We use narrative craft to help mission-driven orgs focus their strategy and communications.
Is your org story clear?
If your storytelling feels scattered or incohesive, is it due to mission creep (strategy), unaligned metrics (strategy), poor storytelling (comms) or all three?
People often equate storytelling with marketing and communications. But stories hold immense strategic power.
Does your org story stand out?
If it feels generic, is it because you’re working in an overcrowded space (strategy), you need to differentiate (strategy), or your storytelling doesn’t do justice to your work (comms)?
Who are your constituencies?
What do you need them to know, think, or believe in order to activate them toward your mission and goals? What stories can you tell to build those ideas and beliefs?
Tap into the power of story.
Connect the dots between need and impact.
Help people recognize who you are, what change you seek, what you do, how you do it, and what strides you’ve made. Make the case for why you, why now.
Activate your audiencies to help you achieve your goals.
Create a sense of urgency and collectivism through shared values. Counter the narratives that inhibit the action you want to see happen. Enlist other people to become story ambassadors of your work and the change you seek.
Use data to build credibility and bring your story to life.
Legitimize your story using numbers and testimonials. Humanize it using anecdotes, profiles, and case studies.
Your sector is crowded… stand out above the noise.
Don’t tell the same old story. Cut the jargon that a hundred other mission-driven orgs use, and avoid sounding generic. Say something fresh in a narrative voice that reflects who you are.
We help you reach your full storytelling potential.
Story SWOTs
We conduct a thorough review of your story and the stories other organizations are telling. What are the strengths, weaknesses, opportunties and threats of your story given the current landscape?
Narrative strategy
We develop a narrative blueprint that will anchor and align all your communications going forward, define your audiences, and develop “pocket narratives” geared for each audience.
We identify opportunities for actual thought leadership.
AI comms capacity
We first use the narrative blueprint to train AI in developing storytelling, communications, and collateral for your organization.
We then train your team in using the AI.
Narrative data
We help you collect and analyze the data you need to illustrate and substantiate your storytelling, from developing digital data dashboards to coding beautiful data visualizations.
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When narratives become dangerous
Our founder writes a first person essay about the dangerous impact of negative narratives.
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Why does every org sound the same?
Vague and generic narratives are holding back nonprofits. Here are a few strategies for cutting the jargon.
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Forgotten challenges of rural schools
Mainstream narratives have contributed to the erasure of rural schools from the national dialogue.