1Giving Tuesday has become a pivotal day for nonprofits, an annual event that inspires individuals to come together and support the causes they care about. As the founder of StrefaTECH and someone deeply involved in the nonprofit world, I understand the importance of storytelling in social media outreach. It's the stories we tell that often make the difference in engaging donors and supporters.
In this article, I want to share thoughts about how to combine technology and storytelling: using AI chatbots to craft compelling Giving Tuesday stories. It’s yet another example of how you might draw on AI to help you do something that’s not in your wheelhouse.
This will be an example of how you can use an AI chatbot both to teach you how to fish (learn about good storytelling) and serve the fish for you (generate good stories). It’s a great tool for doing both!
ChatGPT In Action: Stories for CEIR (Corporate Equity & Inclusion Roundtable)
I’ll start with an example using ChatGPT; note that you could take this same approach with any of the other general-purpose chatbots (Bard, Bing, Claude, etc.).
What we want:
Three stories that can be posted on social media to highlight CEIR’s mission
Social media titles for the posts
Insight into what good storytelling looks like
For ChatGPT to help us, we’ll need to introduce both what we want and the approach that ChatGPT should take. Here’s a sample prompt:
You are an expert communications consultant to nonprofit organizations. The Corporate Equity & Inclusion Roundtable (CEIR) has contracted you to assist with its Giving Tuesday outreach. They want help crafting messages for social media and email outreach. In particular, they want to write three short stories, using best practices in storytelling. The tone should be informal and direct.
Before you proceed with the three stories, explain to me what are the key elements of effective storytelling for a social media audience and nonprofit fundraising.
Story #1: An African American college graduate decides to leave Pittsburgh for a job in Atlanta because there are so many more cultural and social opportunities for African Americans there. She is sad to leave Pittsburgh but wants to have a much more vibrant life than is offered there.
Story #2: A mid-career African American professional decides to return to his hometown of Pittsburgh so that he and his wife can be closer to their parents as they raise their children.
Story #3: A mid-career small business owner decides to stay in Pittsburgh rather than start over in a city with more to offer African Americans. He compensates for the lack of diversity in Pittsburgh.
Write a 3-4 paragraph story for each of these scenarios. Highlight the considerations that each person would face in their decision, including the effect on their social and professional lives and the emotional aspects of the decision. Also suggest a Title for each of these that would be appropriate for posting on LinkedIn and Facebook, and would entice the audience to read the full article. Close each post with a brief statement asking for support of CEIR on Giving Tuesday and suggest appropriate hashtags.
If you replace the content identifying CEIR and the outlines of the three stories with your own organization, you can use this to generate your own starting content as well as a primer on good storytelling technique.
For this example, ChatGPT gave storytelling guidance that was succinct and easy to follow, as well as three decent stories that expanded on the brief profiles above. None of them was exactly what I’d use in a post, but as is best practice for using AI as a communications assistant, the content was a solid start for me to edit and make my own.
Closing Thought
As someone deeply committed to the nonprofit sector and passionate about technology, I believe that AI chatbots can be a valuable addition to any nonprofit's toolkit. I encourage you to explore the possibilities and consider how AI chatbots can elevate your Giving Tuesday campaigns and beyond.
The more you use these new AI tools, the better they’ll work for you!
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To generate today’s cover image, I entered this prompt in ChatGPT 4: “illustrate chatgpt teaching people to fish and serving them fish“
It generated the image. I next prompted “What prompt generated that image?,“ to which it replied:
Visualize a serene lakeside scene where an anthropomorphic robot resembling ChatGPT is teaching a group of diverse people how to fish. The robot, designed with a friendly and approachable look, is holding a fishing rod, demonstrating the technique to an attentive audience. The group consists of individuals of various descents including Black, Caucasian, Hispanic, and South Asian, both male and female, of different ages, showcasing inclusivity. Some are practicing casting lines into the lake, while others are watching, eager to learn. Nearby, the robot is also seen serving cooked fish on a platter to a family, symbolizing the dual role of providing knowledge and sustenance. The setting is tranquil with lush greenery, a calm lake, and a clear sky, emphasizing a peaceful learning environment.
Note that it applied my custom instructions that mention a need for diversity. Also, unless I’m missing something, the image completely missed the request for a robot serving fish. While the state-of-the-art in AI currently is pretty great at generating text that is comprehensive in responding to prompts, the generation of images still has a way to go!