The Cost of Under-Telling Your Story
If your organization doesn’t have a storytelling strategy, you’re not alone.
Many mission-driven teams are doing powerful work. But when it's time to talk about that work, the message often feels thin. Maybe it’s one participant story. Maybe it’s a milestone from years ago or a few stats on a slide deck.
Those stories matter. But if they’re the only ones being told—or if storytelling has fallen off the radar entirely—your audience may struggle to connect. And without connection, it becomes harder to build trust, inspire action, or secure long-term support.
This post is here to help you find a way forward: a strategy that includes both your organizational story and the stories of your leadership. It’s best when the “heros” of these stories can be the people you serve or your donors and your organization or leadership is cast as a “guide.” Together, these narratives form the foundation of how you’re understood by your community, your funders, and people you want to move.
What Happens When You Don’t Tell Stories
When storytelling goes quiet, facts tend to take over. Reports, data points, timelines. These are helpful…but they don’t move people.
Stanford Marketing Professor Jennifer Aaker says that people are 22 times more likely to remember a fact when it’s embedded in a story. For nonprofits and foundations, this means your mission becomes more memorable—and more actionable—when communicated through narrative.
When you don't tell stories, people fill in the blanks for you. And often, they get it wrong.
Your Organizational Story: Why You Exist
This is the story that holds it all together. It’s the answer to: Why this work? Why now? What values shape our decisions?
It doesn’t need to be dramatic. It needs to be honest. Maybe your organization was founded in response to a policy failure, a funding gap, or a community need that wasn’t being addressed. Start there.
You can begin by asking:
- What made this organization necessary?
- What has shifted since we began our work?
- What are we learning now that we didn’t know before?
This story doesn’t just build understanding—it anchors your communications over time. In fact, the Heath brothers, authors of Made to Stick, emphasize that simplicity and repetition are critical to making ideas memorable. A clear organizational narrative reinforces what you stand for and helps others repeat your message with confidence.
Leadership Stories: Who’s Behind the Work
Leadership stories add texture to your organization. They show that your mission is guided by real people, not just policy papers or marketing copy.
These stories aren’t about self-promotion. They’re about humanizing the decision-makers behind your organization—people who are in relationship with those you serve and thinking carefully about community needs, impact, and responsibility.
Research published in Harvard Business Review also confirms that stories stimulate emotional engagement, making people more likely to trust, empathize with, and act on a leader’s message. For nonprofit and philanthropic leaders navigating high-stakes decisions or polarizing environments, this trust is essential.
Start Small and Build Thoughtfully
You don’t need a full communications campaign to start. You just need two clear stories:
- One about your organization’s purpose and origin
- One about what drives someone in leadership to show up every day
Save these stories somewhere your team can access. Use them in grant proposals, on-boarding materials, annual reports, or public remarks. When the next opportunity comes up—an interview, a campaign, a board meeting—you won’t be starting from scratch.
Over time, your stories become a living archive. Something you build, refine, and return to when you need to re-ground or reframe.
Your Stories Are Already There
You don’t need to invent anything. The stories already exist. They live in your team meetings, your site visits, your moments of hard decision-making and impact.
The work is about noticing them, writing them down, and telling them well. Because when people understand what drives you, they’re more likely to support you. As storyteller and nonprofit communication strategist Andy Goodman says:
“A story told well is a strategy delivered effectively.”
So start with one. Then another. And don’t wait for the perfect version. Start with what’s true.
How We Can Help
At Fire & Bliss, we help philanthropies and nonprofits uncover the stories they already hold—then shape and share them with purpose.
Whether you’re building a message library, launching a new initiative, or preparing your leadership for the spotlight, we can help you bring the right people to the table and tell the right story at the right time.
