Episode 255: One Time (micro) vs. Longitudinal (macro) Storytelling: Creating Connection Over time
Welcome to another edition of Around with Randall, your weekly podcast for making your nonprofit more effective for your community. And here is your host, the CEO and founder of Hallett Philanthropy, Randall Hallett.
It's another great day right here on this edition of around with Randall. We've talked about storytelling in various ways throughout the podcast. Certainly, something I talk about when I teach, when I think of my world and how I help the clients that I'm privileged enough to work with, and that storytelling is an important part of us getting to the idea of impact and of donor relations to get to more of those transformational conversations.
I haven't, though, spent as much time talking about the difference between longitudinal and one-time stories. That's where we're going to spend our time today. If you want some information generically on storytelling, I circle you back to two episodes of A round with Randall. The first is episode 104, where I highlight the ideas and the songwriting. Really, the storytelling of Billy Joel, who I think is one of the great storytellers of all time.
Now, there's been a recent documentary that's come out that I think even highlights that even more. I did the podcast probably more than three years ago, so it was before the documentary. But I've always believed that his storytelling is that of being the U.S. poet laureate level. I mean that because you can see and feel what his songs were always all about.
The other was episode 193, where I talk about it from a personal perspective and I use ASAP the famous legendary storyteller Aesop's Fables as a way of understanding how we make connection to things that are more complicated. Trying to create a sense of ease or or understanding through storytelling. So episode 104, kind of the bigger picture, how you can think about it.
193 about making complex in the simple. Today we want to talk about this idea of do you tell a lot of one time stories, or do you make the connections to make them longitudinal? I want to just do a couple quick recaps of why storytelling is so important. The first thing is, is that according to the stand for some Stanford research, that humans are more likely to remember more than 22 times more likely to remember stories rather than facts and statistics.
So the ability for people just to remember can be most often felt in stories. Number two is that stories are what connect us to the emotional. It's not that statistics aren't important. We talk about this all the time, and I'm certainly a numbers cruncher. But at the end of the day, what we're aiming for as an urologist once said, is the difference between conclusion and emotion is conclusion leads to or logic leads to conclusion.
Excuse me, emotion leads to action and it's action that we're aiming for. The third is, is that the best people I've ever worked with? The best fundraisers, the best storytellers, the best connectors of human relationships and human beings overall can tie multiple parts of the story, which is where we're going to land here in a moment. The idea of the narrative, the impact, the purpose and the longitudinal all together.
So, it's not just one story, but a series of many parts of the same story. Think about this a one time moment that you tell a story of may drive action, but the long term connectedness of stories and impact which we'll get into the tactical here in a moment, really will tie sense a sense of evolution from donors to the organization, strong retention, higher levels of transformational giving.
So what are we really talking about? Well, I've mentioned the idea of the one time versus longitudinal story. One time story is telling. Not bad. It's a good thing. But talking about it from the standpoint of you as an organization or the organization itself, or you working in the organization personally, professionally makes an impact on someone. It's a single, emotional, mostly likely emotionally charged, self-contained narrative.
It happened now. A child's life was affected by this scholarship or this piece of equipment. Did this. It's encapsulated in a moment. Longitudinal narratives. It's not even a story. It's a narrative. Are like a book. There are chapters in this story that reveal progress and transformation. So we talked about the idea a few moments ago about a child receiving a scholarship, and that in that moment, or that a piece of equipment was purchased.
What happens if you changed it to longitudinal to say, we we've done this program and that from admission to graduation, this kind of scholarship has helped this many people. And all of a sudden now you're lengthening it, or this piece of equipment wasn't just purchased. It's been able to help 2400 individuals receive diagnosis for their treatment. Think about it as a cumulative emotional investment that builds credibility.
Which brings us to why is this really important? What difference does it make? One time stories about urgency. The moment. An immediate gift act. Now they're great events. Raise the paddle. Annual giving and we. The last episode we talked about the idea of in terms of economics, this idea of psychology and how we get people to use or use some of our ability to simplify, to create action.
This aligns with this perfectly. These one time stories are about immediacy. Making it simple.
