Funders and nonprofits underfund storytelling because they mistake it for decoration instead of direction. Nonprofits say they care about storytelling, but they mean a program video here, a social post there, maybe a stylized annual report if time allows. These scattered efforts signal a deeper problem: organizations tell stories that don’t align with the strategy, values, and culture to guide them. Without Holistic Storytelling, communications get reactive and disjointed. You lose momentum or connection. Eventually, you lose clarity on who the organization is, where it’s going, and why people should care.

Let’s clarify terms:

• Story is your big-picture narrative: what you value, who you serve, what you’re up against, and where you’re headed.

• Storytelling is expressing that story through your content, culture, and community interactions.

At BairStories, we define Holistic Organizational Storytelling (or Holistic Storytelling for short) as a discipline, not a deliverable. It’s a strategic process that connects internal clarity with external expression. This helps ensure your stories reflect your essence and reinforce the vision, values, and impact.

The First Barrier to Holistic Storytelling

I call this tension the Tim Tension. It’s when someone inside an organization, often in leadership, genuinely doesn’t see the value of storytelling beyond its surface appeal.

One of our clients invested nearly $100,000 in story-based video content with us over several years. But internally, folks like “Tim” still questioned its strategic relevance. To him, storytelling wasn’t tied to growth. It was decoration—something nice but not necessary.

And even if storytelling were just decoration, let’s remember that staged homes sell faster and for 20% than unstaged homes according to the Real Estate Staging Association.

But here’s the irony: whether or not you “believe” in storytelling, it’s already shaping how people experience your organization. It's already affecting your staff, funders, and audience, positively or negatively.

When storytelling is treated as optional, reactive, or purely creative, you never see the return you desire. Because you’re not investing in its full power: a long-term practice that shapes culture, builds trust, and drives connection over time.

The thing is, Tim’s view is common.

It's helpful to unpack this mindset to understand what’s underneath the resistance. And when we dig deeper, what we find isn’t just skepticism. It’s a system of assumptions shaped by limited resources, internal silos, and misaligned incentives.

Why Storytelling Gets Cut First

For example, if I were chatting with Tim, the conversation would go like this.

DANAMI: Storytelling matters. Why is it the first cut and the last funded?”

Tim: Because it’s a creative extra, not a strategic necessity.

DANAMI: Thanks for sharing. Why is it seen that way?

Tim: As a leader in the organization, I tend to equate storytelling with outputs—videos, reports, campaigns. Not as a way of aligning people or guiding direction.”

DANAMI: Why do you equate it with outputs?

Tim: Most nonprofits only use storytelling when a program or event requires it. The effort is reactive, not essential infrastructure.

DANAMI: So, why is storytelling reactive?

Tim: Our staff doesn’t have the capacity, training, or empowerment to carry the organization’s story forward in that way.

DANAMI: Why don’t they have the capacity for storytelling?

Tim: Because funders prioritize measurable program outcomes over intangible investments like culture, clarity, or trust. They want proof that we did the thing, not evidence that we’ve become the organization that can keep doing it.

Holistic Storytelling Is Misunderstood

In other words, this conversation reveals how nonprofits have sidelined holistic organizational storytelling. Leaders flatten it into content, hand it off to comms, and only bring it up when a funder or campaign demands it.

No wonder it gets cut. It’s not embedded.

Costs of Ignoring Holistic Storytelling

As a kid, I assumed the Titanic sank because a massive iceberg ripped it open with gaping holes. But the truth is more unsettling: the damage was a series of small gashes—each barely wider than a sheet of printer paper—tiny, precise fractures. Together, they were enough to take down a giant.

That’s what happens when organizations fail to embed storytelling. It doesn't collapse all at once, but slowly leaks trust, clarity, and momentum. Thus, the cracks are visible, and the damage is real. Here’s what those minor narrative fractures often cost:

• Muddled Messaging: 
  The public sees what you do but does not understand why it matters or what makes you different.

• Burnout from Reactive Content: 
  Without story systems, comms become a scramble. Staff chase deadlines, not build connections.

• Missed Momentum: 
  Key moments pass—strategy rollouts, leadership changes, campaigns—without an emotional narrative to carry them forward.

• Internal Misalignment: 
  Without a shared story, storytelling feels risky. Teams default to silence or spin, stuck in a space between who the organization was and who it’s trying to become.

• Fragmentation Mistaken for Strategy: 
  Many orgs are telling stories. But those stories aren’t tied to the story. Effort gets confused with alignment.

(Want to explore these patterns more deeply? Soon, we'll publish an article on the 5 Costs of Ignoring Holistic Storytelling.)

