Showcasing Your Strategy Through Storytelling

Showcasing Your Strategy Through Storytelling

Probono Australia (Melbourne, VIC, Australia), January 22, 2015

Summary:

The social sector ‘strategy’ is now receiving a makeover, thanks to storytelling techniques that are transforming routine reports,such as strategic plans, into compelling content.

Here are some top tips for Not for Profits:

1. Publish on Digital Platforms

Each year, more and more Australians move online to access information, transact, and interact. Publishing on platforms like mobile handsets, websites and social media means you deliver your story to your audience in a timely and accessible way. And digital media can more easily deliver added features that print publications cannot: sound, movement, human expression and emotion.

Siobhan Toohill, Head of Group Sustainability and Community at Westpac, says, “Personal stories help us relate to concepts in a way that numbers and charts often don’t. We find it is the best way to create a connection with our sustainability strategy and bring our initiatives to life.”

2. Select the Right Narrator

Not for Profits should consider who in their organisation can authentically connect stakeholders with the different layers of the strategy — is it a beneficiary, a member, a volunteer or the CEO?

3. Your Community is Your Cast

Not for Profits have a large number of interested stakeholders and this presents a fantastic opportunity to write each one of them into your story.

4. Provide Proof of Social Impact

Stakeholders genuinely want to know that your strategy delivers real social change. Telling the story of change through case studies and personal profiles is positive proof that your mission is materialising.