What we're deviating from in the last episode of around with Randall. Now into behavioral economics, now into more longitudinal transformational relationship conversations, is the longitudinal narratives that build the loyalty that are truly all about this. I deepen of identity alignment. I'm part of this story. That's what we want donors to find. That's how we get to plain giving, when they can see that they are part of what we're trying to accomplish.
They see themselves as a part of or within the story. They're just not as observers of it. I think this is something that I've taken from my kids when I watch my kids. Jay, our son, loves Percy Jackson, and he's kind of the science fiction world. I think it's great. My daughter loves Harry Potter. When they're reading them and they're really involved in the narrative, I really believe because I watch their eyes and how in-depth they get and what they can do in terms of their own storytelling.
They, I think, believe they're there, that they're part of this. They can see it and feel it. And we lose that as we get older because we've grown more logical that didn't happen. But that's really what we want as a parallel with our storytelling, that institutions often kind of over index or use too often the short time, one time stories in appeals and campaigns without a cumulative narrative.
Which brings us to the one question that you can ask yourself before we get into the tactical. Every time you do a story, which of the stories that we have, which of the moments that we can tell are actually going to make the donor feel more a part of what they are engaged with, and we are trying to accomplish.
Think about starting your decisions on. We'll talk about here the tactical six things you can do on calendaring. Do you ever start your conversations when you think about how we're going to market our organization? Tell the brand, elevate it, get the get the word out on what we do and why it's important to our community. How do we make a difference with that question?
Which of the things that we could talk about? Tell. Share. Bring the donor inside those messages and make them feel a part of what we're accomplishing, what they're accomplishing because they're part of the story. Which brings us to the six things that I think you can do to create more longitudinal conversations. Maximizing storytelling. And let's start at the top.
The first is, is you need to map your institutional narrative.
I have several clients who have long standing traditions of being important nonprofits in their community. Two in particular come to mind only because they're one of them is reframing who they are. They are rewriting their institutional narrative. They used to be something that was incredibly powerful, but it was smaller. And over the last 10 or 15 years, all of a sudden they're beginning to grow by design, well thought out, but all of a sudden they're not this little thing anymore.
They're getting bigger and they're spending time answering the questions, who are you? Why do you exist? How do you serve? How have you changed? Where are you headed?
In contrast, I have another long standing nonprofit, important part of the huge part of the community who can't do that. And so you would think, well, this is elemental. Hey, anybody can do this. Yeah, but you have to know that you need to do it, and you need to be willing to engage in it.
So here are three sub questions you can ask yourselves. What are the defining chapters of our organization, our organizational story thus far? Founding. Growth. Crisis. Renewal. Expansion. Change. That first nonprofit I was referring to is doing exactly this. And their messaging has changed. And with the messaging has changed, so have the relationships because they have greater impact. Tell.
The second thing that you can do is where are you right now in the story?
The second nonprofit I was referring to that is a credible part of the country, but hasn't done this very well. Can't really tell you where they're at. Well, we just do what we do every day. Is that really impactful? Probably. But is that something that would attract donors doing the same thing over and over? I don't think that's that inventive.
The third thing is, is what's the next chapter that you're trying to write, that you're trying to solve the problems, the challenges, and how are others going to help you do that? Back to my two examples. One has completely reframed, by the way. Now their donations are getting larger because they can show impact. They can tell the story.
We were this than we were this, than we were this now or this. But we sense we could do more. They're going to go through a retreat here that I'm going to lead. That really hones in on this idea of storytelling. The other is, as I mentioned, just kind of like, well, we're here, we're doing what we're supposed to do.
The tactical of the tactical number one is create a one page story map that you can visualize. It doesn't have to be paint. You don't have to pay a marketing firm $50,000 to do this. Sit down and talk about it. We once were this. We've changed. And if you haven't changed, I want to meet you. You've been in an existence for 50 years, and you haven't changed as a nonprofit.
I'd like to know. Reach out to me, please. Podcast the house link. Become because I don't believe you. We've all changed because our communities have changed. We've evolved. Hopefully. So the first is map. You're an institutional narrative. Number two is the idea of layering stories where you might classify that as the macro. The idea is to take the micro, the personal, the moment and create the macro.
