What Matters Right Now: Ethical Storytelling - Jonathan McCoy, CFRE, Becky Endicott, CFRE, and Vik Harrison

12:31AM Feb 25, 2022

Speakers:

Becky Endicott

Jonathan McCoy

Vik Harrison

Keywords:

storytelling

donors

nonprofit

people

organization

vic

story

mission

vulnerability

positivity

dignity

charity

transparency

starting

virtuous

ethical

happening

friends

aliveness

world

Hey, I'm John. And I'm Becky.

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So let's get started. The day is here, Becky, about storytelling, storytelling day, happy Friday friends. So, you know, yeah, we've taken the first few weeks of this year to really dive into trends that matter. These are things we want to see lifted, we already have seen them at work and some of the most incredible organizations, but we're gonna kind of give you the playbook. And this is one that's gotten a ton of traction, as we've teased that it's coming, because a lot of people are looking at how are we storytelling. And, you know, we've done some great deep dives of how to storyteller on the podcast. And we can drop some of those throughout the conversation today. But we really want to shift the lens and look at this from a place of ethical storytelling, because it is different at its core than just telling a story. It's really shifting and making sure that dignity is part of the process, from every aspect of how the story is told, and how it lands with the people that you're trying to communicate with.

I think dignity is like the core word here. And doesn't it feel good when someone dignifies something as personal as your own story. And I think, you know, we're always going to talk about mindset shifts in these discussions. And I think one of the things that will be a challenge for everybody, including me, is that really, embracing ethical storytelling means that we're really prioritizing the storytellers needs before our own. And that's hard when you have a really important mission, and you are trying to either fundraise for it or get awareness, it's hard to put the person who is actually sharing the story at the center. But we're saying if you do that, if you can make them feel so safe. So again, dignified. If we can honor their story, then something incredible happens as that story is unfolding. The emotion, the raw emotion that comes out the trust that's built, the way that someone feels safe to bring you into what I call, or the micro moments are the little details, things that you wouldn't be able to know or see or touch, those things start to lift out because people feel safe in your aura. So if you've come in, and you've brought your little piece of paper with all 22 of your questions, go ahead and crumble it up and throw it over your shoulder because we're going to give you a new playbook.

Yeah, I mean, I think back to just examples of working in nonprofit when this story did allow the person to feel that dignity and to come alive and really turn sometimes their pain into this really purposeful expression, you know, something that's been on their life that they wanted to pay forward or share in a deep way. And when you get to be part of that, it really is magical in the best of ways. But it takes a lot of intentionality. And like you said, but he can't cut corners on some of these things. And so today, we wanted to give a framework to some of the conversation about how to approach this, obviously, storytelling is happening everywhere, right? It's happening in our tic tock feeds, it's happening in our Instagram, it's happening in one on one at a coffee shop, sharing your mission. And so how, you know, how do we start? Where do we start with the stories that you want to tell. And that's where we kind of want to unpack first.

And so my favorite part of talking about storytelling is that we are declaring death to the corporate robot voice and we are welcoming in the human voice. And there's a level of loss of authenticity that will connect with someone who is listening to the story, watching the story, reading the story. And I say watching listening reading, because we want to challenge you to think about storytelling in a multimedia multi channel fashion, because we're all getting information. And we'd like to get information in different ways. Some of us are very antisocial. And some of us have become more introverts in quarantine. And it's like maybe I just want to read it. Maybe I just want to scroll through my phone. But some of us may just want to have a zoom or go meet with somebody one on one. And we have to figure out the ways to get in the places where our people are kind of consuming that information. So as you're painting these pictures, add details, add humanity. Don't try to make it so buttoned up. If it's a little messy, that's okay, because that is relatable.

