Brand Stories, Data and Impact

As nonprofits, we’re always looking for ways to better communicate our impact, and that often involves the use of outcomes and data. Almost all of us are tracking and using data, especially on outputs, and 76% of Texas nonprofits are collecting data on outcomes. That’s great, but what do you do with the data. How do you turn it into something meaningful and how do you communicate it out to the community?

Though storytelling has long been a common function of marketing teams, turning data into compelling brand stories can be a challenge that requires a unique, and sometimes conflicting, skill-set. Data alone will not effectively communicate impact. The key is to bring data and storytelling together to transform your outcomes measurement into compelling and meaningful stories of impact.

Here are some applicable tips to turn data into stories for your nonprofit:

Data-collectors and marcom teams should co-create the data strategy.

While data-collectors know what info they need or want to collect, the marcom team can speak to the story the data will turn into. While talking through the data, possible stories should start to take shape. Involving a marketing person in the strategy, before collecting data, will help identify additional data that should be collected to help tell your story, or if questions should be phrased in certain ways to better support the story. Once the data is in and has been processed, identify themes and key messages to use in your brand stories.

Incorporate data into your brand stories.

Whether it’s with infographics, key stats, white papers or reports, nonprofit marketers turn the data into story elements or stand-alone stories that reinforce an emotional connection with the brand with the intent of engaging stakeholders in your mission and ultimate impact. These can be part of a campaign (for example, an end-of-year fundraising campaign or sharing out successes of a specific program or service) or part of the broader organizational brand story.

Once developed these stories or story elements should be reviewed by the data-owners and data-collectors to ensure accuracy in context, keeping in mind that when it comes to storytelling, meaningful narratives are paramount to precision in explaining data.

Repurpose and share widely.

Once you have your data-driven stories, repurpose them for different audiences and communication channels, and distribute widely to get the most out of your work. Consider including elements of your story in donor communications and impact reports, put highlights in your newsletter and share with volunteers, turn key findings into graphics for social posts, blog about the findings and mention them in presentations.

Good stories will bring your data to life and help connect more people to your work in the community. So, if you’re a data-collector and analyzer, start involving your story-tellers in your work more often – it may start to transform your work. And if you’re a communications professional, start talking to the data people in your organization – they have excellent content for you and all those stories you write!