Episode 76: Visual Storytelling A Picture is Worth 60,000 Words

Storytelling is important in the social good community. It’s through stories that donors become interested and engaged in an organization and its cause. It’s not enough to just tell the stories in words. Visual images help donors visualize and understand what the organizations they support are doing, and how their contributions make a difference.

Today’s guest joined the podcast to talk about how organizations can better incorporate visual elements into their storytelling. Ira Horowitz, the founder of Cornershop Creative, has worked in communications, fundraising, and advocacy for nearly 20 years. Listen to the episode to hear what Ira has to say about why visuals matter in storytelling, how to demonstrate to donors that they can be the heroes of the story, and how to match copy with the right visuals for maximum impact.

Topics Discussed in This Episode:

Why visual storytelling matters to fundraising Ways that organizations can make donors the heroes of the stories they’re telling Resources that organizations can use to get the visual images that they need Matching the right copy and content with the right visual images How to test and fine-tune a story over time How to make use of imagery even when an organization has limited staff or resources How visuals can help make data more comprehensible Examples of great visual storytelling

Resources:

Ira Horowitz

Cornershop Creative

Quotes:

“Everybody knows the old adage that a picture is worth a thousand words. That’s actually wrong, though. A picture is worth about 60,000 words because studies have shown that the human brain processes images about 60,000 times faster than plain text.”

“The studies I’ve seen have said that text accompanied with images actually do a lot better. People process that information three or four times faster if they’re looking at both images and text.”

“Don’t be afraid of using emojis, actually.”