Which Impact Stories to Develop First (when you can't do them all)
Your frontline team is now capturing stories. Good. That's great news for your charity or social impact organisation.
But here's the problem - you can't develop them all.
Full story development takes time. An interview. Write-up. Consent process. Photography. Editing. Sign-off. You're looking at 2-4 hours minimum per story.
If your team captures 10 story leads in a month and you can only develop 2, which ones do you choose?
Most organisations get this wrong. And it costs them.
The problem most organisations get wrong
They develop stories based on convenience.
Who responded to the email first. Who's easiest to contact. Who's most enthusiastic about sharing. Who happens to be available when the photographer has time.
Or they develop stories based on emotion.
The most moving story. The one that made someone cry in the team meeting. The most dramatic transformation. The biggest turnaround.
Or they develop stories reactively.
Funding deadline approaching. Scramble for any case study. Grab whoever's willing. Rush the process. Hope it's good enough.
None of these approaches are strategic.
Convenience doesn't guarantee the story proves your End Vision. Emotion doesn't mean the story builds funder trust. Reactive scrambling produces mediocre work.
The result? Wasted resources on stories that don't move you forward.
Why this matters now
You're already stretched thin. 2026 is harder than 2025.
Government grants have declined by around £1 billion annually since 2020. Four million fewer people are giving regularly compared to 2019. Your team is smaller than it was two years ago.
You cannot afford to spend 4 hours developing a story that doesn't land with funders.
Every story you develop must count. That requires strategic prioritisation, not convenience.
When funders are making harder decisions, your stories need to be sharper. That means being ruthless about which captured stories become full case studies.
A better way to think about it
Story triage isn't about which stories are "best".
It's about which stories prove you're moving toward your End Vision and match what specific funders need to see right now.
The most moving story isn't always the most strategic story. The most dramatic transformation isn't always the right transformation to showcase.
What matters is this: Does this story show clear movement toward your End Vision? Does it fill a gap in your story bank? Can you actually complete it? Is the timing right?
Those four questions create a system. And systems beat good intentions every time.
The mistake I see constantly
I work with charities and social impact organisations as a storytelling consultant and documentary photographer. The pattern repeats across organisations of all sizes.
They capture 15 story leads. Great start.
Then they develop the story about the staff volunteer day because it has dramatic photos and everyone's enthusiastic. Two days of work. Looks nice. Gets some likes on social media.
But it doesn't prove beneficiary transformation. It doesn't connect to the End Vision. And when the funding application comes around three weeks later, it's almost useless.
Meanwhile, the story about a young person who challenged discrimination at work for the first time - which directly proves their End Vision - sits in the "maybe later" pile. Until that person moves away. Or the details fade. Or the relationship goes cold.
The opportunity disappears because there was no system for deciding which stories to prioritise.
What strategic organisations do differently
They evaluate every captured story against clear criteria before committing development time.
They ask:
Does this story prove our End Vision? Not "is it moving" but "does it show the specific change we exist to create?"
Is the timing right? Do we have a deadline? Will this story disappear if we wait? Is the relationship warm?
Can we actually complete it? Do we have consent? Is the person able to participate? Are there safeguarding concerns?
Does this fill a gap? Do we already have similar stories? What type of story do we need right now?
These four questions create a decision matrix. Score each story across these dimensions. Develop the highest-scoring stories first.
Suddenly, you're not scrambling. You're strategic.
The question that changes everything
Before you commit 4 hours to developing a story, answer this:
If I could only develop three stories this quarter, would this be one of them?
If the answer is no, archive it. It's not lost. It's just not priority.
If the answer is yes, develop it immediately. Don't wait. Relationships fade. Details blur. People move on.
Strategic storytelling means knowing which stories to develop now, which to develop later, and which to leave as captured leads in case you need them.
Why most organisations resist this
Because it feels harsh.
Someone shared their story. They're willing to participate. It feels wrong to say "not yet" or "not this one."
But developing the wrong story wastes their time too.
If you develop a story that doesn't land with funders, that doesn't prove your impact, that doesn't connect to your End Vision - you've potentially wasted everyone's time. The person shared their story. You invested hours. And it sits unused in a folder.
Better to be strategic upfront. Develop fewer stories. But make sure every story you develop actually works.
What happens when you get this right
You stop scrambling when funding deadlines hit.
You have a pipeline of high-priority stories ready to develop. You know which ones prove your End Vision. You know which ones fill gaps in your story bank. You know which ones funders need to see.
When a deadline arrives, you don't panic. You look at your prioritised list. You develop the highest-scoring story that matches the funder's requirements. Done.
Your stories become sharper because you're only developing the ones that matter. Your team becomes more efficient because they're not wasting time on low-priority work. Your funders see proof of transformation, not just descriptions of activity.
Strategic storytelling isn't about doing more. It's about doing the right things.
This is part of a system
This is Edition 4 of The Social Impact Storyteller newsletter.
Over the past three weeks, I've shared:
Edition 1: How to define your Emotional Destination - the feeling you want to create and the action you want people to take
Edition 2: How to define your End Vision - the specific, observable change you're working toward
Edition 3: How to build a Story Capture System - so frontline teams document transformation as it happens
Edition 4 (today): How to triage captured stories - so you develop the right stories, not just the convenient ones
Each edition builds on the previous one. Each edition includes a framework, a template, and an AI prompt you can use immediately.
Want the full framework?
This LinkedIn article covers the concept. The email newsletter includes:
The Story Triage Matrix - a 4-dimension scoring system for prioritising stories (with weightings and decision thresholds)
Weekly Story Review Checklist - a copy-paste template for evaluating captured stories every Monday
AI Prompt - for getting strategic prioritisation help from Claude, ChatGPT, or Gemini
Plus practical examples, scoring calculations, and how to use the system with your team.
Subscribe here: impactstoryteller.org
The newsletter goes out every Thursday at 7:45am. It's free. It's practical. No hot air.
If you're a charity leader, impact manager, or anyone responsible for proving your organisation creates change, this newsletter will save you time and sharpen your storytelling.
Hello, I'm Matt Mahmood-Ogston Award-winning impact storyteller, photographer and charity CEO
I help charities and social impact organisations turn their work into stories that unlock funding and drive change. Based in London, working across the UK and internationally.
Connect with me on LinkedIn, or work with me directly
