Background on Community Engagement & Storytelling
Journey into Storytelling
Re-Weaving the Community, Creating the Future: Storytelling at the Heart and Soul of Healthy Communities Barbara for Orton Family Foundation
Relying on Ourselves, The Spirit of Rural Community Development by Nelda K. Pearson: on the role of storytelling in community development in rural Appalachia
The Most Human Art Scott Russell Sanders’s article on the importance of storytelling
Barbara’s Delicious.com feed of storytelling bookmarks (updated regularly)
Working with Stories, a free online Book by Cynthia Kurtz
True Community is founded on a Sense of Place, History and Trust an essay by Chris Maser
A Storytelling Model of Civic Engagement in a Multiethnic Urban Space by Kim, Yong-Chan
Orton Family Foundation’s Heart & Soul Community Planning Handbook
Renewable Energy: How Story Can Revitalize Your Organization by Madeleine Blair (.pdf)
Great post-critique of storytelling example: if you say you’re telling a story, tell one, and a good one at that.
The Art and Science of Storytelling A Webinair Video by Hattaway Communications
Neuroscience, Psychology and Why Storytelling is Serious Stuff
Empathy, Neurochemistry and the Dramatic Arc by Casebeer & Zak
Something Startling This Way Comes Wonder and Story
The Power of Story– Great little video on why we remember stories
1940s Experiment on the Human Urge to Tell Stories (you can try it out!)
Why Visual Storytelling Is the Future of Digital
Chip & Dan Heath Made to Stick Great read, useful!
Winning the Story Wars Free webinair and slide set from Jonah Sachs
Stories vs. Statistics – NYTimes.com
Story, Interrupted: Why We Need New Approaches to Digital Narrative
Storytelling = Nonprofit Sustainability
Neuroscientist Michael Gazzaniga on How Our Brain Makes Stories
Message & Pitch Tips & Resources
The Stanford Social Innovation Review: The Eight-Word Mission Statement
Ernest Hemingway and the Six-Word Story (Wikipedia)
Andy Goodman on The Five-Part Pitch (.pdf)
Ashoka Infographic on How to Make Your Message Stick
Infographic on Storytelling Versus Corporate Speak
On Shifts in Today’s World & Story
Want Your Message to Stick? Tell a Story
Don’t Post Photos, Post Stories
Chimamanda Adichie: The Danger of a Single Story | TED.com
Story-based Practices to Foster Insight
Data-Driven Brand Storytelling: Six Steps to Credible Stories
Donor Loyalty: Five Core Principles to Help Secure the Second Gift
Whoever Tells the Best Stories Wins –some useful tips and examples from Karen Dietz
Network for Good: Year-End Fundraising Tips (.pdf)
Storytelling for Fundraising Efforts: Examples
Charity:Water Great examples of Micro-stories
Doctors without Borders All kinds of media and story lines and pitches for general audience
The Majestic Plastic Bag Video: Humor!
TP the Crisis Center: Humor!
Lumana Annual Report Use of Visuals
Examples of micro-stories from Volunteers of America
Ahern Associates has some excellent examples of e-appeals, end-of-year appeals, letters, etc. Here’s a set from the Coastguard (.pdf)
Haas Foundation First-Person Stories Superb Examples of Beneficiary & Staff Stories
Welcome Stories Short Video stories of Individuals Telling their Story All Around the Same Theme
Infographics –Not strictly about Fundraising, but an Analysis of Well-designed Examples
Network for Good’s Tips on Fundraising Emails
ReStore Makes a Video to Thank Its Donors
Storytelling Organizations Working with Communities
Thaler Pekar is a Storytelling Consultant working out of NYC.
Andy Goodman’s site offers many helpful resources on storytelling.
Hattaway Communications— generous with their methodology
Anecdote, a storytelling organization that has produced a handout on Conducting Anecdote Circles, similar to Story Circles
Stories for Change, community-storytelling network site with tips, examples, and links
Center for Digital Storytelling, one of the first and most influential groups to engage communities with the process of digital storytelling—they really wrote the book on community digital storytelling. See Founder and Director Joe Lambert’s Digital Story about Saving the Albany Bulb
Creative Narrations, storytelling for community change: “a cutting-edge social change consulting firm specializing in multimedia support and training for non-profit and educational institutions. Bringing together narrative, technology, and community building, we help you document the voices and images of change that you see every day.”
Voices, storytelling expert Josh Schachter’s group capturing the stories of Tucson
Full Circle Associates/Nancy White works with all kinds of communities on communication and stewardship. See her book, Digital Habitats.
Kathy Hansen works primarily with businesses and storytelling, but she has gathering many useful resources for nonprofits as well
Community Story Examples
Troy Library Video Digital Storytelling for Change
Skowhegan Revitalization Project: schools and community partnering to engage youth in revitalization efforts, including historic walking tour podcasts
Face Up: Telling Stories of Community Life “is a documentary/public art project that grows out of local conversations about neighborhood goals in Southwest Central Durham, North Carolina. The project blends an artist’s residency with collaborative documentary exploration and art-making in community settings, building relationships in the process.”
