Storytelling and Social Change: A Strategy Guide for Grantmakers

This guide is not so much about how to tell a good story, but about how to use “narrative strategies”— strategies that use storytelling to advance social change. In
these pages, grantmakers will find guidance and considerations regarding how and why to:

• make story grants to advance their own program goals in any issue area, and evaluate the impact of funded work;
• tell or solicit stories as a foundation to communicate effectively with prospective grantees, prospective donors, local communities, and other stakeholders; and
• use storytelling internally to sharpen the foundation’s focus.

While this guide is aimed primarily at grantmakers, it is also hoped that nonprofits, activists, and storytellers of all kinds will find it to be a useful point of departure as well.