Growing Membership & Building Community Engagement

MAJELLA’S CHALLENGE, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR

While in London speaking at an ACEVO conference (Third Sector Leaders/Charities & Non Profits), the leadership team at CO3 talked with Ira about bringing his storytelling program to Northern Ireland. The leadership team expressed its goals of better engaging members, prospective members, community leaders, and government officials. Majella stated, “We are a group of humble third sector leaders who need to better tell our stories to grow.” And Ira’s response with a smile, “Majella, you have to strategically brag. You have to tell your audiences why CO3 is smart investment. And through storytelling, you can still be humble and strategically brag.”

The Chief Storyteller®’s Solution

• Facilitated a number of executive and leadership brainstorming sessions
• Condensed several themes and messages into one, powerful metaphor-centered story/Better Tomorrow Message™ — “We Help Third Sector Leaders To Be Exceptional”
• Helped develop talking points and identified success stories for its Outreach Playbook (Sales Playbook)
• Synchronized its new BTM™ across its outreach, marketing, human resources, and customer service materials
• Employed a variety of tools to help CO3 accelerate outreach success. Tools include:
  • The Great Stories Framework™ for Leaders
  • The Great Stories Framework™ for Success Stories
  • Story Library
  • The Great Presentation Framework™
  • The Great Elevator Pitch Framework™
  • System of Credibility™

Results

• More than a decade later, the value proposition/Better Tomorrow MessageTM, is generating the right results for CO3.
• The BTMTM is synchronized across its website, outreach materials, press releases, presentations, proposals, brochures, etc. — throughout its entire System of CredibilityTM
• The entire team at CO3 became more comfortable and confident with strategically bragging about all the fantastic activities, investments, and benefits CO3 brought to Northern Ireland and beyond
• CO3 grew its membership, sponsorships, and donations
• Outreach became easier, especially with government officials