We’ve discussed this point before: the conundrum of privacy concerns and client confidentiality has been a long-standing issue for many organizations. And that’s because confidentiality is closely tied to the kind of work that certain nonprofits do, as well as the people who’ve meaningfully affected by this work. Something would be fundamentally missing from an organization that was unable to tell their stories, and to tell them well. First off, great stories so often form the backbone of a nonprofit’s identity, because they help to convey who the organization is, what they do, and what sets them apart from other organizations that perform similar work. Secondly, great stories are what great fundraising is made of, and an emotionally compelling narrative can possess the power to not only attract donors, but to inspire some very enthusiastic giving. There are other reasons as to why storytelling is very important, but for the sake of time and space, we’ll just stick to these for now.
You probably have some idea of how confidentiality impacts storytelling and makes navigating those waters a little bit trickier, because it introduces an element of complexity to the storytelling equation. Confidentiality creates boundaries, but don’t let that intimidate you. It’s still possible to swim around the barriers. Such concerns raise some important questions, though. For one thing, how do you go about introducing a voice that has no name — can you still create an identity? Will the lack of a name negatively affect your story’s credibility and cause it to appear “less” true within the eyes of your donors? What if you have to edit or omit certain personal details from an individual’s story in order to protect his or her privacy?
Please, please don’t let these kinds of questions intimidate you, but do definitely open a dialogue with other members of your organization and do some brainstorming. Just because you’re obligated to follow privacy protocol, does that mean your organization has to sacrifice telling a great story in the process? Absolutely not. Confidentiality and great storytelling can coexist, and Five Acres’ short video story, focusing on a child simply known as 5A, is proof of just that.
What we know about her makes her, on some level, familiar to us. We don’t hear her speak, and yet she has a strong presence, a voice, and an identity. We know some silly stuff about her, like that she enjoys laughing, making funny faces, and watching bubbles. We know she wants to be a pirate when she grows up and that she wants a pet billy goat.
And then, we also know some stuff about her that’s a little more serious. We know she is a foster child who has been in 11 foster homes. We know she’s been waiting three years to be adopted and needs to belong to a family.
Tell me, did you find Girl 5A’s story as emotionally compelling as I did? Were you inspired to want to help or to research Five Acres to find out more about who they are? Did it matter to you that she didn’t have a “real” name, or that the details about her may have easily been combined from two or three different foster children?
While I can’t be totally sure about how exactly Five Acres structured their story and what decisions they made in doing so, from what details they chose to use, to what they chose to leave out, I can tell you with absolute certainty that I was moved. Because they highlighted a couple of truths for me: she’s very much like little girls I’ve met before, and these children need our help.
For more on this topic, read Fundraising with Names Have Been Changed Disclaimers.
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I can’t wait to meet with you personally.
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