How to Tell Real Stories About Impact

(Illustration by iStock/cienpies)

Organizations want to tell stories about their impact to ensure people understand what they do, why they do it, and why they should continue to be funded to do it. But most organizations do not tell stories with a beginning, middle, and end, with conflict and resolution, or with characters and settings. In my work with my collaborators at the Center for Public Interest Communications on the science of story building, we identified these as fundamental narrative elements for sharing compelling stories, and yet on their websites or annual reports, organizations tend to share vignettes and profiles, not stories (as scholars from a range of disciplines understand them to be). As a result, they lose the benefits of storytelling, the way people who experience a great story are cognitively transported into the world of the characters, experience the world through the character, and return to their world changed by the story.

Instead, organizations sharing about their impact can feel like social change-y Mad Libs. “We did X so that helpless and deserving group Y can now live the life they want,” they might say, or “X exceptional individual was able to overcome Y challenge with our help.” We see a hero organization helping a homogenous group of helpless people, who we don't get to know beyond their struggle, or we only learn about exceptional deserving individuals that are portrayed solely by their experience with an issue. We don't see organizations working toward change collectively with the people they serve or as critical members of a movement ecosystem working for social change. In research, I did for the Broke Project with my colleagues at Radical Communicators Network and the Center for Public Interest Communications, we found that most stories, profiles, and vignettes related to work to end poverty follow this pattern: while an organization is the protagonist, poor people are defined only by their experience with poverty. Similarly, in research with the University of Florida Center for Public Interest Communications, we found that at the time, on the UN Refugees Innovation Service website, the organization shared stories that mostly featured itself as the hero, and few stories featured refugees taking action.

When stories like this are shared over and over again, we come to think about change in limited ways. Such stories do not reflect how change happens, and communities are narrowly defined by their relationship with an issue. Instead, we need to apply insights and best practices from social science and social movements to tell better stories about impact.

Tell Stories About Systems at Work

A story includes a problem to be solved, action rising to a climax as characters navigate obstacles and opportunities, and, finally, a resolution and a moral.

When crafting your story, include details about the systems that produce inequality as the setting and conflict of the story. Systemic inequalities exist in our institutions, from hiring discrimination to who is policed to what services and spaces communities can access in their neighborhoods. These institutions are the setting characters must navigate. The systems of inequality—like racism, capitalism, patriarchy, and ableism–are the problems and the obstacles shaping the characters' experiences. Use visual language to illustrate the context the characters are navigating. Similarly, make explicit the systemic barriers like benefit cliffs, low wages, and inhumane working conditions to set the scene. Be sure to include other details, so as to move beyond defining people by their experience with injustice and inequality.

Great stories keep us on the edge of our seats because they create tension and uncertainty. We wonder if the characters will make it, overcome an obstacle, or achieve a big goal. As the story unfolds, show how the systems of inequality embedded in the social institutions you are working to transform create tension because of how they uniquely affect people because of their race, class, gender, or geography.

For example, in this talk, Enrique Balcazar, an organizer with Migrant Justice, tells his story of working in unjust and inhumane conditions on dairy farms in Vermont. We learn how he gained political consciousness and became a member of this grassroots organization organizing for better working conditions through various campaigns. The story not only frames the struggles and challenges of the character within systems, but by situating the organizers and workers as the protagonist, it demonstrates the impact of Migrant Justice.

As you tell stories of impact, be thoughtful not to reinforce pervasive individualistic narratives. As characters work toward a goal, show them in relationship to each other. Avoid exceptionalist stories that suggest people overcome systemic barriers because of grit and individual perseverance. These are aspects of stories, but they are not the whole picture, and when told repeatedly, they create conditions that make it harder to change systems and culture.

Instead, tell stories of individuals in relationship to each other, working toward a collective goal. For example, in this story from Invisible People, an organization dedicated to transforming narratives about housing and homelessness, a group of neighbors in KoreaTown in Los Angeles have come together to support their unhoused neighbors. The story follows Jane Nguyen, a member of Ktown for all, a volunteer grassroots organization, , as she works with fellow volunteers to provide people in her community with critical necessities like blankets, bread, and water.

As we follow her, we also learn about the systemic issues tied to homelessness and the injustices that result from sweeps taking away people's property. The story shows Ktown For All volunteers working together to support their neighbors, connecting them with services, showers, and potential job opportunities. We also hear directly from people experiencing homelessness who talk about how the sweeps affect them, which moves the community from a homogeneous group of people to individuals facing systemic barriers to housing. By the end of the film, we understand what Ktown For All is and the impact it has on the community.

Tell Stories About Your Organization as Part of a Movement Ecosystem

Organizations tell stories that feature themselves as the hero in the story because they seek to secure relevancy and need funding, volunteers, and other resources. The social change sector often operates from a scarcity mindset with the belief that organizations must compete for resources. As a result, the stories told often emphasize the organization’s own role in social change and solving big problems.