Yeah. And I think you know, a couple of conversations that we want to point you back to if you've if you're newer to the podcast, you may have missed episode 142 with Travis Ning, he leads an organization known as Maya. It's International. It's based In Guatemala, but I love that conversation because he is relentlessly focused on bringing dignity to the girls that he and their organization serves so much that their needs, their experience is prioritized above that of their donors, which is a categorical shift when you're trying to raise major gifts. And so this conversation goes deep into the power dynamics at play, how can you reposition your storyline, so it's less of a hero victim narrative where the donors coming in to save, or to provide hope, it's really a different way to look at it. And it does lift dignity. And the thing that is a threat of these conversations this year. And honestly, since the podcast launched this is a really big thing for us is that as you lean into your values, as you live out your values, you're going to just further attract the type of people that have that same value. And so it's not a catch 22, you're not going to actually push people away, you're gonna push the right people away, and deeply pull in the people that you do want as supporters and that are going to align with you on these things. So go back and listen to that as one of the most popular episodes we've ever dropped. Actually,

I have to lift another episode that we had episode 136 with Cheryl Miller Hauser, and here, you have just this accomplished documentary filmmaker, who is working from the basis of empathy. And she gave us three quick tips on how to move forward with ethical storytelling. And number one is make it human. Number two is show struggle. And number three, is inspire through uplift. I mean, I think that it's such a simple formula. And then the end of the day, when you do that, you give dignity to the person at the end. And I think that the output of that that is intrinsic, is you're building common ground together, you're building common ground in the shared space of loving the mission, believing in the mission. And that is what we want to draw people to. So when we think about ethical storytelling, we had to bring in one of our favorite brand experts, someone who's been storytelling in such a magical way in the nonprofit sector for so long. And that's Vic Harrison. And we've had her on the podcast before you know how intelligent and brilliant and thought provoking she is, with the way that she actually moves brands forward. She's one of the cofounders of Charity Water. And anyone who's watched that story unfold, has understood the power of marketing and storytelling. And so Vic has her own company. Now she's a creative director over at mission critical. And she's helping all these purpose driven entrepreneurs and founders clarify their vision, boldly tell these stories, and do it by giving dignity to the person at the one at the end. So we're so honored to have her here. Vic, welcome to the podcast.

Hi, it's so good to be with you guys. Thanks for having me,

I got to put a little bit of context because you know, storytelling has always been like the heartbeat of how we feel like connection is bread. But what we really want to lean into right now is this moment of ethical storytelling, of really doing a check, like a gut check of how are we representing the people that we serve the communities that we so want to impact in the most dignified way. And I think something that Charity Water did exceptionally well, from the beginning, you always painted the people you're serving in the most beautiful light, you know, you always made them feel empowered, and gave them such a gift in the way that the story was told it wasn't a place of scarcity was always in a place of empowerment. And so this is one of the ways like I just want to tap into your brain of you know, how can others emulate that? How can we step into this space of storytelling really authentically, but at the same time bringing so much dignity along in the journey?

Sure. So we're like to kind of start with folks who are still just discovering this topic and starting to understand what is storytelling? It's such a big umbrella term, right? And how do we do it as nonprofits as organizations that are working for good, guilt driven marketing in the nonprofit space has always been around? And the biggest problem with it is that it works in the short term, which is why it's so tempting for organizations to use it. So I think we make this assumption, okay, if we go with a shock factor in our storytelling, it's going to yield more donations. And the truth is, you know, in the short term, yes, but think about the lifetime of your donors. We all want to feel good. We all want to interact with brands, and organizations that at the end of the day, make us feel good and add positivity to our lives, especially in today's day and age. On the broader spectrum of storytelling. You really want to go with stories that paint people in, in the most positive, beautiful light because, you know, I think the world is getting smaller our society, our culture. You know, when you hear Mark Zuckerberg talk about the metaverse, I can see a time and not the not so distant future where I might be an avatar in the metaverse talking to a person in Uganda who has also you know, created an avatar for themselves. And that distance between, you know, different sides of the world is going to continue to shrink. So we really have to start looking at the humanity and people, because the world is getting smaller through technology.

I agree with that so much. And I love that you broke down sort of the scarcity mindset that we have been living in, in nonprofit. And I think storytelling is not just sitting down and talking with someone, it's not just a written word, there are ways to leverage it in a multi plat platform, multi channel kind of way. Now, I think you've done that beautifully. And I would just love to hear some hacks of how you would empower nonprofit users to kinda have to adapt those abundance mindsets as they're starting out.

