667. Working Session: How to Tell Stories That Drive Action with Jon and Becky
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Overview
In this rapid-fire Working Session, Jon and Becky break down storytelling as a core nonprofit skill — not a marketing tactic — and share simple, practical frameworks you can use immediately.
From clarifying your values and audience to collecting and activating stories more intentionally, you’ll learn how to move supporters from empathy → connection → action and build a storytelling system that drives trust, belonging, and long-term engagement.
Top 3 Takeaways:
Story Drives Action — Not Tactics: People don’t act until they feel something, and they don’t stay until they feel like they belong. Learn how to anchor your storytelling in empathy, identity, and shared humanity so your calls to action actually land.
Build a Simple Storytelling System: From collecting stories at the end of emails and donation forms to syndicating one story across multiple channels, you’ll learn how to turn storytelling into a repeatable workflow — not a one-off creative lift.
Tell Stories With Dignity and Trust: Ethical storytelling isn’t about rules — it’s about relationships. Centering dignity, consent, and agency protects the people behind the stories, strengthens credibility, and builds the kind of trust that fuels long-term community and generosity.
This episode is packed with practical, low-lift storytelling moves you can implement today — whether you’re writing an email, planning content, onboarding new supporters, or stewarding long-term relationships.
Welcome back to Working Sessions: hands-on, clarity-filled conversations designed to help you move real work forward inside your organization.
Let’s get to work.
“Story isn’t marketing, it’s a way to make meaning. ”
Episode Transcript
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Episode Highlights
Story as Meaning, Not Marketing (01:24)
Preparing for Storytelling: Values, Audiences, and Action (03:07)
Building a Culture of Storytelling (04:26)
Ethical Storytelling Principles (06:10)
Introducing the Impact Arc Framework (08:05)
Practical Working Session Activities (11:42)
Community as the Accelerant for Storytelling (15:04)
Powerful Quotes
“We believe every moment is really driven by a story.” - Jon McCoy
“Empathy, connection and action. That is i what stories unlock.” - Becky Endicott
“Ethical storytelling means viewing things through that lens to ask: Do we have guardrails in place to center dignity?” - Jon McCoy
“Storytelling isn’t content creation, it’s community creation.” - Becky Endicott
“How can we paint people in the greatest possible light?”- Jon McCoy
"Community multiplies everything. It multiplies impact, joy, retention, generosity, exposure, network, literally everything." - Becky Endicott
“We love inviting you to tell your stories, even just modeling it invites belonging." - Jon McCoy
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