Headlines Grab Your Reader’s Attention

June 15, 2011 By Sandra View Comments

When you have an amazing story to tell, capture the reader’s attention with a great headline. The World Vision eNewsletter tells a great story with this headline, photo, and story teaser – it makes you want to read more. It communicates the mission of the organization through a real story of one person whose life has been transformed for the better.

When I read the story and saw the photo of Salay behind a pile of bricks, I could not help but think of my own son, now just 1 1/2. I saw his own innocent face in place of Salay’s. How could such a young child be forced into manual labor? No child should be in that position.

How do you react to this story? To the stories that your nonprofit, or ones that you support, tell?

Filed Under: Causes, Children, Storytelling

Seniors Struggle for Economic Security, Health

June 10, 2011 By Sandra View Comments

Millions of people can relate to being one paycheck, one lost job, one health crisis away from financial disaster.  If it’s not you, it’s your mom, your dad, grandparents or neighbors.

The One Away campaign is highlighting personal stories of people who are going through such struggles.

U.S. Veteran Kerry Simmons is faced with a frightening balancing act: providing 24/7care for his wife, who suffers from Dementia, while trying to find a job. Potential employers continually ignore his resume despite more than 40 years of electronic and computer experience. The couple is in the midst of a financial crisis.

Filed Under: Causes, Seniors, Storytelling, Video

Nonprofit Storytelling Presentation Part 2 – Check out these Resources

June 9, 2011 By Sandra View Comments

Yesterday I shared my presentation slides from the talk that I gave at LLYC, a summer Christian camp in Texas.

Here are articles that I used as I prepared for this talk….

JD Lasica provides 8 great examples of nonprofit storytelling over at Socialbrite. This quote from his article says it well…

Remember, it’s not about the tools or the technology. It’s about finding people who encapsulate what your core objective is all about — and conveying their stories with power, genuineness, passion and humility.

As I worked on the powerpoint I found this advice quite valuable…

Shonali Burke shares 7 tips to set your live presentations on fire.

Laura J. Boggess draws lessons for creating an enchanting presentation from Guy Kawasaki.

Filed Under: General, Storytelling

Storytelling Presentation

June 8, 2011 By Sandra View Comments

Last week I did a presentation for the camp directors and counselors at Laity Lodge Youth Camp about the power of storytelling. I have been serving as the website content editor for the camp since February. One of the strategic initiatives that we’ve been working on is turning the blog and Facebook page into venues for authentic storytelling. To get that authenticity requires people from the front lines to provide insights, in this case the counselors and staff themselves. So along with my husband Troy and son Micah, I went to camp for a few days.

They already do an amazing amount of high quality photography and video during camp. Now it’s just a matter of getting the “why” behind the images and translating these stories for an audience outside of camp. The first session started on Sunday. I’m looking forward to what the summer holds.

Storytelling Presentation for LLYC Counselors

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Filed Under: General, Storytelling Tagged With: ,