When Choosing Stories to Read About International Relief and Development, People Look for the Helpers

Canadian Foodgrains Bank supporters at a harvest.

For a long time, relief and development organizations (and other non-profits) have known the best way to engage people is to tell stories.

We've known that articles about programs and numbers and official statements don't seem to elicit the same responses. 

But it was all gut reaction. We didn't have the data. Which stories received more attention? And why?

Until the web came along, it was mostly guesswork. 

There was no easy way to know what stories were read, and which ones were ignored.

But now the clicks tell the tale. We can know exactly which stories connect with people, and which ones don’t.

(And if we have sophisticated analytics, we can even tell for how long.)

And what are those stories that connect? 

That’s what Emily Loewen, digital content coordinator at Mennonite Central Committee Canada, wanted to find out.

She looked at 215 stories produced by the organization. Of that total, only 19 accounted for 50% of the traffic for stories on their website.

And what made those stories stand out?  

Ten of the stories were about what MCC supporters were doing to help people in need around the world.

Six were about humanitarian disasters around the world, and how MCC was responding to help.

Three were official statements from the agency about positions it was taking on events in the news, or just saying “thanks” to donors.

From her analysis, Loewen concluded that the top stories had the following similarities.

First, they had high news value. They were relevant to things happening in the world at that time.

Second, they were about humanitarian disasters, and what people could do.

Third, they focused on people who were responding to those disasters and other needs around the world—inspirational stories about donors and what they were doing to help.

Fourth, they promoted a sense of hope: Something could be done!

Fifth, they didn’t mention MCC too much. They were about what people were doing to help through MCC, not just about what the organization was doing.

Sixth, they weren't very much about partners on the ground—and they weren't about development programs.

For Loewen and her colleagues at MCC, this information was a “painful realization.”

Despite sending writers overseas four times a year to write about the agency's important development work, “not a single one of those stories made the top of the list,” she says.

“It makes us ask ourselves that if that’s what are people are reading, why are we spending so much time and money on those stories?”

The analysis has prompted prompted MCC to rethink how they choose which stories to tell.

Questions they are asking include: Should we write fewer stories? Or just fewer stories about development?   

For Loewen, the analysis shows “we need to tell more personal stories about our supporters and what they do to help others.”

MCC’s findings mirror what we see at my agency, Canadian Foodgrains Bank.

Our major source of funds are our growing projects, where farmers come together to grow and harvest a crop, donating the proceeds to the Foodgrains Bank.

When we post photos and stories about these projects on Facebook and Twitter, we get lots of engagement—lots of likes, shares and re-tweets.

When we post something about our work in the developing world, we get much less engagement.

And why is that?

It’s no mystery. People like reading about people who are like them. 

It’s much easier to identify with someone like ourselves who is doing something to help others, than with a poor person in the developing world.

When a friend involved in overseas programming heard about this analysis, she was saddened.

She asked: "What’s wrong with Canadians? Don’t they care about people in the developing world?"

Yes, they do care. It’s just that they find it hard to put themselves in their shoes. 

But a story about someone in Canada who is doing something to help others is different. We can be like that person!

It gives us hope.

Of course, this is something the media has known for a long time. It's called the local angle.

As Brodie Fenlon, director of news for the CBC said about what prompts people to pay attention to a story: “Is it relevant to me? Is it close to me—geographically, or do I know someone involved in the story, or is it in my country or province?”

“The further away the story is, the less interested people are.”

To be clear, this doesn't mean we shouldn't tell stories about partners overseas. We should.

As Fenlon noted, there are things people should know, and that the media should report them.

That's why the CBC sent a reporter to South Sudan earlier this year to report about the famine in that country, even though they knew interest in the story was low.

For NGOs, that's also important. We need to tell stories about development, and about partners and beneficiaries.

But, as Loewen observed, it could be the best way to tell those stories is through the eyes of Canadians.

“It’s a way of connecting the dots between the people helping and the impact that’s making," she says. 

"You can use the stories of donors to also share about the development work overseas.”

Thinking about Loewen's findings, I'm reminded of what Fred Rogers, of Mr. Rogers' Neighbourhood fame, used to say.

“When I was a boy and I would see scary things in the news, my mother would say to me, "Look for the helpers," he said. "You will always find people who are helping.”

It appears that it's not only children who feel that way. Adults like to look for the helpers, too.