The SYNOPSIS project concerns Storytelling and Fundraising for Cultural Heritage professionals. Cultural heritage covers a variety of activities, and a system of values, traditions, knowledge, and lifestyles that characterise society. The heritage sector has to deal with new challenges and it is therefore necessary to develop new professionalism, able to promote and support cultural heritage as it improves not only the overall economic growth and employment, but also social cohesion and environmental sustainability. Storytelling and fundraising skills assume a fundamental role in connecting the past to the future. Cultural Heritage storytelling is concerned with “communicating through stories”, creating narratives through which a cultural heritage enters into an emphatic relationship with people, managing to arouse public emotion. The purpose is to engage people to protect, exploit cultural heritage, and support it financially. This presentation looks at narratives and their uses in storytelling in the SYNOPSIS training programme

1. Storytelling
Narratives
Module: Storytelling for Cultural Organisations

2. Narratives in fundraising
• A narrative is an account of events and experiences, it tells a story
• Narratives are part of human culture
• They make the world more comprehensible
• Narrative and dialogue are good ways for engaging donors (Clark,
2009)
• Narratives helps patrons to reflect, focus and remember
LOGO Partner
Clark, C., 2009. How storytelling and branding techniques can be used to create an effective fundraising
communications programme. Journal of Communication in Healthcare, 2(1), pp.47-53.

3. Using narratives
In fundraising, work on narrative should follow specific aims, which enable people to:
• identify the key people and place(s), giving useful temporal references
• mobilise the general knowledge allowing to characterise the object of the narrative
• respect a chronological order in the treatment of the facts
• show in a simple way the causes and consequences of an event and / or the actions
of a character or an artefact
• mention, where appropriate, the novelty and peculiarity of this

4. Digital Content
• Digital media allows new
information to be produced
more rapidly
• Duplication and transmission
is easy across the Internet
• Information overload can
limit narrative development Source: https://small-world.travel.blog/2018/03/19/narrative-structures/

5. Content curation
• Content curation is the process of gathering
information relevant to a particular topic or
area of interest
• The aim is to add value through the process
of selecting, organising, and looking after the
items in a collection or exhibition.
• It is used to help create a better storytelling
experience and more organised and
accurate management of online content
Source:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/cambodia4kids
org/6212420184

6. Narratives and stories
• Narrative, storytelling and content curation techniques can be used for better
engaging an audience and helping the audience digest and remember
content
• Narratives and stories are powerful aids to understanding and reflection as
they can give attention to feelings, thoughts, and emotions.
• Narrative provides a cognitive organisational scheme through which the
narrator can subjectively organise, shape, and structure experiences into a
coherent whole.
• A narrative device is the way the story is told, it involves who is narrating the
story and how it is narrated

7. Types of Narrative
• Chronological Narrative -most commonly used, events follow chronological order
• Reverse Chronological Narrative - the story starts at the end and is told in reverse
• Breaking the Fourth Wall – refers to an imaginary wall placed between the audience and
the storytellers
• Epistolic or Diary – the story is told in a diary format
• Documentary – the story follows the characters as they go through the events of their lives
• Story Within a Story - there is another story within the story being told
• Stream of Consciousness – the reader is placed inside the thoughts and perceptions of the
main character

8. Using Narratives
• Narrative writing allows fundraisers to
creatively express their stories
• It helps them clarify their thinking
and express it by writing in an
organised way
• Narrative writing helps them explore
different characters, artefacts and
settings
Source:
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:
Data_Science_storytelling.jpg

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presentation
Storytelling for Cultural Organisations