5 tips for effective storytelling to build public trust and understanding

As the nonprofit sector faces economic shifts and cuts to state and federal funding while serving communities that may feel increasingly divided, organizations need better tools to build public trust and understanding. With increasingly lean budgets and sector-wide chronic underfunding of communications efforts, nonprofit leaders need to concentrate their resources where they can make the biggest difference. Time and again, research and experience point to the value of effective storytelling.  

Too often, the stories nonprofits tell tend to be predictable ones that leave people feeling sad or overwhelmed, or “feel-good stories” that reinforce stereotypes, like the “savior narrative.” You’ve seen the press releases: “X nonprofit receives $Y grant to address big messy problem.” These kinds of stories don’t actually help people understand why your organization is important to your community.  

For many people, nonprofits are an abstraction—most don’t realize they benefit from nonprofits every day. The fact that we refer to them by their designation in the federal tax code doesn’t help. Who gets excited about terms like “nonprofit” or even worse, a “501(c)(3)”?  

So, what kinds of stories should nonprofits be telling to strengthen public trust and understanding? Here’s how to make your storytelling more compelling: 

1. Explain exactly where your funding goes and the difference it makes.

In a national survey, we found that while all stories increase public trust and understanding in the sector, those that show exactly how the funds raised are used are the most effective. In our experiment, which focused on stories about emergency medical services, the story that measured the highest level of trust focused on a community using funds to purchase radios so ambulance drivers, emergency rooms, and police could communicate and coordinate.  

This can feel harder to do when you can’t point to how a budget line item directly leads to change, but focusing on the details can build meaningful transparency and help your community understand the budget and other pressures you face.  

2. Show how your work helps real people and communities.

In their research, Liana Winett and Jeff Niederdeppe found that the public was more supportive of policies that made child care more accessible for young families when they read stories about how those families benefited. And they saw these results across political ideology or party affiliation.  

3. Use concrete, visual language.

Last year, the satire blog McSweeney’s Internet Tendency posted “We Dare You to Figure Out What Our Nonprofit Does,” with gems like “‘We leverage resources to build capacity.’ ‘We align partners for impactful solutions.’ ‘We address needs, embolden stakeholders, empower the powerless, and give voice to the voiceless.’” Hilarious. Except that language like this can be found in just about any nonprofit’s mission statement.  

To increase public trust and understanding, switch out vague, lofty statements for concrete descriptions of how you do your work. Working to increase affordable housing in your community? Describe the specific policies that contribute to the high cost of housing, like local regulations on lot sizes or the number of units that can be built on a property. Working to address systemic racism? Name the systems, and describe the specific observable changes that will start to undo them. Our research found that people are most supportive of guaranteed basic income or cash assistance when they are given the specifics of how these programs create new opportunities for growth for individuals and communities, compared to broad statements about how they provide income to all. 

4. Explain how you make decisions and include staff from across your organization.

How does your nonprofit decide which issues to focus on or where to invest your resources? Who do you consult with along the way? In our study on narrative in the charitable sector, we learned that stories showing how organizations make decisions—with details like reviewing reports, consulting experts and talking with members of communities—helped build public trust almost as much as explaining where their funding went. Including staff other than your CEO and the voices of leaders in your community can increase meaningful transparency as well.  

5. Embrace storytelling across your organization and in everything you do.

Don’t save your stories for the annual report or highly produced videos you post to your social media feeds. Use them to illustrate every point in your next community meeting. Tell them to your elected officials. Incorporate them into your calls with donors, partner organizations, and grantees. Make storytelling a habit.  

Nonprofits have a great deal of power, and much of that power lies in the language you choose, the stories you tell, and the data you collect and share to earn public trust and understanding. Vivid, transparent stories and visual language help people see how change happens—and generate a narrative in which we see the potential each of us has to overcome massive social challenges.  

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