The right tool for the right job
Naturally, everyone wants detailed stories about how they make a difference. However, this impact storytelling framework is not for everyone or every purpose. Three categories are helpful to consider if impact storytelling is the right tool for the right job.
Ambitions
Where you want to go.
Impact is in the details. The framework cultivates those details to help inform and engage stakeholders. It doesn’t replace marketing or communications. It sustainably infuses them with robust narratives.
Impact storytelling is utilized to:
Directly connect in-depth stories to your mission, theory of change, or evaluation indicators
Engage specific stakeholders (although it can be leveraged for general audiences)
Build a transparent, sustainable process to continually surface and share impact stories
Anchors
What drags you down.
Every organization has challenges that prevent them from confidently sharing the full narrative of their work. The framework removes particular anchors that drag down progress.
Impact storytelling addresses common anchors:
Limited bandwidth, budget, or expertise to consistently surface and produce in-depth storytelling
Costly creative partners (filmmakers, writers, photographers) are under-utilized from lacking context, data, or leads to efficiently root their work in impact
Lacking an integrated system for organizing and accessing organization-wide data or media
Limited cross-team insight on impact model implementation, monitoring, or evaluation
Assets
What you can use.
The framework is a self-sufficient method, but it’s most effective with collaboration. Great results come when organizations invest their expertise, time, focus, insights, and funds.
Typical assets organizations contribute:
Expertise: A diverse team to integrate into the process – operations, programs, monitoring and evaluation, development, executive, marketing, etc.
Focus: A concerted team effort upfront to clarify the priority objectives followed by natural peaks and valleys of team focus throughout.
Time: Ability to spend 2 months to 2 years (depending on challenge complexity) implementing a framework – timing is accelerated if challenges are more discrete.
Insights: A good grasp of your impact model, even better if monitoring and evaluation practices are in place.
Funds: A financial investment via project, monthly, or hourly agreements corresponding to the challenge and how embedded I will be within the organization. Often production estimates emerge as the framework reveals needs.