You know, I think that the question of resources and investing money in marketing is, is something we should discuss here. Because the truth is, in order to paint a beautiful story, and and have images that really convey hope and joy, a you have to have a certain level of photography, video work that is professional, that looks good. And and a lot of nonprofits, you know, ask me all the time, how should I invest? Should I be investing? How much should I be investing in content creation, and the truth is, you know, you can invest next to nothing and go shoot photos with your iPhone, which is okay. You can actually do a great job doing that, if you're intentional about it, and you have a couple of lights setup. But you can also invest a little bit more, hire a professional photographer, hire professional videographer, and that footage, those photos, they will often last us for three, four years. So you really do get your money's worth. And you end up with this high quality that you know, that's not, of course, that's not the only thing that brings dignity to storytelling. But it definitely goes a really long way to show that you truly care that this is a priority for your organization, the capturing video and photos in this way is really important to you.

You said something there, Vic, that just kind of jogged my memory. Because if you're not following Vic on Instagram, like you are missing out on so much counsel and advice, but especially near end of year, you're really coaching, you know, the greater universe of how do you do this better. And you said, lean into joy, you know, and that really stuck out to me, because we talk a lot about trying to shift our mindset that we're always the one coming to the table asking, but we do have something to offer, we have something that businesses can't offer from that sense that you get to be part of this joy, this uplift this part of the story. And so I want to give you the platform to talk about that. Because I think how you describe that and coached us all made me pause. I think it just helped so many organizations.

Sure. Um, we like to say, you know, nobody likes to give to something that feels like they're struggling, right, we all want to be a part of something that's working that has momentum that is on fire that's really positive. There's just like pop and aliveness. And that's, that's just kind of always come really natural to us a charity water we've, we've known and understood that. That's the it's this contagious positivity that people cling to, and are drawn to. And again, I think I hope to be able to influence the next generation of nonprofits to understand this as well that I think nonprofits especially, you know, when you're starting out, there is this belief, oh, I have to be really buttoned up and professional, because we're taking donors money. So we really have to seem very corporate, very dry and almost boring, because we don't want to like we're having too much fun or donors take us seriously. And I you know, I think that's, that's a beginner's false belief. And we really worked hard over the years to break that because that is definitely not how any cool brand in the for profit world has ever launched, not for profit companies have known and believe this for years, you got to really bring the joy, bring the fun, bring the positivity and the aliveness and goes even more in the nonprofit space. Because at the end of the day, you know, if you're a nonprofit, you're you're not really you're not selling a physical product, you don't have a lipstick, or a mattress or a car to sell me. So all that really your main product, what you are selling me is your approach to solving this problem. You're solving whatever that problem is, your values who you are as people, that's what I'm giving money to. I'm giving money to this group of people that has decided to stand in between a donor and the problem. You know, you are the solution, your little shop is the solution. So I want to see who are you what are your values? What do you believe? And are you approaching this problem with this contagious positivity that gives me hope that You're actually going to be able to solve it because you're confident, but you're also really driven and inspired. I want to be inspired.

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I can't believe we got 16 minutes through this entire conversation without bringing up values. Thank you so much for bringing that up. Because if you are going to be really pouring into this intentionality of ethical storytelling, you have to know what your values are. Because that is going to be the bedrock of what you jump from. And I think what you're saying is so smart, Vic, because if you look at ethical storytelling, the beauty of it is it prioritizes the storyteller, it doesn't prioritize our missions, or what we're trying to get out of it. We're really prioritizing the storytellers need before our own. And by putting them at the center of the process, and involving them and asking them questions. That's where dignity is. And I feel like we just had this conversation with some with Derek Watson with lampstand, who does beautiful video storytelling for nonprofits. And I just think that this is the way we need to show up, you are so good about embracing authenticity and vulnerability and tell people why that's important and how they could start in that vein.

Yeah, I think that if you do go as a nonprofit, this route of you know, clickbait quick, kind of, you know, poorly put together story about images, not really not really in depth on bringing dignity to the person. It's a reflection on your culture and your organization and who you are as people, right. So a donor these days is very sophisticated, I can come to your homepage, and pick up on those subtle cues of how you speak about your beneficiaries, how you tell a story, lets me know who you are as people, right, regardless of what the story is. So if you are not telling a story about person with dignity, with respect, with true warmth and love for this human individual, that tells me that you're not actually really caring people. And so I think that if you if you sort of start from the very center of the onion, yes, with with those core values of excellence of honoring people's stories, you know, we call it positivity, not guilt. That's kind of our value is positivity. So do you think it really starts with defining what those core values are and living them out every single day?

