November 12, 2026 | By David M. Wagner
I had worked with this local nonprofit for a while, but this was the first time I had a chance to see their approach to tabling.
I know their work. I’m wild about their mission. And I know the incredible impact they’ve been having.
So I was surprised to see how flat their materials seemed.
All the numbers were there – people reached, milestones exceeded– as were the explanations of how they work and why it’s important.
But there was not one picture. Not one story.
I had a similar reaction to a video a client prepared for their website:
As an introduction to the nature and size of their programs, it was effective. But the video lacked any emotional pull or compelling narrative.
It may be too late to influence your year-end appeal, but if you’re preparing an annual report or any other external-facing descriptions of your work, I hope you’ll hear this plea: Tell me a story!
The Limitations of “Measurables”
For years, grant funders have pushed nonprofits to quantify their impact.
The reasoning makes some sense: in exchange for x dollars, you’ll deliver y results.
Nonprofits, evaluators, and a cottage industry of impact assessment experts have responded by trying to measure outcomes in meaningful ways.
And in relying so much on the numbers, I think we’ve gone a bit too far.
Numbers tell an important part of the story. However:
Not all impact is measurable. How do you measure the joy and stimulation patrons experience from an artistic performance? Or a community’s pride in their town? Or the value of helping other organizations perform their work? Nonprofits do all those things and more – and the impact is invaluable, if not quantifiable.
“Impact” isn’t always the immediate goal. Lots of advocacy work, for example, begins with education and staking a stand – even fully knowing that it will have no near-term effect on policy outcomes. Sure, there can be value in tracking meetings held with policymakers and how many members of the public were reached with messaging – but simply making a visible statement in opposition to oppression can be a worthwhile goal.
Quantifying impact often glosses over humanity. Maybe your organization provided 500,000 meals to members of your community facing food insecurity. That’s an impressive number! But no number can capture the relief and gratitude that a mother felt by finally having an answer to, “how will I feed my kids tomorrow?”
Even if you can boil all your impact down to a handful of numbers, I implore you – don’t stop there!
The most important shortcoming of quantifiable metrics is that they don’t connect with how most people understand ideas, form memories, or make decisions: through emotions and stories.
Ethically Sharing Stories
Think about it: are you more likely to be curious when an organization touts the millions of people they’ve helped, or someone you know tells you how an organization helped them?
Anecdotes are incredibly potent. There is a ton of psychological research that shows how humans are biased toward believing stories (including ones we tell ourselves) even despite contrary evidence.
I am NOT suggesting you shower your funders, supporters, and potential volunteers and staff with misleading stories.
Rather, I want to use the powerful emotional connections that stories create to your advantage – so you can tell the story of your impact beyond the data.
A few practical tips:
Secure consent to use others’ stories ethically. There is often a risk of exploiting, misappropriating, or misrepresenting someone else’s story when you use it to express your organization’s impact. Check out my colleague Diana Farias Heinrich’s ethical storytelling framework to secure consent that is explicit, specific, and revocable.
Be transparent about “conglomerate” stories. Telling the story of “Sam” – not one person, but an amalgamation of the experiences of several real people – can be an effective tool for telling the full narrative of your organization’s impact. Just disclose when that’s the case!
Consider second-hand, aggregate sources to preserve privacy. For instance, a quote from a member of your mental health staff about how moving it is to “witness the transformation our clients experience and the restoration of control they feel in their own lives” can strike a balance between protecting the privacy of individual clients and still communicating more humanity than “108 clients served.”
Couple stories with data. I hope it’s clear that I’m not anti-data! Saying you touched the lives of hundreds or thousands of people and sharing stories that put your impact in human terms is more effective than either one alone.
Recently, it feels like storytelling has become a lost art. If you find yourself defaulting to numbers and program descriptions to explain your mission, I encourage you to consider augmenting those facts with (true) stories. An anecdote or two that demonstrates the unquantifiable, human impact of your work will punch up your elevator pitch, appeal, annual report, and website. I invite you to schedule a Strategic Clarity Session with me if you’d like help thinking about how best to tell your story.