5 tips for building a community of passionate storytellers

I’m sure anyone working in charity communications has heard this famous Maya Angelou quote in reference to the importance of storytelling in our work: “People will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel”.

In the NFP sector, storytelling isn’t just a communications tool, but a powerful way to connect, inspire, and drive change. At Cancer Council NSW, stories underpin everything we do - helping us elevate our mission, deepen community engagement, and amplify our impact.

Over the past five years, we’ve built our thriving Community Ambassador program from the ground up - here are five key tips we’ve learned along the way.

1. Reframe the narrative

Language matters. One of our first steps was retiring the term “case study” and embracing “Community Ambassador.” This shift wasn’t just semantic - it reflected a deeper commitment to building long-term, respectful relationships with the people who share their stories. By positioning storytellers as ambassadors, we honour their lived experience and invite them into an ongoing partnership, not a one-off transaction.

2. Make it easy

We streamlined our story submission process by creating a dedicated external facing landing page with clear information and a simple form. Internally, we built a centralised Hub where staff can easily search for and access stories, templates, and conversation guides.

This not only reduces the load on our small(but mighty!) content team -it saves time and crucially, ensures stories are used consistently and ethically across campaigns, media, and events.

3. Build a culture of storytelling – for everyone

Storytelling isn’t just a comms function- it’s a cultural mindset. We embedded storytelling into our organisation by sharing stories across the organisation at all-staff meetings, forming a cross-divisional working group, and assigning each ambassador a dedicated relationship holder. This increases visibility of the program and importance of our ambassadors across the organisation, ensures that every story is handled with care and that our wonderful ambassadors feel supported and valued every step of the way.

4. R-E-S-P-E-C-T

Respect is our guiding principle. We always ask permission before using a story. Every. Single. Time. We set clear expectations upfront and remain open to changes, including withdrawal of consentat any time. We also ensure both staff and ambassadors have access to support, whether through our incredible Cancer Council healthcare professionals or dedicated training programs. Prioritising respect helps us build mutual trust –and is key to the continued success of the program.

5. Keep asking ‘What’s next?’

We’ve come on leaps and bounds over the past five years. As our Community Ambassador program has matured, we are continually looking at how we can optimise along the way to ensure the best experience for the passionate people who have been generous enough to share their stories with us. That could be looking at how you store and share content internally (digital asset management, anyone?!), improving processes and the experience of these important stakeholders, or looking for gaps in your library to ensure your stories reflect the full breadth of the people in your organisations’ community – this work is continually evolving.

At Cancer Council NSW our incredible Community Ambassadors help us raise awareness, champion advocacy, and connect others to our services. Their stories underpin everything we do and are a testament to the power of storytelling done right.