Murmur [murmur] “is a documentary oral history project that records stories and memories told about specific geographic locations. We collect and make accessible people’s personal histories and anecdotes about the places in their neighborhoods that are important to them. In each of these locations we install a [murmur] sign with a telephone number on it that anyone can call with a mobile phone to listen to that story while standing in that exact spot, and engaging in the physical experience of being right where the story takes place.”
Placeography, “A wiki where you can share the history of and stories about a house, building, farmstead, public land, neighborhood or any place to which you have a personal connection. If you don’t have a place to contribute, please enjoy learning about others.”
Why Here Why Now “Collecting the sights, sounds and stories of Yellow Springs, Ohio” This project is one person’s brainchild. Some excellent examples of interviews here and Wordle tag clouds of the story theme. It includes an excellent overview of Wordle, Tagul and Many Eyes for analyzing the interviews.
Going Coastal “Our coast defines Nova Scotians like nothing else. Our ancestors fished off it. Tourists from all over the world bask along it. And people from near and far fulfill a dream by building on it. But development along our coast is threatening the very thing we hold so dear. CBC Nova Scotia investigates the issue of coastal management through your stories.” Here’s an example of an audio story.
Kodja Place Stories, Australia “The Kodja Place is the story of country Australia – as experienced by one farming community in south western Australia. It welds state of the art design and technologies with the simple directness of the traditional Noongar style of storytelling – we use our own words and our own images to tell own story – it is not the packaged words of outside experts.”
Glasgow, Scotland 2020: Imagining the Future of the City ”Glasgow 2020 is a project to collect together the imagination of the city to tell a new story about its future. This site is a place to read and submit stories, make wishes and check out events about the future of Glasgow. What’s your story?”
West Medford MA historic walking tour (by Brandeis University class)
Saving the Sierra: “..explores the geographic, political & philosophical boundaries of the new Sierra Nevada Conservancy. Through public media & citizen storytelling, the project documents community efforts to conserve the environment, culture & economy of the Sierra Nevada.
The Organic City Project: “ is a community storytelling project focused on the downtown Oakland areas surrounding Lake Merritt. We encourage you to find and tell stories about local places through this website. These stories form the basis for mobile media that can be experienced while walking around the city.”
Meadowlark Institute Stories as springboards to community dialogues and planning for the future.
Holding Up the Memories An audio-slide story to capture the voices of Kentucky
Storymapping Example from Ukiah, California “Stories collected and integrated into a stage production featuring 21 stories, many performed live by the authors.”
Neighborhood Narratives “A mechanism though which students can explore neighborhoods across the globe while developing transnational connections. By examining the similarities and the differences of their “neighborhood narratives,” students begin to develop heightened understandings of the effects of globalization both at home and in other nations.”
PhilaPlace: “Explore the City of Neighborhoods through maps, stories, photographs, and documents, and share the story of your PhilaPlace.”
Mapping Memories: Stories of Refugee Youth in Montreal “is a collaborative multi-media project which uses personal stories and a range of media tools (video, sound walks, mapping, photography) to share the experiences of youth with refugee experience in Montreal.”
KCET Story Shares “Join us in weaving together a collective narrative for the city.
Media Arts Center San Diego Projects in community digital storytelling
Coramandel New Zealand Community Digital Storytelling Project: “This is an initiative to record, preserve, and share the history and stories of the Coromandel community using Digital Storytelling.”
Talk About Local in the UK “is a project to give people in their communities a powerful online voice. We want to help people communicate and campaign more effectively to influence events in the places in which they live, work or play.”
Echo Archive in Leeds, England: “Collaborating with local residents and schoolchildren, we recorded a variety of sounds that reflect life in the area. Machinery and playgrounds, community choirs and rappers echoing in tower block stairwells. The project is a document of that process, resulting in a custom audio instrument that allows users to remix & resample sounds of the area into their own compositions. On this site you can download the instrument, or review what others have done with it.”
Westminster Stories: “Stories from a street in Providence, Rhode Island”
Big Stories Small Town in Australia: “… features collaborations between communities & filmmakers in residence”
The Audio-Video Barn “is full of stories about Illinois agriculture. It contains audio and video recordings of more than 130 oral-history interviews with people involved in agriculture and rural life in Illinois.”
Transom.org and Radio for Local Sense of Place
American Memory from the Library of Congress
Hear Here Tell your story about a neighborhood place
General Storytelling tips and techniques
Nancy Duarte’s Storyboarding Method
Knowledge Sharing Tools and Methods Toolkit – Samoan Circle
Story-Based Communication Skills
Using the Power of Narrative to Make a Meaningful Message (Hattaway Communications)
Cynthia Kurtz’s Questions to Ask for Stories
Community Expressions, LLC 
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