
One story can change the world.
What will your non-profit’s story be?
The Storytelling Non-Profit: A practical guide to telling stories that raise money and awareness
WRITTEN BY: VANESSA CHASE LOCKSHIN
The Storytelling Non-Profit is a portable consultant for fundraisers,
communicators and executive directors who want to tell great stories
Take a peek inside your new favorite book:


You’ve probably heard that storytelling is the best way to raise money and awareness for your non-profit. But - how do you tell inspiring stories?
Vanessa Chase Lockshin has been answering this questions for non-profits through her training and consulting work, and now through her new book The Storytelling Non-Profit - A practical guide to telling stories that raise money and awareness.
The Storytelling Non-Profit is a portable consultant for fundraisers, communications professionals, and executive directors who want to tell stories. The Storytelling Non-Profit walks professionals through the process of telling a story that inspires and resonates with a target audience.
Stories have the power to change the world, and The Storytelling Non-Profit helps non-profits find their voice to tell their stories.


Chapter 1
The Basics of Stories
Great storytelling starts with a foundation of what qualities make a story great. Let’s look at some examples to get inspired before the journey begins!
Chapter 2
Connection
How do you tell a story that resonates with your audience? It starts with making the right connection. You’ll learn several key devices to help you connect with your audience.
Chapter 3
Character
Learn how to pick a character for your story and how to bring that character to life through your words.
Chapter 4
Conflict
Conflict is essential to a fundraising story. Learn how to show conflict in the story and a need that your donors can meet.
Chapter 5
Resolution
Stories need an ending and you’ll learn how to bring your story to a close. This includes writing a call to action that gets your story readers to donate or share your story.
Chapter 6
Creating a Storytelling Plan
Ever wonder how some organizations consistently tell great stories? They have a plan! This chapter will show you how to create a storytelling plan.
Chapter 7
Finding Stories to Tell
Learn how to build your own story library so that you’re never out of stories to tell. You’ll also get tips for finding story leads, interviewing someone for a story and more.
Chapter 8
Developing the story
Get tips for writing an amazing story! This chapter will show you how to polish your writing and your story.
Chapter 9
Sharing Stories
Get your stories out there. You’ll learn tips for sharing stories online and offline, plus see lots of great examples of stories to inspire you.
Chapter 10
Onward to Storytelling Success
The end of the book is just the beginning of your storytelling journey. Get a final pep talk from Vanessa as you get started with your next story!
Worksheets and Resources
Learn how to implement everything you’ve learned with worksheets and resources that complement what you’ve read.
Rave Reviews
Vanessa Chase's book, The Storytelling Nonprofit, is an excellent first book. This is definitely for you if you're looking for a more concrete way to tell nonprofit stories and gather stories from staff and board. It has helpful worksheets to make the often opaque storytelling process more transparent. Stories are important to help donors, volunteers, staff and board connect with your mission and want to keep giving to you. Having no stories or bad stories can hurt your nonprofit more than bad press! You NEED good stories. And this book could change how your nonprofit tells stories, forever! Invest in your fundraising and get this book.
- Mazarine Treyz, Wlld Woman Fundraising
As the Executive Director of a non profit, the first thing I learned when taking on this role, was that you are only as good as the stories to tell. You can be doing all the right things, but if you are not sharing those stories you are going to be very unsuccessful. When I discovered Vanessa Chase and her book, The storytelling Non-Profit, it quickly became my go to guide for shaping the way we operate and tell our stories. Her book offers detailed guides on how to put a great plan of communication in place and how to easily execute that plan. She herself uses beautiful storytelling in her teaching, leaving you with a great example of how to write the most effective stores. I highly recommend her book and her to anyone looking to learn and grow their non profit.
- Shannon Field, Helping Hands Ministries International
I am the Operations Manager at a small (incredibly small!) education and advocacy nonprofit that focuses on social justice issues. With a long history (31 years) and some dense, emotionally tough subjects we focus on (death penalty, peace and nonviolence etc), our organization is rife with possible stories but not a system to document or share these stories. I've been following Vanessa's website [...] for a bit and have bookmarked and shared many a blog post. Her book's subtitle is on the money. This is a guide book and one you should highlight, utilize the worksheets for and make copies of. Not only does she lay out the psychology and structure of "the story", she provides tried and true resources of how to gather those stories, how to know who you are sharing your stories with, and how to utilize the stories. Her 31 Day Storytelling Kickstart plan puts the fire under your butt to show that there is a small thing you can do each day that will impact the culture of your organization to become a story telling nonprofit.
- Mary Ellen Huss, Operations Manager Intercommunity Justice and Peace Center (IJPC)
Get a free chapter of The Storytelling Non-Profit!