{"id":4402231479461,"date":"2026-04-08T07:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-04-08T11:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.philanthropy.com\/?p=4402231479461"},"modified":"2026-05-01T17:33:39","modified_gmt":"2026-05-01T21:33:39","slug":"commons-gaspar-storytelling-0426","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.philanthropy.com\/opinion\/commons-gaspar-storytelling-0426\/","title":{"rendered":"Nonprofits Sit on a Gold Mine of Stories. It\u2019s Time to Use Them."},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Keep up with everything happening in<\/em> The Commons<\/em><\/a> by<\/em> signing up for our monthly newsletter.<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I grew up in a world where storytelling was seen as a nice way to pass the time \u2014 not a tool for making sense of your life. My own story carried moments I never said out loud for years. I had an unstable childhood, including a medication overdose at age 7 that put me in a coma. I was shot before I was old enough to understand what danger meant and became a father at age 16. By my early 20s, a set of bad decisions led to three armed robberies and an arrest. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In jail I learned how much power a story holds. Long before a judge handed down a sentence, a narrative about who I was had already taken shape. Prosecutors leaned on it and people repeated it until it sounded true. The court set a bail amount<\/a> far beyond what my family could pay and in the end I took a plea that came with more than 20 years in prison. I became a character in a story I didn\u2019t write and that treated my worst decisions as the full measure of my life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Prison prompted me to rethink my story. I started to see the parts that had been ignored, misunderstood, or erased and the parts I had never given myself permission to claim. I began spending time in the prison law library, where I learned to tell my story on my terms, including how an improper process hardened into a plea I should never have taken. I told my story in my appeal and eventually won freedom after serving 10 years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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It’s been two decades now since my release. Today I lead the Bail Project<\/a>, an organization that meets people in moments of crisis, supporting them through the pretrial process and treating their stories<\/a> as essential data \u2014 not disposable anecdotes. And because I know firsthand what happens when a system reduces a life to a single narrative, I\u2019m committed to building an institution that listens differently to people\u2019s stories.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A Wealth of Data<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Stories are one of the richest forms of data nonprofits have. Researchers such as Kendall Haven, in his book Story Proof: The Science Behind the Startling Power of Story<\/em><\/a>, have shown that stories contain a wealth of data that can reveal behavioral patterns, values, and lived experiences in ways that quantitative metrics often cannot. Stories \u201cshow what people actually do rather than what they say they do,\u201d and they turn abstract concepts into concrete, actionable insights. They are also among the most powerful ways to engender empathy and understanding across differences \u2014 a critical factor in shaping reform.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since our founding, the Bail Project has supported more than 40,000 people nationwide. Their stories \u2014 what actually happened during the arrest, what they needed to get to court, what one night in jail did to their family \u2014 form one of the most comprehensive narrative datasets about pretrial injustice in the United States. This work has informed litigation and policy<\/a>, and helped communities and lawmakers understand what is at stake.

When you listen closely, patterns emerge with striking repetition: A judge sets an unaffordable bond that disconnects someone from their home or employment; a few days<\/a> in jail create a cascade of housing or job loss that can take months or years to repair; a person experiences fear and confusion in a system that offers almost no clarity when they need it most. These are not isolated anecdotes. They are indicators of systemic failure across jurisdictions, a concept well documented by narrative researchers<\/a> who note that when stories are analyzed collectively, clear patterns and insights emerge. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

For stories to offer this kind of meaning, nonprofits must build a culture that treats storytelling as core program work. Leaders must model an appreciation for story. Staff should be trained to collect, share, and analyze stories, and meet regularly to discuss them. Storytelling should be done across the organization, not confined to a single communications role or left to an external media outlet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rewriting the Script<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The challenge is that most nonprofits do not have the resources to build this culture, and philanthropy has not encouraged it. In a 2024 survey of nonprofit leaders conducted by researchers<\/a> from Georgetown University’s Center for Social Impact Communication, staff capacity was identified as the No. 1 barrier to effective storytelling. Ninety percent of respondents said the importance of storytelling would increase in the coming two years, but funding for the infrastructure needed to support that growth remains limited. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This gap produces the classic nonprofit script, says sociologist Annie Neimand<\/a>, who studies social change: The organization plays the hero, the client is cast as a passive recipient, and the systems shaping their life all but disappear. This approach flattens people\u2019s lives and reinforces the idea that outcomes stem from individual effort rather than structural forces. <\/p>\n\n\n

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But the truth is more complicated. A story about pretrial detention is never just about the person detained. It is about judicial discretion, the reliance on cash bail, the precariousness of low-wage work, the fragility of housing, the threat of losing one\u2019s children, and the quiet acts of resilience that help people survive. Scholars such as Neimand argue that stories must name these forces, otherwise they reproduce harmful narratives that exacerbate division and erase the systemic drivers of inequality. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Communications expert Ella Saltmarshe describes story<\/a> as \u201clight, glue, and web\u201d: It exposes fault lines, builds community connection, and rewrites the deeper myths that hold inequitable systems in place. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

If philanthropy wants storytelling that advances justice rather than exploitation, funders must treat narrative work as essential infrastructure. They must recognize that stories contain data that can guide strategy. They must invest in narratives that strengthen movements, not just brands, and support organizations as they build the systems required to gather stories ethically, analyze them rigorously, and protect the dignity of the people who share them. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Stories are powerful but they can also be misused to turn people\u2019s lives into fundraising anecdotes that fail to acknowledge the larger societal structures at play. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The systems we hope to transform are held in place by stories. Only better stories will loosen their grip.
The Commons is financed in part with philanthropic support from the Arthur M. Blank Family Foundation, Einhorn Collaborative, and the Walton Family Foundation. None of our supporters have any control over or input into story selection, reporting, or editing, and they do not review articles before publication. See <\/em>more about the Chronicle<\/em><\/a>, the grants, how our foundation-supported journalism works, and our <\/em>gift-acceptance policy<\/em><\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Storytelling can reveal behavioral patterns and systemic failures that quantitative metrics often miss. I speak from experience. Telling my story helped me win freedom.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":151181,"featured_media":4402231479518,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"content-type":"","cop_editorial_slug":"","cop_asana_id":"","editorial_asana_id":"","editorial_doc_id":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[82013],"issue":[193005],"profile":[],"role":[191049],"series":[191079],"topic":[192233],"coauthors":[192937],"class_list":{"0":"post-4402231479461","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","6":"hentry","7":"category-opinion","8":"issue-may-2026","9":"role-leading","10":"series-the-commons","11":"topic-executive-leadership","13":"has-featured-image"},"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nNonprofits Sit on a Gold Mine of Stories. 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