BridgeBuilder

Storytelling Toolkit
Sharing your work with the world

EiE Alliance

1
Why
Storytelling?

We want to help Storytelling has an incredible

capacity to support organizations.
you craft better Stories capture imagination, inspire

stories so that you others, bring in funding, identify and

cultivate supporters and ultimately
can make a deeper deepen your impact. They help you
become an effective communicator
impact in the work of the challenges you’re solving and
you do everyday. the work you’re doing.

This resource will We work on stories using the same

help you tell the process we’ve applied to ideas—by
prototyping, getting feedback and
story of your work refining them. The most powerful
within this project stories are both clear and compelling.

grant and beyond. Here’s a tool to get you started.

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Know Your
Message

MAKE IT CLEAR PRACTICE

Since we’re tackling It’s important to have a strong core

message. The questions below will
messy and complex help you think about your potential

design challenges, audience. There’s an example on the

next page.
our ideas need to be 1. How might you summarize your
clear. This exercise idea in one sentence?

will help you get 2. How might you explain your idea
to someone’s grandmother?
to the core of your 3. How might you explain your idea
story by having you to someone in your industry?

reflect on how you

TIP
might share your
idea with different Look back to your User Experience
Map as a guide to help you summarize
audiences. the main elements of your idea.

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Know Your Message

EXAMPLE MAKE IT

Summarize your idea in one sentence.

We help small farmers thrive by providing them with the information and
technology they need to maximize profits from their crops.

How might you explain your idea with someone who

has no context whatsoever?
We help farmers anticipate how much they’ll grow and sell their crops
directly to buyers before harvest.

How might you explain your idea to someone

in your industry?
We created an online platform that projects the yield for small-scale
farmers, using information from past yields, geography and input. The
platform links them to buyers in advance of harvest using a 2-way SMS

GET FEEDBACK: IS YOUR IDEA

After you’ve developed your core messages, share them with three
different people. Ask them questions like:

Is my idea clear?
What questions do you still have?
What would you change?
What was confusing?

We help farmers anticipate how much they’ll grow and sell their crops
directly to buyers before harvest.

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Know Your
Audience

THE CONTEXT PRACTICE

Context matters. Write down two different groups that

you share your ideas and stories with
In order to (Ex: a collaborator or potential funder).

develop clear and Who is the group?

compelling stories, What do they care about?

it’s essential that What do they value?

to understand who What part of your work would make

them curious to learn more?
your audience is What support do you want from
and the goal of
TIP
your message in a
particular setting. Be sure you understand the OpenIDEO
Challenge sponsor/partner’s needs so
you can sculpt your Idea contribution
in a way that will resonate with them.

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Craft Your
Story

MAKE IT COMPELLING

Clarifying your There’s a number of ways to craft

a compelling story. The model on
message and the next page of this toolkit is an

audience is just the adaptation of the SUCCES model,

based off Dan and Chip Heath’s book
beginning. Now it’s Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas
Survive and Others Die. This is a
time to tell your great way to build out the elements
core message in a of your story.

way that addresses TIP

the values and
Writer’s block? Try explaining your
interests of your idea to someone aloud before writing
audience. your story.

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Craft Your Story

PRACTICE MAKE IT COMPELLING

Use the SUCCES model and test your story

with these questions:

Can you share your story with someone else

Simple in less than 3 minutes?

Have you included context about what makes

Unexpected your story unique?

Do you support your idea with anecdotes,

Concrete statistics or examples?

Have you explained how you plan to achieve

Credible this idea?

Did you include the personal experiences of

Emotional your beneficiaries?

Stories take many forms—is your story

Stories supported through visuals?

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Share Your
Story

GET FEEDBACK PRACTICE

The best stories Take 3 minutes to share your story

with three different people. Then ask
incorporate them the following questions:

feedback. Your goal What resonated with you in my

story?
should be to always
What do you still have questions
learn about how you about?
can improve your What was most memorable?
story. This exercise How would you summarize my idea

will help you ask in one or two sentences?

for feedback, which TIP

you’ll use to revise
Revise your story using the feedback
your story. you receive from these questions.

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 Share your story

We look forward to
collaborating with you
in the Challenge!