It’s time for nonprofit communicators to think about not just why we tell stories but also how we tell them. Abesha Shiferaw sums up the reason beautifully in her blog post about responsible storytelling (link to post is below): “When we tell the stories of the people we serve we are creating people in the imagination of our audiences and contributing to their existing biases, narratives, opinions, and ideas about the people in the story. We have to acknowledge this power. Words have power. Stories have power. They can be revelations for change or destruction. [Chinua] Achebe also said, ‘until the lions have their own historians, the history of the hunt will always glorify the hunter.’”

Here are some resources to get started:

• http://ethicalstorytelling.com/pledge/
• http://ethicalstorytelling.com/resources/
• https://rainiervalleycorps.org/2018/04/tell-compelling-stories-avoiding-savior-complex-exploitation/

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