Today was the 5th and final day of The Storytelling Non-Profit Virtual Conference. To kick off the day’s sessions, we were joined by the wonderful Connie Hubbs of conniehubbs.com.
Connie spoke about a really interesting topic – diversity – and helped bring a level of awareness to all that attended. It was thought provoking to say the least!
Below are the slides from Connie’s session:
Highlights and Key Takeaways
> Whether you are communicating with a client, donor or volunteer, the person reading/watching will want to know that there are people like them at your organization.
> To understand the different demographic and ethic groups that surround your organization, start by looking at your neighborhood and your neighbors.
> Ask – whose story is missing from the organization’s story?
> From the diversity perspective, there are two types of stories to consider 1) The common experience of mankind and 2) Unique experiences.
> Only make promises that you can fulfill and follow through on.
> Three common barriers to organizational change – fear, prejudice and complacency.
FAQs From The Session
Our organization’s clients are different from our donors. How can we reconcile that through storytelling?
It’s certainly not a bad thing if the demographics or ethnicities of your clients and donors are different. This is a pretty common experience for many organizations, especially if you’re in the human services niche. The thing to keep in mind is that your donors will always identify with the emotions of your clients – not necessarily specific aspects of the individuals or their lives. Emotions are what connect.
One thing to think about though is that you’ll want to make sure to represent your clients in an accurate, respectful and dignified way to your donors.
Our organization has many programs and services, of which clients usually end up accessing more than one. How can we represent all of these with out getting too bogged down in the details?
Connie pointed out that by telling story you are already naturally averting too much detail about your programs such as facts and figures. Her suggestion was to focus on the presenting problem that clients come to your organization for – the point of entry, if you will. Start there and allow an individual’s story to show the trajectory of your programs and services.
Do you have a question about communicating diversity through storytelling? Please leave a comment below and we’ll be glad to answer it for you!