The institutional story. So this is where we begin to combine the idea of emotion and individual story with purpose. The organizational narrative or impact. And you can do so together. When you layer these stories, what you end up with is a series of smaller stories that lead to a final, at least where you are today. Outcome. Impact. Think about in an educational institution that yes, a scholarship provided one student an education.
Well, what happens if we talked about it from a wider perspective that we had Maria and Gus and Sam and Betty, all first generation students who over the course of time, the support that you have provided $2.4 million in totality with other people like you has been raised to give access to education.
Now, if a donor knows Gus or Maria or any of the individuals, you want to tie them to that. But most of the time they don't know the individuals. But yet we can create a linkage that connects the heart and the head, the credibility of the institution doing bigger things. $2.4 million with all of these generational student or first-generation students as a as a conversation versus just Maria, which are you more likely to engage with?
So, as you go back, you can ask the question when we think about layering stories. Does each one-time story connect back to a larger institutional goal or broader theme? Are you showing how one person's experience results in something bigger? Has it grown? What's the impact? Number two is you want to talk about micro and macro. The idea of layering.
The third is how to build continuity. People want to see growth, particularly the largest funders, the people that are probably the most able to make transformational gift opportunities, whether that's estate planning or a large, let's say, donor advised fund or even a community foundation, individual or organization. When we talk about this idea of support and the idea of longitudinal messaging, we need to show growth.
Let's go back to my two examples. The one who's evolving and changing and telling the story and figuring it out, versus the one that keeps doing the same thing over and over. Or at least that's what they say. And that's pretty easy. Which one? I'd invest in. Which one would you invest in? Are you going to invest in the one that's the same as it was 40 years ago, or so they say.
Or are you going to invest in something that's gotten better, bigger, more impactful, evolved meeting the need at a higher level? Too many times our organizations tell a story once they use Maria. Let's use our scholarship example here for keep it consistent. They tell the story Maria wants and they miss what happens to Maria. Where are they now?
What happened? That's about impact. And what? What you get is a sense of familiarity. The idea that we're revisiting the stories, the faces, the people over time to show the true impact. If all you do is talk about Maria having an opportunity to go to school now, or this piece of equipment doing something now, and you don't go back and say, Maria's opportunity has allowed her to become a doctor, and she's treated 10,000 cancer patients, which has more power longitudinally, or this piece of equipment has saved the lives of X number of people because they got testing.
You can do this in a myriad of different ways. The idea is that continuity is a demonstration of honesty and impact, not just one little success, but consistent.
Maybe a different way of thinking about it is a lie. Blunter side, but you're trying to figure a way to get them to reengage, and they've given us something specific. Five years ago, you gave to this. Today, 12,000 people have been affected by it because of you. Think about this from a much wider continuation of individual stories. You can still have them micros, but you can build into the macros.
So maybe the way to think about this is creating a continuity calendar. Can we go back and look at old stories? Find things that were interesting and find out if we have more story to tell because of the successes of the person, the things, whatever was done. That is a part of your nonprofit. Number four is engaging donors as characters.
I think about storytelling because I always think of myself or at least two people. I'm dealing with one or the other as the protagonist. They're part of the story.
When we say Maria got the scholarship, we've not included anybody who gave to that possibility, to Maria. The most powerful stories are where the support of the donor, the person who's involved, is part of the plot. You made this possible, and those words are critical. It's different than we made this possible. Well. Who's we? The school, the institution, the nonprofit, the food service.
Our food bank, I don't. You made this possible. The donor.
What you're getting is things like. Because of you, this child had this opportunity, and it's gone into life and done. Well done. X, Y or Z not well. We provide a lot of scholarships and just kind of keeping a consistent series of examples. Do you want to invite the donor to be serialized part of the story? I think that the serial podcasts that are out there to the crime ones are part of that.
It's like you're listening and you become the detective. You're part of the story. Even though there's 10 million of us listening to this thing, we all have our own individual part. It's like chapters what's going to happen next? And all of a sudden, back to Maria, if that's our example, maybe you want the next story. What else is she doing?
Rewrite your last donor impact message with you. Meaning framing it around what the donor has done, not. We. And then think about it from how you get them to be a part of it. Number five, we want to talk about using data to anchor the arc of this entire story. So this is where we're moving hearts. But we're using data to prove concept.