I mean, what I love about this is that for the non marketers that are listening, it's easy for them to discount and say, these folks just care about the wrong things. But we're truly saying here is this is your mission, like how you're painting. The picture is your mission, how you're showing love to the people you're serving, how you're painting a picture of their story, is your mission vision values. So it is interconnected. And it's not just this marketing thing that the geeks on the podcast today are talking about. It really is how we tangibly express it. So I appreciate all that insight that you gave. I mean, I want to give you an opportunity to storyteller because I feel like not only are Have you told some incredible stories through charity water, but you as this expert in our field have led hundreds of organizations through transformation so they can raise more money so they can paint their organization in a better light. Is there a story that that sticks out to you that you'd want to share that just resonated with you?

I think that when we talk about out, you're asked a question about vulnerability and transparency. And someone said this so well, maybe it was you guys that transparency is this idea of you can see me but you can't touch me, right? So and we talk a lot about transparency as an organization at Charity Water, and I think of the nonprofit space overall. So when we value transparency, that's a great first step, you can you can see me but you can't touch me vulnerability is you can see me and also you can interact with me, and I'm going to let you know, I'm going to open myself up to the possibility of actually maybe letting you hurt me if you know if I'm that vulnerable. So I think as organizations, here's where, you know, here's a story I can tell around not just transparency, but vulnerability. And this is in Scotts book, it's an organizational story that we've told a charity water for many years now. But in that year, four or five, we were slapped with a pretty scary lawsuit. And this was a donor who, who gave us a large amount of money and things didn't go as planned. But it was also a very complicated situation, we kept it hidden from the world. And we didn't speak about this to very many people just trying to work with some lawyers to resolve the situation. And finally, we just decided, You know what, we're going to be very vulnerable and transparent with our entire audience with every single donor that's ever given to charity water, we're going to put out a blog post, we've worked on this blog post for two weeks. And really what it came down to is we drilled a group of wells in Kenya that had fluoride naturally occurring in the water table. And nobody could have predicted that. So after you know, after this was discovered, we try to mitigate the situation, we offered him his money back, we offered to build another complete new set of wells in a different region to make up for those wells. But really, this is just, this is what comes with the territory. Sometimes when you are drilling for water, there are really unexpected things that you cannot control. It took a long time to finally realize, you know, what, we're actually not in the wrong here, we did nothing wrong that is as an organization. So why are we so we're living in fear, it's been a year of living in fear that this, this guy might go to the press might go to a newspaper and try and break the story. So we decided, You know what, no, we're gonna, we're gonna be the first ones to talk about this. This is, you know, these are challenges that come with the business that we're in. And we have nothing to be ashamed of. So we put out a blog post that describe the entire situation, it was really long, and I remember working on it very late into the night for about two weeks. And we opened ourselves very vulnerably to the possibility of many donors saying, you know, we're gonna stop giving to charity water, you know, we didn't know what was going to happen, we're more scared. Turned out, we got the most positive response out of, you know, that blog post than any other piece of content that we had ever created. Honestly, I mean, people pour, like emails pouring into our inboxes. For weeks after that, thank you so much. I've never seen a charity be so transparent and so vulnerable. You know, and I think that's when we realized, wait a minute, you know, okay, so we've been practicing transparency up until now, which has been like, still okay, well, we'll let you see just what we want you to see about our organization will open the door just to crap so that you can see, you know, a little bit inside, but we'll still manage our image. And this was a true vulnerability. It was like, alright, we can't manage this anymore. So we're just going to let it all out. And people read, it just really spoke to people. So the I think the lesson here, the the takeaway for organizations is, if you shared some of your challenges with your donors, you would be shocked at how much more supportive they are going to be of your work and of who you are, and how much closer they'll feel to your to your organization.