What Is Holistic Organizational Storytelling

Holistic storytelling is not a content calendar or a viral campaign but a discipline. It is a way of thinking about your organization as one unified story incorporating many smaller ones. It aligns internal culture with external communication. Holistic storytelling lives at the intersection of strategic clarity, emotional truth, and storytelling infrastructure.

Internal alignment: 
Are your values, strategy, and staff culture coherent? Do your people know the story they’re part of?

External expression: 
Are you showing up consistently, resonantly, and rooted in who you really are?

Ongoing practice: 
Are you building story muscles—systems, rituals, and rhythms that support story collection, sharing, and reflection?

But to embrace holistic storytelling, a shift needs to happen.

Barriers to Holistic Storytelling

Of course, the shift from one-off storytelling to a story-driven culture isn’t easy. It requires structural changes, not just mindset ones. And for most nonprofits, the barriers are real. Nonprofits aren't ignoring storytelling out of disinterest.

They’re navigating systems built to prioritize programs over staff and outputs over alignment.
The barriers are real:

• Tight budgets,
• Limited capacity,
• Siloed teams, and
• Fear of misalignment.

Even funders don’t often fund the time or capacity-building required to do Holistic Storytelling right. These challenges don’t mean the shift is impossible. But they mean it requires a different approach that embeds the story into the core of strategy, culture, and operations. We built a three-phase framework to help organizations move from reactive storytelling to a story-driven culture.

(We break down these barriers—and how to overcome each of them—in an upcoming piece.)

3-Phase Framework for Holistic Storytelling

At BairStories, storytelling is a strategic practice rooted in three phases: Strategic Refresh, Story Infrastructure, and Creative Execution. If someone like Tim had walked through our framework, he’d see that the story isn't something to add at the end—it’s something to build from the start.

Phase 01: Strategic Refresh

A Strategic Plan Refresh is not a total rewrite. It’s a process of reviewing, updating, and adjusting an organization’s strategic direction in response to new internal and external realities. It ensures that your vision, priorities, and execution plans remain relevant and aligned with current conditions, while reigniting momentum without discarding past progress.

We break down how storytelling connects with strategic planning and refreshes in this article: What's Storytelling Got to Do With Nonprofit Strategic Planning.

Phase 02: Story Infrastructure

Once your strategic plan is updated, we identify the gaps in your organization and map out how to close them. From there, we:

• Build internal alignment.
• Install a story infrastructure that includes a dedicated hub for your stories.
• Develop systems for collecting stories and assigning ownership of storytelling tasks.
• Offer training as capacity building for staff to view your organization through the lens of its story.
• Create a content strategy for prioritized stories, social posts, and SEO content.

Phase 03: Creative Asset Development & Production

Finally, strategy becomes the story you can see, hear, and feel. This is the execution phase of our Holistic Storytelling approach. We develop and oversee creative assets that bring your refreshed story to life, only once the strategy is clear and aligned.

How to Become a Story-Driven Organization

Your organization is already telling a story—whether you mean to or not. From how you treat your staff to how your website feels, every touchpoint reinforces (or undermines) the tale people believe about you.

The question isn’t Are we telling stories?
The question is: Are we telling the right one and living it?

Being story-driven doesn’t mean producing more content.

It means embedding a story into your culture, strategy, and operations so that every program, team, and message point is in the same direction. This is what Holistic Organizational Storytelling makes possible:

• A shared internal language
• A clear external identity
• The capacity to keep showing up with trust and coherence

We’re not here to help you tell better stories. Ultimately, we’re here to help you become the kind of organization whose story works because it’s true, aligned, and lived.

Want to know what stories your org isn’t telling? Take the Story Readiness quiz.

TL;DR – What You Need to Know

Most nonprofits treat storytelling as decoration, not direction, so it gets cut first. But storytelling isn’t just content. It’s how your organization aligns, connects, and consistently shows up. Holistic Organizational Storytelling is a discipline that bridges strategy, culture, and communication. Confusion, burnout, and missed opportunities result when the story isn't embedded.

At BairStories, our 3-phase framework helps organizations move from scattered content to a story-driven culture:

1. Strategic Refresh
2. Story Infrastructure
3. Creative Execution

Related Articles

• What’s Storytelling Got to Do With Nonprofit Strategic Planning?
• Build A Strong Team Culture with Internal Storytelling
• Brand Films: Does Your Environmental Nonprofit Need Them?
• Focus On A Content Strategy Before Video Storytelling
• Improve Nonprofit Video Engagement by Avoiding This Mistake