Here’s how to find good stories
You need stories to build your story-bank. Here’s how.
Find stories internally
- Host a “mission moment” in every meeting you hold (staff meeting, coaching session, board meeting, volunteer meeting)
- Cap the sharing to five minutes to keep your meeting from being cannibalized by storytelling
- Use Ask the Right Questions template to tease the right detail out of your staff, board members, clients, participants, or volunteers
- Ask for volunteers with a hot story, or rotate calling on people to share so they come to the meeting prepared with a story
- The only rule about the story is that it must include real people and real feelings–people’s BS meter is pretty refined these days
Find stories externally
- Ask clients and beneficiaries of your program as part of a semi-annual survey
- Ask clients and beneficiaries as part of a post-event or post-program survey
- Run a branded campaign or contest to collect stories from your members, clients, participants, or beneficiaries. One of the most high-profile campaigns we’ve seen recently is the NFL’s “Together We Make Football” campaign
- Ask your Facebook fans to share their stories
- Add a link to your website for people to share their story like March of Dimes’ example here or Safe Kids Worldwide. The American Red Cross even offers segmented links based on your relationship to Red Cross, volunteer, sponsor, recipient of Red Cross services, etc.
- Work with the media or specialty reporter to ask for stories like this example. This article asking readers to share their story about Postpartum Depression asks hard questions, like: Did you feel ashamed or embarrassed that you were having these feelings?
Storytelling series
We’re running a series of blogs to support your organizational storytelling. Here are links to the posts so far in the series. Stay tuned for posts on how to modify your story for each communication channel and the underbelly of storytelling.
