The Ethical Storytelling Ecosystem
People + organizations concerned with the practice and study of impact storytelling, with regard to ethics.
The Ethical Storytelling Ecosystem is a specific corner of the storytelling boom.
The storytelling boom triggered many types of storytelling — but the ethical storytelling movement emerged from a specific subset of stories in the storytelling boom:
Instrumentalized stories: when a story is produced and used as an instrument — especially fundraising — the potential for unethical storytelling practice appears.
Impact stories: organizations tell many stories today — founding stories, brand stories, donor stories — but the concerns of ethical storytelling are located specifically with stories about the impact of an organization’s work on the life of someone who has benefitted.
NGO/nonprofit storytelling: the relationship between a for-profit company and a customer who has benefitted from its product is very different to the relationship between a nonprofit/NGO and someone who has benefitted from its programmatic work. Additionally, for-profit companies can offer a customers a paid promotions, whereas nonprofits can not.
Studying Narrative Texts
Narratologists
Researching Storytelling Practices
Development organizations
Nonprofit funders
Producing Narrative Texts
Communications professionals
Storytelling consultants
Interviewees
Audiences
Nonprofit funders (organizations)
Donors (individuals)
Media (news media + documentary filmmakers)
People
Institutions
Narrative Texts
Academics
Story producers
Story participants
Nonprofits, NGOs + social change organizations
Development organizations
Social impact media companies
Social impact film
Narratologists study narrative texts, including instrumentalized impact stories. The rise of storytelling in the storytelling boom has led to a story-critical approach by narrative academics.
Staff at a nonprofit, NGO or social change organization who are tasked with producing narrative texts for internal teams (fundraising, marketing, PR) or executing a strategic storytelling communications strategy such as a narrative change strategy.
People who have been impacted by the work of a nonprofit organization and consent to telling their story for the benefit of the organization. Story participants may also be referred to as “beneficiaries”, “program participants”, “members” or “interviewees”.
Organizations that produce — and narrate — stories that describe the impact of their work.
Organizations concerned with impact storytelling as an issue — either in the ethics of its use, or in increasing its use. These organizations fund research into storytelling practices to promote awareness and adoption of ethical practices, fund the production of impact stories, or fund the production of educational materials for practitioners to encourage them to make greater use of impact storytelling.
Media producers who specialize in social impact content. These companies are hired by nonprofits, NGOs + social change organizations to produce impact stories, or sometimes receive funding to produce a documentary film about a social issue.
Stories about real people — narrated by an organization — that describe the human impact of the organization’s work. Impact stories are used for fundraising, promotional or press purposes — and therefore only describe a positive impact created by the organization’s work.
Long-form media — narrated by a film director — about a social issue. These films include the stories of real people to describe the human impact of a social issue. These products are not instrumentalized by an organization promoting its work, but they are instrumentalized by an organization working to raise awareness about a particular social issue.