When 'Good Stories'? Go Bad

When 'Good Stories' Go Bad

As we head into the year-end fundraising season (not to mention Giving Tuesday), I wanted to share this brief reflection from about a year ago:

During a workshop for about 80 nonprofit fundraising professionals and leaders, I asked how many of them told stories that followed the ‘hero’s journey’ structure that follows a client from extreme challenge, through interaction with their organization, to dramatic transformation.

Almost every hand went up.

Then I asked them to raise their hands if those stories accurately reflected what ‘success’ looks like in the daily life of their organizations. 

Not a single hand went up. ‘Why,’ I asked, ‘Do we tell these stories if they don’t reflect the realities of our work?’ I may have jumped up and down a little when I asked this question. I get excited.

The discussion that unfolded revealed that we tell these stories because we’ve been trained to believe that only stories that adhere to the ‘Big Transformation’ structure will tug at a contributor’s heart strings or generate enough interest to get people involved in our work.

The truth is that these stories do sometimes work in fundraising. There’s lots of data to back that up. But if that fundraising success comes at the expense of an organization’s integrity and with misrepresenting the complexity of its work. . .is that exchange worth it? Or are we ultimately hamstringing our own vision of change and unintentionally supporting inequitable systems by adhering to an outdated, inaccurate, and misleading storytelling practice?

These are big questions that ask us to reconsider the role of ‘story’ in our work and how both the way we tell stories and the stories themselves may have a deeper impact than many of us realize.

For ideas about how to move outside the 'Hero's Journey' box, check out:

#nonprofitstorytelling #nonprofitcommunication #fundraising #ethicalstorytelling #decolonizingstorytelling #nonprofitfundraising

要查看或添加评论,请登录

Michael Kass的更多文章

  • When Compasses Spin: Finding Coherence in Fractured Times

    When Compasses Spin: Finding Coherence in Fractured Times

    Tuning into our inner guidance is and always has been a powerful leadership skill. But it becomes absolutely essential…

    2 条评论
  • Dancing Between Layers: How to Balance Analytical and Embodied Storytelling

    Dancing Between Layers: How to Balance Analytical and Embodied Storytelling

    Just before the holidays, I found myself speaking to a cohort of nonprofit leaders about the distinction between…

    2 条评论
  • A Powerful Map for Leaders Seeking to Meet the Times

    A Powerful Map for Leaders Seeking to Meet the Times

    Over the past few months, I’ve found myself returning to and sharing one ‘map’ more than any other. I thought you might…

    4 条评论
  • The Delightful Story of the Glasses & The Ocean

    The Delightful Story of the Glasses & The Ocean

    As the wave crests, I have just enough time to think ‘I should probably hold on to my glasse–’ before it crashes over…

    35 条评论
  • Story or Use Case or. . .?

    Story or Use Case or. . .?

    With the words ‘story’ and ‘storytelling’ getting thrown around willy-nilly these days, it’s not surprising that their…

    6 条评论
  • Soft Power and Facilitating Deep Change

    Soft Power and Facilitating Deep Change

    Soft Power: The ability to influence others to achieve desired outcomes through attraction and persuasion rather than…

    2 条评论
  • We Need New Stories of Change

    We Need New Stories of Change

    I love this new article from Rebecca Solnit, Slow Change Can Be Radical Change:…

    1 条评论
  • Transformational Change Requires the 'Creative Self'

    Transformational Change Requires the 'Creative Self'

    In her essay Of Power and Time, poet Mary Oliver draws a distinction between the aspects of self that help the world go…

    4 条评论
  • The Not-So-Secret to Better Meetings

    The Not-So-Secret to Better Meetings

    I recently attended a virtual meeting that went something like this: Everyone came into the virtual room, some…

    4 条评论
  • Connecting with Our Stories as Teachers

    Connecting with Our Stories as Teachers

    10 years ago, I performed Ceremony for the first time at the Hollywood Fringe Festival. I’d been a storyteller and…

    1 条评论

社区洞察

其他会员也浏览了