Digital storytelling is somewhat of a buzzword across all sectors. But charities have been rivalling commercial marketers in their creativity and originality.

Powerful storytelling can have a huge impact for your organisation, helping you to raise awareness, recruit supporters, raise money, and ultimately support the people you advocate for.

So where to start? Here are some fabulous examples of digital storytelling!

1. @NHS

Launched by NHS England, the @NHS X account is one of our favourite examples of digital storytelling. The aim was to show just how many lives are touched by the NHS and the pride taken by its staff in caring for so many.

Each week, a new patient or staff member takes over and curates the @NHS account by posting their own content for five days!

@NHS started off as a 13-week trial and in that time they got 11,000 followers, had 80,000 video views and 18,000 minutes of video viewed.

It is such a simple idea and really shows the face of the NHS. It is authentic, engaging, creative and inspirational. It sounds like the account is here to stay with plans to launch on Facebook and Instagram shortly. See the Curator Archive or follow NHS on X.

2. #ThisGirlCan

Sport England’s #ThisGirlCan campaign launched with an aim to get more women playing sports and decrease the gender gap. In its first year, it inspired 1.6m women to exercise with its powerful 90-second “This Girl Can” film, watched more than 100m times on Facebook and YouTube!

At the heart of this brilliant campaign were the stories. Videos, photos, and quotes were crowdsourced from real women from all over the country, playing all different sports. Simple, but authentic and relatable.

3. Crisis – Everybody In

There are many stereotypes about people who become homeless, and Crisis is working hard to shatter those myths.

They created their Everybody In campaign to tackle these stereotypes by sharing real stories of the whole range of people who are homeless in the UK. The storytellers share different experiences; how they became homeless, how they were reunited with their families, and how homelessness changed their lives for both the better and the worse.

The approach to the campaign really helps to create empathy rather than sympathy for those sharing their stories.

4. Humans of New York turns to video

I’ve always loved the posts from Humans of New York for the authentic stories putting a spotlight on the most diverse of experiences. So we were excited to hear of the news they were turning to video!

The team spent four years gathering 1,200 interviews on film to create a series of videos around different themes: home, star, and time so far.

It’s a great method of sharing varying stories under an umbrella theme, showing different perspectives and experiences alongside one another. Your charity could use this to put a spotlight on an issue or topic important to the people you support. Check out the films here.

How to inspire people by telling better stories

So how can your charity tell a more powerful story to give a platform to those you support?

Being the Story by sounddelivery features the thought-provoking insights of people with extraordinary stories: think TEDTalks meets the charity sector! Check out the talks on the website to discover how you can tell a better story.