Ada's TL;DR digest
Stories move legislation. The research on political persuasion is consistent: when policy arguments fail to change someone's mind, a personal story often does. We knew this when we built AdvocacyAI. It is why organizations collect stories in the first place. The problem is that collecting them is genuinely hard.
Stories move legislation. The research on political persuasion is consistent: when policy arguments fail to change someone's mind, a personal story often does.
We knew this when we built AdvocacyAI. It is why organizations collect stories in the first place. The problem is that collecting them is genuinely hard.
Having a place to submit is not enough
Most organizations running story campaigns have a story bank collector on their website with a handful of submissions or very little activity. Having a place for supporters to submit is not enough to get the stories you need. The ask itself has to be set up strategically.
A submission system that works
We built a place where supporters record video or write a testimonial from a clean landing page with your instructions. Every submission lands in two places at once: the advocate's profile in your CRM and your story bank. Transcribed, organized, attached to the right record.
That solves the submission side. But it still relies on people showing up to use it. That is the second problem.
Automated Story Journey (the program that fills your story bank) This is an automated sequence that finds the people willing to share, prepares them, and delivers the ask at the right moment.
Supporters take a survey, identify themselves as potential storytellers, and receive a personal thank-you followed by clear recording instructions. By the time the recording link arrives, they have already said yes several times. Your staff does not have to manually find or curate those relationships.
What you end up with
A story bank of people who said yes, came prepared, and filmed something you can use. That's very different than a cold ask.
We have run story collection the hard way. The campaign that produced four videos in eight weeks. The ask that went to ten thousand people and came back with one response that was barely usable. The Automated Story Journey exists because we needed a better answer to that problem, and we figured others did too.
See how Stories and Surveys works
AUTHOR BIO
After managing creative and digital strategy for campaigns, causes, and coalitions across the United States, Bree Benn co-founded AdvocacyAI to raise the bar on the technology available to advocacy organizations.
