Tag: storytelling

Nonprofits hold some of the world’s most powerful stories. Each individual, community, and environment that they protect and serve, has their own story to tell and it is this rich reserve of narratives that can inspire, motivate and move the wider public.

Did you know that 17% of annual giving takes place in December? It’s the perfect opportunity to tap into the generosity of your supporters by launching an end of the year fundraising campaign. Whether it’s for Giving Tuesday on 3rd December, a Christmas or Winter Appeal, we’ve got you covered with our new Story Builder template! And it’s got a snazzy new design too. We hope you love it!

For charities to win both hearts and minds, it’s important that they share the stories of those they help – and to empower people to tell their own stories. Storytelling needs to be powerful and authentic but it also needs to be actionable to work towards your objectives.

There’s an ancient proverb that says,

This is a guest post by Helena Hastings, Digital Officer at Sounddelivery.

Love is love is love. And who knows this better than the sector which is built on love – love of human rights, animals, the environment, finding cures, funding research, saving lives, helping people etc – and is run with love, by passionate people? This post is all about how the sector got involved in Pride 2018.

Sunday 22nd April saw over 40,000 runners take part in the Virgin Money London Marathon with over 2,000 charities benefiting from their fundraising efforts. So far over £45 million has been raised for good causes. We take a look at some great London Marathon content from charities.

User-generated content is gold dust for charities but how can you get supporters to create their own content for your campaign? Wednesday 11th April was World Parkinson’s Day and Parkinson’s UK, along with their supporters, took over Twitter with the #UniteForParkinsons hashtag. We spoke to Kat Cimetta, Senior Digital Marketing Officer (social) at Parkinson’s UK, about the campaign.

I don’t know about you, but I love seeing what organisations come up with for April Fool’s Day and whether they’ll catch me out or not. Over the years, charities have been upping their April Fool’s game and some of their stories are really convincing! Here are a few that I spotted. Were you fooled by any?

Facebook is the world’s largest social network with over 2 billion monthly active users. With so many people on Facebook, it’s a great way to reach more people, share what your cause is about and even raise money. However, you’re competing with posts from friends and family so how can you ensure your posts not only stand out on your supporters’ newsfeeds but get engagement too? Here are three charities we feel have mastered this.

Christmas is one of the most important times of the year for fundraising. It’s also one of the most competitive times. But what if we told you that you could raise a considerable amount of money for your cause for a relatively low investment?

Social media is all about community, and building a dialogue and a relationship with your beneficiaries and supporters. Here’s how Bliss uses social media to communicate with their audience.

Does your charity really need a blog?

If you work in any kind of professional communications role, you’ve probably heard of something like ‘authentic communications’ or maybe ‘authentic voice’. What does this mean? How can I find it? And is it a good idea?

Last week a good friend posted something unusual on Facebook. Buried among all the celebratory, self-congratulatory and yes, life-affirming content, he had written about feeling lonely following a move from London to Cape Town. Rarely do we see such honest expressions of vulnerability and emotion in the competitive ‘my life is amazing’ world of social media. I admired his ability to be openly vulnerable and reach out for support, and obviously others did too as his post provoked several supportive responses from friends.

If you were to purely take national newspaper headlines or the evening news as your guide to what’s going on, you might conclude that the world is a very scary place. Equally you may conclude that newspapers and TV channels tend to favour headlines that are shocking or dramatic. Terrorist attacks, political scandals, impending economic disasters. So where does that leave the issues that many of us work on at charities and social enterprises; those issues that sit in the category important, but seldom urgent? How can you engage journalists in your work?

Twitter is a great way to reach more people, share what your cause is all about and even raise money (yes, really!). With only 140 characters to get your message across, tweeting is a skill. In fact, it’s really an art. Here are three charities we feel have mastered this art form.

Whether it’s a captivating book, a TV show you can’t stop watching or the tale of a friend’s adventure, a good story makes your feel something. That’s the magic of storytelling, it allows you to tap into people’s emotions. Since we can remember, stories have been moving us, they can make us laugh and cry, feel happy and sad, inspire us and discourage us (and sometimes all of the above). They are the most powerful tool we have to capture people’s hearts, minds and imaginations.

Last year it may have seemed like all our simmering divisions were no longer content merely to be topics for heated debate, but were compelled to bubble up and erupt on the surface. The US elections, Brexit and ongoing conflict in the Middle East illustrated some of our most entrenched divisions.