Life and Mission
Storytelling and writing are essential skills for missionaries, ministry and nonprofit leaders. In fact, if you struggle to tell stories, you'll struggle to raise the funds you need. Kay Helm is a writer & editor with experience in missions and the business world. She founded Mission Writers in 2022 to help missionaries write fundraising appeals and powerful stories to share with supporters. In this podcast, she offers tips you can use today to improve your missions & nonprofit writing.
Life and Mission
Ethical Storytelling: Rachel Goble and Heidi Burkey
UPDATE: At the time of this recording, the show was called The Your Voice Podcast. Since this recording, Kay has has rebranded to Life and Mission.
Rachel Goble is the CEO at The Freedom Story, and Heidi Burkey is a documentarian and director. We're talking about the Ethical Storytelling community and what it means to tell stories ethically.
[00:01:04] How the Ethical Storytelling community began.
[00:05:50] Heidi began to ask, "What is the human experience in this person's story that someone on the other side of the world can understand?"
[00:08:04] It's not only about making the person feel at ease, but also about explaining how the story will be used. This can include explaining what "online" means. The person to whom the story belongs should always have a voice in the process. We talked about how that process works and what it means.[00:13:48] Rachel: "The goal is not to create pity stories that involve donors, but the goal is to create stories that show our youth or constituents how strong they are."[00:14:09] Constituent first, donors second stories
[00:16:31] The Ethical Storytelling framework and pledge
[00:20:10] There are several powerful words we hear a lot in non-profit storytelling. I asked Rachel and Heidi for their thoughts on a few of these.
[00:28:15] Heidi "The only stories we own are our own."
[00:29:43] Rachel: "We've geared most of our content towards nonprofit practitioners and storytellers. And the more that I'm having these conversations, the more I'm seeing a desire from donors and foundations to really understand how they too can participate in supporting organizations to these higher ethical standards of storytelling. Through the questions that they ask, or how they consume the media that might be given to them. And so we're starting to develop a webinar and podcast series and some training material for donors, which I'm really excited about, and it'll be kind of a new realm for us to enter into."
LinksIf you struggle to tell stories, you’ll struggle to raise funds.
In the Mission Writers course:
- Learn the exact stories that every ministry, missionary, and nonprofit needs to tell.
- Master the fundraising story calendar.
- Develop and practice essential storytelling skills to increase funding for your mission.
- Build your story library and your confidence.
Details at MissionWriters.org
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Mission Writers is an online course and group coaching experience where you’ll develop and practice essential storytelling skills to help increase funding for your mission. Get started now, for a year of coaching at over 60% off the regular price.