doesn’t happen by accident. This guide will show you how to do it.
What is an impact story?
An impact story is an emotionally moving anecdote that illustrates how your organization changes or improves the lives of the people that you serve. They tell the stories of real people in an effort to showcase what the organization can do. Impact stories may be video, audio, text or image-based. Ultimately, the format is less important than the content.
The vital word here is “story.” Impact stories are more than statistics and generalities. They offer a close-up view with intimate details that evoke emotion. Here is a closer look at what impact storytelling can do for your organization.
Why nonprofits need impact storytelling
Impact stories can be used in a number of ways including marketing, volunteer recruitment, and student recruitment. But the most important use for impact stories is in grant reporting and fundraising.
Impact stories show donors how their money has been or will be used. They create an emotional appeal that sticks with the person making the funding decision. While facts and figures are certainly important, they are unlikely to evoke the kind of feelings that compel someone to fund your organization.
4 Examples of compelling impact stories
The examples below offer a look at the many forms and approaches an impact story can take. Use these as inspiration to start collecting and sharing your own impact stories.
- This blog post from Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts digs deep into one artist’s story to show PAFA’s role in nurturing her toward professional success. It names unique aspects of the program as well as specific instructors, with quotes from the artist. Images of her artwork also feature prominently, infusing color and vitality into the story.
- This post from Springfield Little Theater takes a multi-generational approach, showing how the theater has impacted the life of multiple generations of Peacock-Young’s family. From the romance of a proposal to understudy heroics, this story pulls on the heartstrings in multiple ways. It intersperses long-form quotes from the actress with context provided by the writer.
- This video from North Bennet Street School tells the stories of multiple students alongside statements from instructors and administration. All together it offers a look into the why behind the meaningful work the organization is doing.
- Mid-America Arts Alliance brings together multiple impact stories in their 2024 annual report. They highlight each of their impact areas with a story about a person or performance. Each story includes a video or images as well as a link to a blog post. This multimedia approach makes the story immersive.
These examples may already have you thinking about creative ways to tell your own impact stories. In the next section, we walk you step-by-step through the process.
How to create and share impact stories
Step 1: Get Permission
Students should give consent before their stories are used. If needed, you can create composite stories that obscure student identities, but these tend to be a little less impactful than real stories told by real people.
Often, students are happy to share a good experience with others. Just make sure you get explicit consent for each format. (example of a consent form)
Step 2: Collect Stories
Impact stories are more than simple case studies. Look for unique angles, like the multi-generational story above. Consider your organization's unique mission and reason for being: Are you committed to supporting special impact groups such as families, veterans, the justice involved, unhoused populations, or people with special needs? Focus on stories that demonstrate your impact on these communities. Remember, the focus is on emotion. Anyone hearing or seeing your story should feel moved.
Stories can be collected in the form of video or voice recordings, photographs, or written text. Video recordings are the most versatile because they can be used to create transcripts or even be cut down into a series of images. Wherever possible, record the story in the subject’s own words.
Step 3: Shape, Structure, and Format
Every impact story has three elements, the status quo, the solution, and the impact i.e. how lives were changed. Some stories may naturally fall into this structure. Others may need some shaping.
As you're deciding what to include in an impact story, keep emotion at the core. Ultimately, impact stories are an emotional appeal, not necessarily a data driven one. That said, you can absolutely include data if it supports the story. They tend to work best when you focus on one person or family and explain how your program made their life better. As social creatures, we're fascinated by other humans; when you focus your impact stories on individuals, it allows readers/viewers to empathize and connect.
For more on the science of a compelling story, check out this very interesting article via the NIH "Why inspiring stories make us react: The neuroscience of narrative"
An impact story could be as short as one sentence or as long as a feature-length movie. Shorter stories may be more useful for platforms like social media. But longer-form versions could show up on your website or be featured at a special event.
Step 4: Share
You can share impact stories almost anywhere you communicate. The most common use for impact stories is in fundraising appeals and grant reporting. Most often, these are short texts included in the body of the grant application or funding request. However, once you have these moving stories, you can use them in a number of ways:
- Make your annual report more engaging
- Present them to your board
- Share them on social media
- Post them to a YouTube channel
- Send them to patrons and donors in emails
- Create television commercials or public service announcements
- Incorporate them into speeches or presentations about your organization
- Add them to donor/subscriber/member thank you letters
- Present them at donor meetings
- Share them with your staff to help motivate them
- Create a story page on your website or add one to your donation page
Impact storytelling helps nonprofits thrive
Well-crafted impact stories can help your organization win funding, attract students and volunteers, and build emotional connections. They’re an essential part of your marketing and development toolkit. You can collect these types of stories through concerted efforts and/or through your standard student feedback mechanisms. Check out this blog next for more on how to collect and use student feedback.
