The Storytelling Non-Profit: A practical guide to telling stories that raise money and awareness by Vanessa Chase Lockshin

Author:Vanessa Chase Lockshin [Lockshin, Vanessa Chase]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Lockshin Consulting Inc
Published: 2016-08-22T22:00:00+00:00

Now that you’ve determined what your audience wants to know, what questions can you ask to find out that information?

While it might seem to prolong the process of getting and developing the story, using your audience as a lens is incredibly helpful and will ultimately make you a more effective storyteller. After all, the whole point is to effectively communicate with your audience so that they will want to answer the call to action.

Sample Questions for Interviewing a Program Staff Member for a Story

Let’s say you want to interview a staff member about a program they run and to collect a story about someone who has participated in that program. Instead of asking your colleague to tell you a story about someone in the program, here are five alternative questions to ask:

Question #1 – Tell me what problem this program/service addresses?

Question #2 – Can you tell me about a specific person who has used this program?

Question #3 – What was his/her life like before they began working with you?

Question #4 – Do you remember the first time you met him/her? What was his/her emotional state like?

Question #5 – Now that this person has gone through this program, what is his/her life like? What is their outlook for the future?

As you can see, these questions are arranged to help coax your colleagues to share their stories. The questions provide clear direction, which is essential for building confidence and comfort during an interview. Additionally, they allow you to get a sense of the problem this program addresses and a specific example of such problem solving in action.

Storytelling Advice from Catholic Volunteer Network

Does your organization have a blog? Are you looking for content to share on your Facebook page?

These are constant problems that many organizations face. Having great content that engages your organization’s community is key to standing out online. Stories are a type of content that can help explain your organization’s work and also humanize the organization.

Larissa Dalton Stephanoff from Catholic Volunteer Network shares how she manages their outstanding blog to consistently share great volunteer stories.

Tell us a bit about Catholic Volunteer Network and your role there.

Larissa (Catholic Volunteer Network): Catholic Volunteer Network (CVN) is a leading membership organization of Christian volunteer and mission programs. We promote faith-based domestic and international volunteer service opportunities for people of all ages, backgrounds, and skills. More than 20,000 people serve through more than 200 CVN programs each year.

I work as the Communication Coordinator for CVN. I am a bit of a “Jane-of-all-trades!” I manage the website, blog, and social media; produce the annual Response directory in-house; coordinate advertising on our website, in the Response, and advertisements we place; cover nearly all of our graphic design needs; and assist with fundraising efforts.

CVN has an outstanding blog that features lots of original content and stories. What prompted you to start blogging?

Larissa: The blog existed when I joined the CVN team last December. It primarily serves as an outlet for sharing stories and reflections from volunteers. Most of

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.