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."
LinksEthical Storytelling@ethicalstorytelling
Be sure to visit the web site for the latest webinar! And check out the Ethical Storytelling podcast for more!
Mission Writers is a library of resources to help missionaries and nonprofits raise funds through storytelling. I've been re-organizing the content in response to some of your comments and suggestions, and I'll have some great resources for you in January. Sign up for my emails so you'll know when it's ready!
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