There are few (if any) other forms of communication as effective as storytelling at reaching people where they are emotionally and intellectually. People's thoughts, feelings, and actions can all be affected by a well-told story.

Humans have an innate need to connect with narratives and have a much easier time remembering a gripping story than they do a list of dry statistics.

The "language processing" region of the brain lights up when we hear numbers or facts, but many more regions light up when we hear a story. This is why anecdotes can be so powerful in a variety of contexts, including but not limited to: fundraising, awareness-raising, volunteer mobilization, trust-building, and so much more. And this is especially true for nonprofits, which are, in a sense, in the "business" of stories, changing the world one story at a time. In many cases, the "raw material" for compelling impact stories is already available to nonprofits in the form of individual stories of grit, optimism, and fresh starts.