I am so proud of you and your team, for doing the bold and the hard thing. And this is so antithetical friends, to how we were taught to be in nonprofit, but we're telling you, the moment is rife. Now, you're sitting in the moment right now, where transparent and ethical storytelling, this is your time. And so I have one more question before we get to the one good thing because I think this is really important. It's something we're seeing. How do people tell the story of now, Vic, because I think this could be the great first thing that you could do as an organization if you are ready to dip your toe into storytelling, telling the story of now, what has your mission gone through as a result of COVID? How has COVID impacted your programs? How has it impacted your staff? How has it impacted your board? and your beneficiaries, it may be ugly. And I'm telling you, it's okay. That your people want to know they want to root for you. They want to find ways that they can pour in. And if you're going to share that story, you have to have a way to get them from what is the now? And how can you help. And so I would love for you to just take a minute or two and talk about how people can build the story of now, right now as they're starting to get into storytelling.

Yeah, COVID. And the last two years, have certainly accelerated a lot of things that are already kind of happening underneath the surface, right. So as organizations all of us have been faced with really taking a hard look at what has already been kind of bubbling up down there underneath the surface that's now out in the open, if you're an organization, and you are, if you're struggling, the first thing you really need to do is put together a plan, right, you need to come to your donors with vulnerability and absolute transparency. But also you need to first internally make sure what you know that you have a plan and a goal and that you're looking at the situation in a positive way. Right, it might be hard, you may be really behind on your fundraising. But you need to find a deep down within yourselves to gather that positivity, that joy, because I think you can run the risk of coming across as desperate if you're not careful. And that's where the fine line is, right? Between true vulnerability. Oh, we're just so far behind. Things are looking so grim, that comes across as desperate, don't do that. And it's, it's it is really a dance. It's a fine balance. So internally, First, gather that hope, gather that joy, and bring that alongside with your challenges to your donors to the world out there. And I think people will be really attracted to that, right. So when you have this contagious positivity in the face of difficult odds, that's where people are just drawn to you like Velcro. So if you can combine those two things in your storytelling in whatever blog posts, you're writing on the end, the next email you're putting out there and the next capital campaign that you're putting together contagious positivity plus reality, real transparency about what you need, combined with a realistic plan of how you're going to get there. That's what's going to rally your supporters that's going to get people to you know, jump out of their seats and want to come help you.

Both great advice. I love that so much. Okay, Vic, we don't want to ask this because it means the time is wrapping up for today. But could you leave us with one good thing? You know what, some kind of habit or hack? Maybe it relates to storytelling, or you can give us anything because we're going to drink the Kool Aid?

Yeah, the one thing I've loved talking about lately, and it's been this, just eye opening mind shift for me is for a long time, I've known intuitively why marketing why storytelling is so valuable and important, why doing it with excellence and passion and love is so important for nonprofits. But even more so lately, it's become so clear to me, really, we're doing the most important work in the world. We are as a nonprofit sector, we are saving lives, we're saving the environment, we're saving the planet. I mean, whatever your organization is doing, you are doing the most important work. And yet, we are neglecting storytelling. We're not telling those stories in the way they deserve to be told. They deserve to be told in the most heroic, epic way, because they are the most heroic epic stories, you have to push ourselves. The one good thing I suppose is, let's bring the level of excellence and commitment that our missions absolutely deserve. Let's bring our aliveness and our joy to the table because the work we are doing deserves it.

Amen. And I also just want to say the joy and the connection and the community that can be built long term on the other side is totally worth it. So I would encourage everyone, you've got this, you can do it. So Vic, tell people how they can connect with you definitely check out Vic's Instagram. And I would also, again, point people to Vic's website because the way that she does a drip storytelling introduction to herself is so brilliant. We love it. So tell people how they can connect with you.

Sure, you can find me at Mission Critical CO or Vic Harrison vi K. Harrison on Instagram. And I'm going to just do a shameless plug here and working do it worse for nonprofits around marketing and branding and storytelling. So that's what I'm going to wait weeds doing Now I'm so excited because this is the course that I think I started my entire company to eventually launch. So I'm really excited to work on it. And in the next month, maybe two, that'll be live on mission critical.com.

Well, we are cheering the loudest from the bleachers over here. So thank you for your generous spirit and just everything you always share is just resonates so deeply. Thank you for this time. Thank you. Thanks for joining us. Today's episode was brought to you by our good friends at auth zero. Without zero your nonprofit can do more with a login box. Greet prospects and rabid fans of your mission with authenticity simply make it easier for your team to manage data. There's so much about zero login experience can do. Is it auth zero.org For more info.

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thanks friends