[This post is part of a continuing series on getting clean water to developing nations. If you want to be a part of giving this story a happy ending, donate $22 and make my birthday wish come true.]

As I scribbled down notes from Scott Harrison’s life story and events leading to the founding of charity: water, I somehow felt isolated from the other 13,000 people in Gwinnett Arena. It seemed as if the spotlights on the center of the stage had slowly, simultaneously spun outward, focusing on me.

I sat still with a pen in my south paw and journal spread wide on my lap, figuratively blinded by the lights, reflecting on the need to do something. I spun through the Rolodex of 21 years of memories in my life and definitively found a section completely empty: helping the helpless.

I was proud of the things I’d accomplished over the years, but I was ashamed at my complete and utter inability to make an impact on people who desperately needed help. It was then, at that moment on October 7 at 11:23am that I decided it was time to fill in the gap in my life. It was time to make a difference for people, to be a voice for those whose voices are drowned out by consumerism in a country with more money than it knows what to do with.

Stories are captivating. They’re in need of telling. They are the only way to get your message through in a world of clutter. Tell stories, bring change. Tell stories, break through.

Here are the five reasons why you must tell stories [or run the risk of not being heard at all]

1. To Engage

A good story captivates an audience. It brings them in. They are no longer outsiders, they are a part of the story. A regular presentation can be is easily forgotten, but a story touches hearts and lives.

Powerpoint slides are easy to ignore. Stories are difficult to resist.

2. To Empathize

It’s tough for people to relate to statistics.

It’s overwhelming when you hear 1 billion people in the world don’t have access to clean water.

What’s a billion of anything even look like?

Statistics like that give us a chance to say, “There’s nothing I can do.“

When you tell a story about one of those people behind the statistics, everything changes.

When you hear about a 15-year-old boy like Jean Bosco who spent nearly every hour every single day making four to five trips to fetch water in a murky, stagnant pond your eyes are opened. He carries a 20-gallon container on his head for miles to get water.

We complain about getting up from the couch to go to the faucet for water.

It’s impossible to imagine what people are going through for water. But a story helps us connect.

3. To Emphasize

There are needs and opportunities all around. There are more products to buy outside of yours, more people to hire other than you, more causes than the one you support.
Many of those products and needs aren’t telling stories.

You have an opportunity to emphasize the need through your story.

Don’t rely on statistics. Real ’em in with a story.

4. To Elaborate

It’s tough to convey the depth of a need, the truth of a story, the real size of an issue without a story.

Stories take problems and show how far they truly extend.

Clean water isn’t a tiny issue. It’s a far-reaching epidemic that only a story can capture.

5. To Excite

Everyone wants to be a part of a story with a happy ending [Why do you think Disney is so successful?].

When you tell a devastating story, people are hurt. They’re moved. They’re touched.

When you tell them they can be a part of changing the ending, they get excited.

Be a part of the story for clean water across the globe. Get excited. Your donation will change lives.

[Photo provided by charity: water]