Course summary

Well done on completing this course. Here is a summary of the key ideas from the course. We encourage you to discuss what you have learnt with your team.

Mastering organisational storytelling:

• Your team needs to know you before they hear your facts. Stories help people to trust your facts
• People remember stories over data
• Develop a culture of storytelling in your organisation. Stories help everyone feel included in the vision of the organisation

Develop a culture of storytelling

• Record any story being told
• Tell stories at staff meetings
• Collect and keep the stories for future use

How to coach someone to tell their story

• Listen to the story without judgement
• Listen to the whole story and take notes
• Reflect the story back to the person and ask clarifying questions
• Offer to send them the outline and have them put the words to it

Owning your organisation’s narrative:

• Be proactive
• Be authentic
• Be consistent
• Be engaging
• Be responsive

The 4 stories leaders need to tell:

• Who we are stories – what it means to be us
• Vision stories – the future we desire
• Values in action stories – how the espoused values show up in our organisation.
• Change and learning stories – the stories about a time we tried something and learned from it

“Stories give donors context to see where they fit in accomplishing the mission.”

Kay Helm

Collecting stories:

Stories give context to information and help people to make sense of the world. If an organisation is going to craft compelling narratives and build a community using shared stories, someone within the organisation will need to wear the storyteller’s hat.

Here is a short how-to guide for collecting your organisation’s stories.

• Set clear objectives
• Identify story sources
• Develop a story collection framework
• Train your team
• Create a safe space
• Document the stories
• Organise and store the stories
• Review and curate
• Share the stories responsibly
• Evaluate and adapt

Leaders guide questions:

• What action steps will you take to develop a culture of storytelling in your organisation?
• Reflecting on the 4 core stories, which stories are you not telling and what can you put in place to ensure they are being told?
• How has storytelling improved your fundraising and in what ways can you improve your storytelling to raise more funds?
• Who is best positioned to wear the “storyteller’s hat” in your organisation? What skills or competencies would they need to possess to be well-suited to such a role?