Stories are absolutely essential to any non-profit's ability to persuade new people to support or join its cause. Sometimes we tell our stories well, sometimes we tell them poorly. Telling a story well is a very specific skillset that few people possess. Even for those who are good writers (and of course there are many in Wikimedia), it takes a lot of conscious effort to construct a narrative in a way that's accessible and appealing to someone who's not already on the inside.
We've talked about this issue at length in the past. Back in October 2007, I tried to call attention to the significance of storytelling specifically in fundraising: http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/foundation-l/2007-October/thread.html#33431 In that fundraiser, we made some first humble efforts at storytelling, and we've more systematically collected and compiled stories since then. But just putting stories on a page, like this one: http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Stories2/en Is not going to persuade anyone to support us. As Zack said, in the context of fundraising, it's all about distilling essential points effectively. In the context of other movement work, such as public outreach, it's about connecting with our target audience by choosing meaningful examples that resonate (how do you talk to educators, to scientists, to students). People have made attempts at telling success stories of public outreach here, for example: http://outreach.wikimedia.org/wiki/Success_stories But all these stories would benefit from a more skillful approach to telling them. The structure of a story is one of the most fundamental ways in which human beings understand the world, and we all have a regrettable tendency to underestimate that significance. As I have in the past, I'd really encourage you to watch Andy Goodman's talk in full: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-289257716014946841 He gives plenty of examples of non-profits that are terrible at telling their own story, which can have disastrous consequences. There's absolutely nothing morally questionable about telling a story effectively -- if anything it's morally pernicious to tell an important story poorly. To have a staff position dedicated to this is a wonderful thing, and if we find someone really good for this job, the benefits will become obvious really, really quickly. -- Erik Möller Deputy Director, Wikimedia Foundation Support Free Knowledge: http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Donate _______________________________________________ foundation-l mailing list foundation-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-l
