💡Why emotional stories stick

Have you ever heard of neural mirroring, Reader?

It’s when your neurons fire up while you are doing something or watching someone else do something. This is the part of your brain that makes you cry when you see someone cry on TV, or laugh when the person you’re talking to starts laughing.

This area of our brain gives in to our intuition, shares emotional states, or has a sense of shared experience, even if we didn’t experience it ourselves. Mirror neurons activate empathy and social connection. Your brain is copying what it’s seeing into your own function.

Neural mirroring plays a huge part in good storytelling – especially for nonprofits, where we can use emotion to convey the impact of our work. It can help you illustrate your impact, instead of just telling about it.

Consider these examples:

1. We drilled a well in a rural African village. Now, 400 villagers have clean water for the first time! This is the 40th well you’ve helped us build this year. Thank you for your support!
2. Everyone watched nervously as the bishop pumped the lever on the well.

Would it work this time? They worried.

After a few pumps, clear, fresh water sprayed out. The children erupted in cheers and laughter, splashing clean water on their faces. The mothers cried and hugged their families. For the first time, 400 villagers in rural Africa had clean water to drink.

There’s nothing wrong with the first example. It directly tells what happened, what the outcome was, and ends with a thank you. But it lands in 2D – why does this work matter? Who is benefiting from the wells? Why do we need so many wells, anyway? It’s not showing the full experience.

And then there’s example number 2. It paints a picture they can see themselves in. They can empathize with parents who love when their children get excited. They can imagine what it would be like if they only had muddy, bacteria-ridden water to drink, and suddenly a well pumps clear water for the first time after failed attempts. It answers the important questions without anyone having to ask them, and helps the reader share how the villagers feel to receive this gift.

In nonprofit storytelling, neural mirroring is a key factor in inspiring supporters to take action. I don’t mean this in a manipulative, guilt-trippy way nonprofits of the past have used it for. (Lookin’ at you, Sara McLaughlin…)

It’s illustrating how their support contributes to your work, who benefits, and why your mission needs to keep going. Neural mirroring shows us the innermost human concepts that connect us – despite culture, despite status, despite geography.

A few years ago, I wrote an email sequence for a professional in the health and wellness industry. He was launching a program to help men get physically healthy while recovering from addiction.

I wrote an email that illustrated the exact moment that professional knew he needed to make a change. I illustrated a rather heavy, rock-bottom moment… the moment he contemplated taking his life, or going to sleep and attempting a solution the next morning.

It was the 6th email in a sequence of 8. It was also the email that had the most responses EVER from his subscribers.

Responses like...

I have a similar story, but I’ve been too ashamed to talk about it.

I want to join this program, but I can’t right now. Thank you for inspiring me to keep going.

I thought I was the only one. Thank you for sharing.

That story wasn’t about recognition or sparking tears for sign-ups… it was about pulling the guard down to let others know that that space is for nonjudgmental healing, and they don’t have to be ashamed. That despite their past, they can become better versions of themselves.

And they all connected through a human story. They shared or empathized with the experience. They understood that the work was about getting in shape physically, but also healing emotionally.

Neural mirroring can transform how people respond to and think about your mission. Telling them is great, but getting them to feel something is more memorable.

It’s honest.

It’s human.

And you don’t have to be a “writer” to implement it into your marketing or fundraising. Just (ethically) empathize with your beneficiary, visualize it, and write a few sentences setting the scene for how their life (or the land or the animals) is better because of their partnership with you.

If you implement this in your storytelling this week, send me a screenshot of any responses you get. I’d love to cheer you on this year-end!

Stay kind, -Amanda

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ICYMI: Last week, I teased something I've been working on that can help professionals in the nonprofit space hold onto tangible human things. I'm gathering the rest of my feedback before I give you the "big reveal"... just know that you'll be the first to know. Stay tuned!