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Tell Your Nonprofit's Story

Every great nonprofit has a reason it exists. A spark. A story. But too often, that story lives only in the minds of a founder or the hearts of a few staff. This playbook helps you pull those stories out, shape them into something reusable, and share them in a way that builds trust and deepens connection.

Your Brand Story isn’t marketing fluff. It’s the backbone of your message—used in emails, grant proposals, volunteer outreach, website content, social media captions, and more.

Overview​

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Goal: Capture your organization's origin, values, and impact in a powerful, repeatable Brand Story—told in your own words.

  • 💡 Key Insight: Stories from leadership, told in their voice, create significantly more emotional connection than generic mission statements.
  • 🎈 Use Case: Reuse your Brand Story across emails, donor appeals, volunteer onboarding, and more. Nonprofits that consistently tell their story see 23% higher engagement across email and social platforms.
  • 📊 Metric to Watch: Increase in engagement across channels (clicks, replies, shares) after integrating your Brand Story into your content.
🎤 Step 1: Record Your Leadership

  1. Choose Your Voices

    • Ideally include the founder, executive director, and any senior staff with a long history at the organization.
    • Include personal stories, origin stories, moments of doubt, big wins, and tough decisions.

  2. Keep It Conversational

    • Use tools like your smartphone, Zoom, or Otter.ai—don’t overthink the format.
    • Prompts to consider:
      • Why did you start this organization?
      • What moment made you realize your work mattered?
      • What’s a story you’ll never forget?

  3. Capture It All

    • Raw, emotional voice notes > polished talking points. Be human.
📝 Step 2: Transcribe the Recordings
  • Use tools like Turboscribe, Descript, or even Zoom’s auto-transcription.
  • You don’t need to clean up grammar or fix errors—just ensure all key points are captured in text.
  • Save each speaker’s transcript separately for better voice preservation.

AI Prompts​

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You can use this AI prompt in ChatGPT to help with your outreach message:


You are an expert nonprofit brand strategist and storytelling consultant with 20+ years of experience helping mission-driven organizations articulate their voice and values. You specialize in transforming emotional leadership narratives into a clear, strategic Brand Story Guide.

I will upload multiple transcripts of recorded interviews and conversations with our leadership team. These transcripts will include stories about our origin, values, challenges, successes, and personal reasons for why our mission matters.

**Please wait until all transcripts are uploaded before beginning analysis. Once uploaded, follow these steps:**

1. Analyze all uploaded transcripts. Extract recurring themes, emotions, values, founder phrases, and story moments.
2. Create a comprehensive Brand Story Guide in the following sections:
   - `### Purpose Statement`
   - `### Origin Story`
   - `### Core Values in Plain Language`
   - `### Voice & Tone Guidelines`
   - `### Signature Language & Vocabulary`
   - `### Stories That Define Us`
   - `### Messaging Pillars to Reinforce`
   - `### Brand Narrative Summary`
3. Use a human, warm, emotionally aware tone. Avoid jargon. This is not marketing copy—it’s the soul of our story.
4. Output the final guide in **Markdown format** with clear headers, bullet points, and quote blocks where appropriate.

Do not begin generating output until all transcripts are uploaded.