As the Vice President of Engagement for a regional social service agency, I am responsible for creating meaningful opportunities for critical constituency groups like donors and volunteers to connect with our mission. The best way to do this is by sharing real-life stories of our clients and how our services assist them in bettering their lives. In fact, this practice is a tenant of our brand personality; we strive at all times to talk about our clients, not ourselves.
This is not new. Nonprofits since the beginning of time have been using storytelling to engage their community. My agency has been sending client stories in direct mail appeals and printed newsletters for decades. But as communication methods become more personalized and digital, the need for more content has really stretched my team to think outside the box as to how to gather stories. Not only do we need them for traditional printed materials, we also need them for e-appeals and e-newsletters, webpages and daily social media posts. Of course, content can and should be repurposed across multiple channels for maximum impact but the real-time aspect of digital media still remains a struggle to keep up with.
I’ve been thinking a lot about user generated content (UGC) as a possible solution. Retailers use UGC very effectively when they offer the option to review their products online or through social media requests for unboxing photos and videos. I’ve used it myself in past positions. I’ve seen less use of UGC in the nonprofit world. I can understand why. We have little time, staff and budget to collect, verify, organize and aggregate content. Most importantly, we want to protect our clients’ privacy. Many of them come to us at the worst time of their lives. Why would they want to publicly talk about it, even if the outcome was positive? That being said, we have had past clients comment on our social media accounts about their experiences with our programs so I know there are folks who are willing to tell their story. We’ve even had past clients offer to volunteer and/or support folks who are in similar situations. Now that’s a step towards engagement, that long term committment to our agency that is a critical part of our long term strategy plan.
We have yet to figure out how to respond to these requests in an effective way that nets us great content and protects the clients’ privacy, as well as starts the engagement process. It’s incredibly time consuming to reach out to each post, meet with each person indiviually and go through the process of signing releases, assessing liability issues and gathering details, even when the results are incredibly useful.
We have an easier time gathering volunteer or community donor stories and those are important too. There is less liability or risk in sharing their stories. However, there is still the issue of resources stretched thin, with no time for my team to make the calls, set up the meetings, schedule a photography shoot and write the content needed to keep up with the 24/7 demands of a digital world.
Do other nonprofits have this problem? What are your solutions? I’ve been thinking that we need a digital platform that could do this for a resource-strapped nonprofit. Not just a message board, more of a content aggregator. Is there an affordable online platform that would streamline the process? Has anyone found an effective way to harness and publish nonprofit storytelling?
