GlobalWA and Stronger Stories join forces for bigger impact
By Maheen Mustafa
Global Washington, a Seattle-based international development association, joins forces with Stronger Stories, a strategic story consultancy and school (in Seattle, UK, and Cairo) to make a bigger global impact through strategic story-making. They collaboratively conducted a storytelling workshop on October 3 in Westlake Tower centered around turning a strategy into a story. They shared unique and refreshing frameworks of story-making that tell better, more compelling stories, resulting in greater impact.
They recognized that the challenge small philanthropic organizations face is not being able to tell their story compellingly despite doing great work. Nonprofit professionals aren’t meant to be great storytellers. They have to hire people who can do justice to their work and tell their stories. Small organizations have limited budgets and can’t afford an in-house PR team or consultancy that could successfully articulate their stories, and that’s where the superpowers of GlobalWA , Stronger Stories, and their workshops come in.
In attendance were folks from Amazon, Global Partnerships, Landesa, The Hunger Project, IHME (Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation), IRC (International Rescue Committee), Center for Sharing, Rotary Club to name a few.
The presenters were Stronger Stories CEO Guy Pattison and their US Partner of Brand and Strategy, Mikki Choman Draggoo; and the Director of Communications, GlobalWA, Joel Meyers. I got a chance to connect with them after the workshop. Here, they make a compelling case for workshops like these, and they also shared insights on their purpose-driven, impactful work in the philanthropic space.
Global Washington
Global Washington’s founding partners were Seattle International Foundation, University of Washington and Washington State University. Their stakeholders include leadership from many organizations including Boeing, Microsoft, the Gates Foundation, Trade Development Alliance, World Affairs Council, Starbucks, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Philanthropy Northwest and PATH.
When was GlobalWA formed and what’s their end goal?
Joel: GlobalWA was formed in 2008, the mission then was to create a shared community that is working in global development, instead of everybody working in their individual silos. Bill Clap, co-founder of GlobalWA and chairman of the Board Emeritus wanted to create an institution that could bring everyone together for educational networking support – that’s how we got started. He was not only a wealthy man but was also very tapped into the global development scene through various other avenues.
What is GlobalWA’s mission, vision and end goal?
Joel: Over the past couple of years, we have shifted from being a support organization to becoming an impact organization. We aim to do more collective action, bringing nonprofits together that want to work on a similar issue. We provide the resources and the forum for that collaboration and partnerships, and then a solution comes out of that, and we know that we are making an impact in the world.
Joel: The mission is still very much the same, but it has shifted slightly. Originally, it was to be able to lift all boats through educational opportunities and connections—one organization to another, one program developer to another program developer, one fundraiser to another fundraiser. When these people can come together, they are building a stronger network, a stronger tie with people who can make a difference.
Why did you feel that there was a need for a workshop like this?
Joel: I work with many communications professionals in our membership. One of the biggest challenges they face is being able to rise above the noise—especially if they are smaller. They can’t compete with the ‘World Visions’ or the ‘Bill Gates’, which have massive amounts of dollars to put into storytelling and getting out in mass on social media. In my communication background, I always felt that the power of the story is underutilized.
GlobalWA intends to change the world for the better by strengthening Washington state’s vibrant global development community. They are achieving that by making connections among companies and nonprofits working in global development, leading to partnerships that result in innovative solutions and a greater impact in the world. With over 160 members, including world renowned companies, NGOs, academic institutions and foundations, Global Washington draws the community together, raising the impact of Washington state.
It is evolving from a learning network to an impact network. Their members are working to reduce poverty and disease, increase access to health care and education, protect the environment and strengthen economies in communities. Bill Clapp, a Seattle-based philanthropist and businessman, is the chairman and co-founder of GlobalWA.
Stronger Stories
What is Stronger Stories about?
Mikki: Stronger Stories is about telling better stories to change the broken systems in the world. There are foundations, innovative nonprofits, and member organizations like Global Washington in Seattle, there are so many extraordinary changemakers here. So, it felt like a spiritual fit for Stronger Stories. What we are really trying to do is spread out the power of storytelling. It’s not just for the organizations with the resources to pay for it on the idea that a better story will make a better world.
Guy: Stronger Stories is a small, 10-person organization that started as a consultancy on how to turn strategy into action. The strategies were intended to change the broken systems – how we move, how we make things, how we eat, how we learn, how we stay healthy.
The people in bigger organizations were feeling stuck in terms of mobilizing their employees or supply chains, so using stories was a quick way to unstick it because you can fire up people’s imaginations, you can show people the journey of change that they can go on – we love doing that for big organizations – we were going to be responsible – what our business is for and the idea that putting profit aside to support small organizations that can’t pay for same kind of consultancy.
Why did you feel the need for a workshop like this?
Guy: Generally, for a workshop like this, many of my team come from the agency world – dozens of agencies – across London and New York. While storytelling has become understood as a science and art – agencies have not really shifted in how they approach communications. They’re doing the same things they were doing 10 years ago. So, we want to approach it as first principles, back to the very beginning – what’s the story for, what’s its power, and how can we use it, and build up a set of tools to make freely available for people. Seattle seems to be a hub of so many fantastic small organizations and big ones doing very innovative things in terms of problem-solving around their community goals worldwide.
What is your end goal with Stronger Stories? What’s the golden North Star?
Mikki: Stronger Stories is essentially two organizations in one. We have our Lean Story School, which is all about building story craft skills, and we are a consultancy, which is often how we developed all the tools. We’re tackling real-world problems with the tools and creating new tools that can be used, which is really motivating. Eventually, we would want them to be two separate entities. We want story school to have its own life.
How is GlobalWA a good ally to Stronger Stories?
Mikki: GlobalWA brings together people who would not be in the same room otherwise. We had a young woman involved in her local Rotary chapter and one of the biggest companies in the world here (Amazon). It’s a powerful network that brings those people together around shared challenges, opportunities, and values to make the world a better place.
Author’s note: We need more such partnerships and collaborations among well-intentioned, like-minded, and purpose-driven organizations that can pool in their resources, strategic mindset, clever tools, framework and thoughtful tact to achieve similar goals, and make a broader impact.
Maheen Mustafa reported this story. She is a journalist, global strategist and founder of MTG, a Seattle-based media outlet and production house that aims to elevate and amplify BIPOC and immigrant narratives and perspectives. Maheen’s beats are social impact, wellness, business, culture, climate, race and global news. Twitter: @MaheenM_.