Many nonprofits today are highly data-driven, using metrics and key performance indicators (KPIs) to demonstrate impact and make decisions. But as you’re cleaning up your nonprofit’s books or updating your records before creating an annual report, don’t forget the real people behind those numbers.

Every individual your nonprofit interacts with, whether a beneficiary, volunteer, donor, staff member, or corporate sponsor, has a story to tell. Storytelling statistics reveal that combining data with storytelling can boost information retention rates from 5% to 67%.

With that in mind, this guide offers four tips for capturing the personal side of your nonprofit data to tell more compelling stories that place your mission in context.

1. Contextualize your data.

The first step in making your data feel more personal and authentic to your audience is contextualizing the numbers. Giving supporters greater clarity on what your data means makes a much more compelling case for your organization’s ability to work effectively toward its mission.

Use interactive content elements to contextualize your data, such as:

  • Infographics, like an infographic using statistics to demonstrate the extent of childhood hunger in your community and ways your organization helps combat the problem.
  • Timelines, such as a timeline displaying how your organization’s volunteer force has grown since your founding.
  • Interactive maps, like a map showing positive progress over time resulting from a change in your nonprofit’s mission that improved your local community’s reforestation efforts.

Contextualizing your data connects hard numbers to tangible impacts on people’s lives.

For example, let’s say you want to share data about how your recent peer-to-peer fundraising campaign had more individual donors participating than ever before. You can create a video timeline with a bar chart demonstrating the major leap in individual donations. Then, you can share a written description letting supporters know precisely how your nonprofit used their gifts to benefit your mission, connecting the numbers to tangible results.

2. Let stakeholders share their stories in their own words.

Sharing the stories of the stakeholders involved with your nonprofit fosters emotional connections and increases solidarity in your community. By giving stakeholders the platform to tell their stories in their own words, you can strengthen trust with your community.

Follow these best practices to create an inclusive, inviting storytelling experience:

  • Get to know the storyteller first. Learn about the storyteller on a personal level. When you know more about the person, you can ask more specific questions that get to the heart of their story.
  • Let the storyteller share their story on their own terms. Ensure the person telling their story is comfortable with the process. Allow them to set boundaries and keep certain aspects of their story private. Also, ask the storyteller how they’d like to share their experience. Not everyone is comfortable with being videotaped or audio recorded, so provide other options such as allowing them to write their story down or speaking to someone taking notes.
  • Don’t ask leading questions. A leading question is a question worded to prompt a specific response. For example, asking, “How incredible was the support you received from our staff?” is a leading question. Keep your questions neutral to encourage constituents to respond truthfully and in their own words. You might ask instead, “What were your interactions like with members of our staff?”

Allow stakeholders to read over the draft of the story to ensure they’re comfortable with the information you’re planning to share. Also, ask them to clarify certain parts of the story to ensure all the facts are accurate.

Incorporate these people-first stories alongside data your nonprofit shares, whether on social media or within a blog post or annual report. You can paint a picture of widespread trends using your data, then zoom in to share the story of individuals who have experienced the trends up close.

For example, you could share data about the expansion of your afterschool program and include a testimonial from a student who’s benefited from participating in art classes that are part of the program.

3. Create multimedia testimonials.

Incorporate multimedia content formats into your storytelling to bring your stories to life. Engaging multimedia elements will help make your stories feel more real to readers.

Find creative ways to tell stories using:

  • Photos
  • Videos
  • Audio clips
  • Artwork created by the storyteller, such as paintings, drawings, or sculptures
  • Creative writing, such as first-person narratives or poems

Gather these multimedia elements in a shared folder or drive for your marketing team members to easily access as needed.

In addition, adapt these testimonials based on the platform you’re sharing them on. For example, Bloomerang’s donation page guide recommends demonstrating the impact of donors’ gifts using follow-up emails that include testimonials from community members. Optimize your testimonials for email by ensuring that images are the ideal size of 600-800 pixels and that your message is 200 words or less. Using these best practices will increase the chances that subscribers actually engage with your content.

4. Align your software solutions to support storytelling.

Your nonprofit’s software solutions can effectively support capturing the human side of your data. Tools like your nonprofit CRM, membership software, and volunteer management platform consolidate data about your constituents into a unified platform that makes it easy to track data trends and personal information about every individual involved with your organization.

Your software solutions can support your data storytelling efforts by helping you:

  • Segment your audience. Using your supporter database, you can group constituents based on shared interests or characteristics, such as length of involvement with your organization or donation amount. Then, you can assess the impact of your outreach efforts on different audiences to identify positive and negative trends. You can also choose individuals from each group to tell their stories, ensuring you spotlight a diverse range of people involved in your organization.
  • Gather stakeholder testimonials. Software tools like your CRM and online form builders can help you send surveys to supporters. You can use these surveys to gather feedback and testimonials from different individuals in your audience. You can save their responses to their profiles in your database to keep testimonials organized.
  • Track progress toward your mission. Use reporting tools within your CRM to assess progress toward your goals, such as your annual giving goal or program recruitment goals. Reports can help you identify trends in your data, which you can note as potential storytelling opportunities. For example, let’s say you note a positive upswing in youth volunteer recruitment. In that case, you can create a blog post interviewing a few young volunteers to discover why they’re passionate about your nonprofit’s mission.

Your software tools make it easier to spot data trends and directly communicate with the individuals impacted by your mission. As a result, you can streamline the storytelling process and get more stories out into the world faster.

This year, as you file Form 990, organize your financial statements, and track donation trends, prioritize pinpointing the human stories behind the data and financials. Taking a people-first approach to your impact reporting will strengthen your emotional connection to your audience, grow trust in your organization, and provide a better experience for all stakeholders.