Originally, I started with this idea of emotion and data. Data is still important even if we want to tell more stories. Because what it does is it builds trust, it shows outcomes that great storytelling without quantitative proof loses connection. So think about it this way. Great qualitative stories are elevated, deeply elevated, tremendously with great quantitative outcomes. So you might tell the story of Maria and the other students who have gone through this program.
But then how about the data? If we're talking keeping consistent, 91% of the 121st time students, $2.4 million, if I remember the numbers I was using earlier have come to fruition. 91% have graduated, 89% have gone to college. 80% have gone and graduated college and moved into life. Well, you haven't removed the emotional piece of Maria or the longitudinal piece of her going through the scholarship program, the school and the life.
But what you're doing is you're creating a quantitative outcome that we're doing things not just one at a time, but in a larger sense. So, it gives you the question of, can you think about proof points that show progress over time? And what metrics best do is that data can serve as a spine throughout the story, a longer narrative, and it shows the evolutionary legitimacy of success at the very end.
The last tactical suggestion, when we think about the longitudinal nature of storytelling is calendarizing. And I mentioned this earlier. Don't just wait for these things to come up. Start your year. January. July. Now, putting a calendar together about how we proactively tell stories. It's going to take time to find Maria if that's what you want to do.
All too often, we retroactively or reactively tell stories instead of being more conscious of the idea of storytelling around consistent engagement, consistent storytelling in terms of the people and the successes and the impact that comes with that. And so maybe a real simple way of thinking about this, if you think about your year quarter one, you're going to launch a story about something in quarter two, you're going to give a midpoint update to talk about its progress and early wins.
Third quarter. You're going to do donor reflection. How are they involved? Why it matters who was involved and how much of a difference it made. And number four, maybe in the fourth quarter you're doing outcome celebration. You're going to close the loop. Really simple. Not making this overly challenging. But what you get then is building a 12-month storytelling grid about each communication.
Having a purpose rather than just telling micro stories. We're going to bring in those micro stories and tell them a lot of them, but they're going to have a macro purpose that ties them together. What it does when you calendars, it ensures a narrative that flows strategically to align with what you need. And it's just not improvisation like, oh my gosh, we need a story.
Who's got a grace? That's too often what we do. Six things that you can do almost immediately to increase your longitudinal connective macro storytelling. The clouds data. But it's not one offs. It's strategy. Don't forget that storytelling isn't about communication. It is communication. But it's not about communication. What it is, is about humans making connection. And this is one of those things that will get us to more transformational gift opportunities if we told the stories not in isolation, but in connective tissues, and in doing so, elevating donors to feel a part of it and see the longitudinal effect of their engagement and what we do as an organization.
Interesting way to think about storytelling, both on paper, digitally video gift officers out, talking the community, creating a sense of connectedness, and a plan that allows everyone to have these right things to talk about in the right moments, to show the right outcomes.
Don't forget to check out the blogs at Hallett Philanthropy.com\blogs. two per week 90-second reads things I see, read, find interesting. Leadership. Society. Certainly. Philanthropy. Backslash blogs at Hallettphilanthropy.com. If you were to reach out to me, it's podcast@hallettphilanthropy.com. We live in such interesting, up and down turbulent times. One little thing happens, and the world seems to shake a little bit more.
This is why I think philanthropy and nonprofits and the work you do is so important. It's the gap between the idea of free enterprise and government, where free enterprise won't do it because there's no money in it. Government isn't all that efficient. Philanthropy. Nonprofits live in this space because my favorite saying they are part of. They have people like you who make things happen for the parts of our community and the people who are wondering what happened.
And in the middle, there's people watching, and they're going to watch until they decide what they want to do. But we're people, and you're someone who makes things happen. You partner with others for the people and the things in our community that are wondering what happened. I can't imagine a more magical way to feel so good when I go to bed, or when you go to bed every night knowing you made a difference, and in doing so, you're changing your community one little bit at a time.
And maybe there's a story in that as well. Look forward to seeing you next time right back here on the next edition of Around with Randall.
Don't forget, make it a great day.