As my Broke collaborators and I found, these stories create a pervasive narrative that suggests individuals need saving and organizations must save them. We don't get to know the people that work passionately at the organization and who likely have experience and relationships that connect them to the work and the larger movements they serve. We don't get to learn about the unique lives and experiences of the communities at the center of these issues. Worse, when individuals are spotlighted, they are often framed as deserving of the resources available, suggesting that while some are deserving, others are not.

Stories of impact should show how organizations are part of a larger movement ecosystem working with other organizations and movement actors to transform systems and culture through their unique contributions. These stories will feature multiple characters with different backgrounds, interests, roles, and perspectives, all working together to address an issue. When we tell these stories over and over, we can create a new, more accurate narrative of change through collective action.

Impact stories should show complex characters engaging in collective action against an unjust system. A network of characters working together to make change are the protagonists, and the people who uphold unjust systems as the antagonists. Such stories not only show our contribution to the movement ecosystem, but also how movements are built and how systems and culture change happen through the work of the people.

For example, in the podcast The Sum of Us, Heather McGee tells stories about multiracial coalitions creating meaningful change. One of my favorite episodes tells the story of Bruce's Beach, an act of reparations to the Bruce family. In 1912, Charles and Willa Bruce bought a beachfront property in Manhattan Beach, CA, and built a popular resort and safe space for Black beachgoers. However, in 1924, the city seized the property under the guise that it would be used for a public park, but was actually a means to push the family out of the community. The land was vacant for 32 years. The loss of the land meant the loss of generations of wealth for the Bruce family and the loss of Black surf culture. Now, Manhattan Beach is 90 percent white, and racism from the local white surfers continue toward Black and Brown surfers who are seen as outsiders.

The podcast follows the story of how the land was stolen from the Bruce family by the city as a way to move Black people out of the community. McGee talks with activists and city leaders committed to returning the land to the Bruce family to undo the legacy of exclusion and racism at the beach. Through the voices of the activists and organizers, we understand the challenges they faced organizing for reparations from the city and the opposition in Manhattan Beach, as well as the work between the county and the community to realize reparations. This excellent story highlights work in the racial justice and reparations movement ecosystem and demonstrates the organizations' and activists' impact.

Connect to Human Experiences: Love, Redemption, Triumph, Loss

Stories are more likely to transport audiences into the world of the characters when they include emotionally engaging characters and experiences that people can identify with. When we include unique details about the characters we create opportunity for audiences to identify with the characters and we avoid defining people only by their experience with the issue. Share details that connect to common human emotions and experiences like love, triumph, redemption, loss, joy, frustration, and uncertainty. As Jacqueline Woodson once said, “The more specific we are, the more universal something can become. Life is in the details. If you generalize, it doesn't resonate. The specificity of it is what resonates.”

For example, in the video “Technically Illegal” Reform Alliance helps the audience understand the injustices of technically illegal probation violations through a series of vignettes that collectively tell a story of how people are missing out on time and experiences with the ones they love because of probation laws. We feel the uncertainty and anxiety of the people, afraid of what might happen if they are caught picking up medicine for their sick baby at night, crossing state lines to visit a sick family member, or being out with friends when someone is drinking. Through the lives of the people included, we understand the role that Reform Alliance plays in the bigger movement to transform the criminal-legal system by featuring the experiences of people most affected by its injustices and asking people to get involved to end it.

Tell Stories With Care

Storytelling is the most powerful tool we have for helping people understand the work we do, particularly from people who are closest to injustice and inequality. However, as storytellers, we need to take special care to ensure that the people sharing their stories are not exploited, traumatized, or tokenized. As a sector, we must avoid gatekeeping narratives assuming we as professionals know best, and hand over resources and space to people closest to injustice to tell their own stories as partners and strategists.

Define American, an organization working to transform the narrative on immigrants, created an incredible guide on engaging with activist stories to ensure they ethically engage them as collaborators. Their recommendations include questions for storytellers like: Is now a good time to share your story? How have you been since we last connected? Have you shared your story before?

They also commit to 1. scope of work, compensation, and a timeline for involvement, and ask if it feels in line with your expectations, 2. feedback and suggestions for nurturing storytellers’ mental health and well-being within our work, and 3. hold(ing) others we work with, particularly in the media, accountable for honoring contributions.

Many organizations are starting to put money behind storytelling to illustrate impact, but to ensure that as a sector we don’t cause harm we must take care of the storytellers.

Telling compelling stories and telling stories about impact do not have to be in conflict. We can use the science and art of great storytelling to illustrate what it looks like to make meaningful change as part of a movement ecosystem. When we start to tell these types of stories, we avoid contributing to harmful narratives that make it impossible to change systems and cultural narratives. Organizations are important collaborators and accomplices in change work. Let’s let our stories show how it’s done. 

Read more stories by Annie Neimand.