Attention nonprofits: this is how to tell a story
I’m getting ready to move house today and tomorrow. I’ve been feeling a little stressed about it all. Then I got an email from Mark Horvath, a formerly homeless person who now chronicles the lives of the homeless. And I got perspective (I’m lucky to have a home). And I got inspired.
THIS is how you tell an amazing story.
A few words, a few pictures, a transformative experience. All we need now is a call to action. One would be to hire Mark, who is funding his efforts out of his own pocket while unemployed! Follow him on Twitter!
Just yesterday, I was lamenting a lame piece on homelessness on the radio. That what the “what not to do.” Today, we get the “how-to.”
I always like to call a good story three-way communication. Old nonprofit marketing is one-way - we talk at people. New nonprofit marketing is two-way - it is a conversation. Stories are three-way - they include the story teller and the audience both in the experience and transport them both to a third place, a shared experience, together.
Please, do that as much as you can.
Thank you for sharing this. It’s a fabulous example of how humble tools like photos and text slides can tell an exceptional, moving human story. The connection’s not in the sophistication of the show, but the emotional content, the simplicity of how it’s told, and the fact that this is based on first-hand experience.