Speaker 1: One of the things non-profit professionals tell me they struggle with the most is actually just finding stories to tell. And maybe that's true for you too, but it doesn't have to be this way. In fact, I'm very sure your organization has great stories to tell, like most non-profits. And in today's video, I'm sharing three tips to help you find more stories to tell, be it for your next appeal, communications, or some sort of marketing campaign you're putting together. My name is Vanessa Chase-Lokshin, and I'm the president of the Storytelling Non-Profit, a training and consulting company that helps non-profit organizations tell stories that raise money and awareness. No matter what kind of work your organization does, I'm sure you have fantastic stories to tell that can inspire donors, connect new people to your cause, and help you achieve your fundraising and communications goals. So today I want to share three tips with you to help you find these stories that you can share them with your community. So tip number one is to start where you are. And this might sound like a strange tip to share, but let's say you're a fundraiser or maybe a communications professional. You probably want to tell stories about your clients or program participants or the beneficiaries of your organization's work. The challenge with this, of course, is that you're not necessarily in touch with them as often as you need to be in order to get those stories. And I think sometimes this can present some logistical challenges for organizations. Instead, what I recommend you do is start where you are and with the people who are immediately around you whose stories you have ready access to. So for instance, if you're a fundraising professional, chances are it's probably going to be much easier for you to find donor stories to tell. Start by asking donors when you call them to say thank you about their giving and their giving history. Get to know them a little bit more and see if there's an interesting story there. If you're a communications professional, chat with volunteers who may be around your office or even other staff and find out if they have interesting stories about how they got involved with your organization that may tie into messages and marketing campaigns you have. Tip number two is to volunteer within your organization. And this may seem like a pretty unconventional tip, but I actually think it's a really good one. And I was fortunate enough to work at an organization years ago that had this policy for anyone who was not a program staff member that we could volunteer an hour a month anywhere within our organization. The idea of this organization was that volunteering time and programs was a way for us to connect back to why we did the work we did and to sort of reinvigorate that mission and vision passion that we had for the organization, which from a culture building standpoint is a really great thing. But from a storytelling standpoint, it's also a really good thing because when you're volunteering and out on the front lines helping your programs and services staff, you get to see and have your own stories to share about what's going on within the organization. So if at all possible, and this may be something you want to consider, talk to your manager, your ED, and see if you can make it so that you have an hour a month to go do some work somewhere else within your organization, get out from behind your desk, and talk to people from different parts of the organization so that you can find those really great stories to share. Tip number three is to ask your community to share their stories. And I think this is a really great one if, again, you're not really sure where to start with storytelling, but you know there's really good stories out there. This is a great way to get people who are maybe involved in your organization as donors, as followers on social media, to feel like they're really a part of the narrative and the storytelling efforts that your organization has going on. This can be a really simple process. You can put out a call for stories, send out an email, anything like that to just let people know this is something you're interested in doing. I've got a really great video with a short case study on how I've seen one organization do this. I'm going to link to that in a card here on the screen so you can click through to watch that. It's a really easy step-by-step tutorial that'll show you the email they sent out plus the form they used in order to collect those stories. So those are my three tips for you today, and I would love for you to leave a comment below and let me know which of these three tips you plan to try at your organization. And if you're looking for additional storytelling resources, I put together a brand new checklist called the Storytelling Success Checklist. There's a link just below this video. Click that and you'll be able to get your copy of the checklist to help you plan, write, and share stories with more success. Of course, if you've liked today's video, please be sure to give it a thumbs up here on YouTube. And if you're not subscribed to my YouTube channel already, be sure to hit that subscribe button in the lower right hand corner so that you get weekly fundraising and communications tutorials here on our channel. Thanks so much for tuning in and hope you have an awesome rest of the week.