Storytelling in communications

What is organizational storytelling?

Simply put: stories about people — narrated by organizations.

Organizational storytelling is the collection, production and publication of personal stories, narrated by an organization — for the benefit of the organization.

Organizational storytelling became a norm in communications practice after digital media and Web 2.0 created audience expectations for organizations to communicate with stories about people, not just with reports and data. As the internet became awash with personal storytelling — on blogs, video sharing and social media platforms — donors, funders and supporters also wanted to see personal storytelling to describe the work they were supporting.

Today, organizational storytelling is typically used by nonprofits and social change organizations, who refer to it as impact storytelling: impact stories describe the human impact, for awareness, promotional or fundraising purposes.

Organizational storytelling is interdisciplinary.

By integrating a literary device — life stories — into communications practice, organizational storytelling is an interdisciplinary practice. Life story texts studied in Literature are produced for radically different purposes to the life stories produced by communicators.

The objective of life storytelling in communications has evolved. Originally meeting an audience demand for personal storytelling amid the floor of personal stories in Web 2.0, communicators were solving for a problem of attention: audiences were paying much more attention to communication in the form of stories, which could go “viral” in the new disaggregated digital media market.

However, the focus of organizational storytelling has shifted to persuasion: communicators are interested in the “science of storytelling” to identify techniques that make their stories — and underlying meaning — more persuasive. Meanwhile, narrative scholars study the texts produced in researching instrumentalized storytelling in the new story economy.

What are impact stories?

Typically referred to as “impact storytelling”, nonprofits and social change organizations use these stories to describe human impact, for awareness, promotional or fundraising purposes.

  • The narrator is a nonprofit or social change organization — or its spokesperson

  • The protagonist is a person who has benefitted from the organization’s work or been impacted by a social issue related to the work.

  • The real author is someone who works for the organization, typically on their communications team

  • The story is produced as a written story — with or without images — or an edited video.

  • The story is published on the organization’s website or distributed by the media — in whole or part — as part of a press story.

Impact storytelling is not:

  • An endorsement: typically given by an industry expert, with compensation.

  • A recommendation: typically given by a customer, with compensation.

Typical Storytelling Process

Identification
A beneficiary is identified as a potential story participant by a staff member.

Consent
The beneficiary is informed about the story and asked if they would like to participate.

Collection
Information for the story is collected through an interview in person, on the phone or on camera. The media release is signed.

Production
The story is produced in written or video format.

Approval
The story is reviewed by the participant and edited or approved.

Publication
The story is published on a website, on social media, in an email, or at an in-person event.

Typical Media Interview Process

Media Request
A journalist requests to interview a beneficiary: the request will be specific if it’s for a news story, or nonspecific if it’s for a story about the organization.

Identification
Staff identify a beneficiary whose story fits the request.

Consent
A beneficiary is asked if they would like to participate in the news story.

Media Prep
The interviewee is prepared for the interview by a staff member.

Interview
The interview is conducted by the journalist, with a staff member present.

Follow-up
The published story is shared with the interviewee.