7 Ways Story-Driven Marketing Empowers Your Beneficiaries
Jonathan Barratt is the Executive Director of Project Rescue Foundation, a ministry dedicated to restoring hope to survivors of sexual exploitation using a gospel-centered approach. He visited with us on The Ministry Growth Show to tell us about how Project Rescue has grown since its grass roots beginnings in David and Beth Grant’s basement in 1997. Over the last twenty years, Project Rescue has learned how to come into a region gently by forming relationships and how to disciple in hostile countries.
The leadership of Project Rescue has also learned to adapt to the social media landscape, so they won’t be forgotten in a digital world of information overload. You won’t be surprised to learn they stay relevant to their donors through story, but their foundational purpose behind their storytelling strategy is an inspiring story in itself.
Read on to learn more about a unique, empowering approach to storytelling, and the undeniable impact it’s had on the entire organization.
When Stories Harm
The leadership of Project Rescue used to shy away from sharing beneficiaries’ stories because they wanted to protect the girls. Everyone deserves privacy, and especially victims of human trafficking, many of whom are minors. There are additional, special considerations when your beneficiaries are crime victims because using their story for organizational benefit exploits and victimizes the children all over again.
To respect and protect the girls, Project Rescue focused their donor messaging on the numbers, but most facts and statistics left their audience either sleeping or scrolling Facebook. So, they brought out the big guns, such as “over forty million people are held in slavery around the world today,” but no one can comprehend such a number, so potential donors responded with glazed eyes and moved on with their day.
The Shift
Project Rescue experienced a mindset shift when the girls themselves reached out. I’ll let Jonathan tell the story.
“What changed for us is about five or six years ago, the first wave of children that we rescued were graduated, and some of them had attended college. And a few of them were coming forward saying ‘I want to share my story. I need to share my story.’”
“I was just with a girl five months ago, and we were getting ready to film her story. I said to her ‘Are you sure you want to do this?’ And she said ‘Brother Jonathan, I know where I came from, I’ve seen that place. It’s one of the worst things I can imagine. If my story can help rescue people like me, I want to tell my story everywhere. I know how lucky I am, and I know what God has done in my life.’”
“And I had a lump in my throat. I could barely speak, but it was just one of the most impactful thirty seconds that I’ve ever had in my Project Rescue career. This girl recognizes what God has done for her, thank the Lord, through Project Rescue, and she’s saying, ‘I want to share my story because my story can have a positive impact on others in my situation.’”
That was a little bit of shift for us mentally. We will share the stories if the girls are okay with sharing their stories and they want to.
The Healing Power of Story
As I (Valerie) listened to Jonathan’s story, I heard the girl’s bravery. I’ve been writing stories of God’s faithfulness since 2017, but I didn’t want the World Wide Web to know what a mess I was when I was diagnosed with cancer in 2019. My husband changed my mind with a reminder that my story can help other women. So, I wrote from my heart and published Afraid. As I heard comments from women who were encouraged by God’s faithfulness through my mess, a surprising thing happened.
Cancer got a little easier. We’ve talked about Dr. Curt Thompson and his research a handful of times on this show, and in much of our content. Story has the power to literally heal us physically and emotionally. The stories we tell aren’t just relevant to our marketing efforts.
Stories can connect the voiceless and those with a voice in our society. They can also transform victims into disciples that share the good news of the power of Christ’s change in their lives with others in their community.
7 Ways Story-Driven Marketing Empowers Your Beneficiaries
At Reliant, we believe God wired us for story. Scripture tells us His Word reaches to the hearts of His children, so what better way to heal trauma than through stories of God’s faithfulness. And since communication goes two ways, so does the impact of those stories.
Here are seven ways beneficiaries are empowered by participating in story-driven marketing.
We Feel Loved
In Galatians 6:2, Paul tells us to “Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.” The law of Christ is to love one another, so in sharing our stories, we share love.
We Share God’s Comfort
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. – 2 Corinthians 1:3-4
Sharing stories of God’s faithfulness isn’t just a suggestion; it’s a command right from Scripture, and all of God’s commands are for our benefit. Sharing the comfort we receive draws us closer to God and each other. There is great comfort knowing we’re not alone.
You Can Save Others
Driver’s education instructors share stories of drunk driving accidents because stories save lives. Your beneficiaries will probably never know what didn’t happen, but they know other girls can learn from their experience.
Stories Provide Hope
Do not be deceived: God is not mocked, for whatever one sows, that will he also reap. For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life. And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up. – Galatians 6:7-9
Our story of life on the other side of trauma gives hope to others suffering as we did, and when we sow hope, we reap hope for ourselves.
Your Suffering is Not in Vain
Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain. – 1 Corinthians 15:57
When we do the work of the Lord by sharing our stories of His faithfulness, we are comforted and encouraged knowing that good can come from our suffering.
You Can Give Back
There is great fulfillment in giving back to an organization that poured into you.
You’re No Longer a Victim
Love, empowerment, comfort, encouragement, purpose… When you’re no longer a victim, you can heal and become stronger.
Your Turn
Jonathan and his team continually look for new ways to offer a safe, comfortable platform for the beneficiaries who want to share their story. As girls’ bravery transforms abstract statistics into hope-filled faces, the ministry has noticed an undeniable impact on donor engagement and staff satisfaction.
Jonathan shows us that our work doesn’t stop after our beneficiaries move on. For Project Rescue, a marketing strategy was born from their beneficiaries’ healing. As their marketing efforts continue, so does the cycle of healing.
Do you have a platform for your beneficiaries to further their healing? I encourage you to listen to Jonathan’s podcast for a few suggestions to implement or improve a combined marketing campaign and beneficiary program for your ministry. If you have questions or need help, please see our library of courses and contact us.
