With restricted funding and a lot of expectation attached to the ‘end product’, Hollywood developed a tool that enables them to map out their extremely expensive projects and get a sense of the outcome. And in good news, this sensible and cost-effective approach can be used in the social impact world too.

In the social impact world, we use these storyboards not to sketch scenes but to plan how we will achieve our impact goals, at scale. 

To help you effectively plan for the future using this method, we created an easy-to-use Storyboarding Tool. It will enable you to see clearly how you can get from where you are now, to that audacious goal.

Getting started is pretty easy: 

• First, identify your key elements:
  Start by writing down the problem you’re addressing, your proposed solution, and your target audience.
• Second, outline the engagement steps:
  Detail the actions taken by your constituents at each stage when you are trying to reach them:
  • How would we reach people?
  • How would people accept our offer?
  • What would engagement look like?
  • What impact would happen at the end?

From there, you can go one step beyond using our Critical Rates Calculator Tool. This tool will help you calculate the number of people you expect to reach, convince and engage to achieve the impact you’re aiming to have.

So, it’s just like in the movies. Storyboarding will help you produce a map for your pathway to scale so you can go from where to are, to where you want to be. Importantly, it won’t be a set in stone map. It will change as you gain more clarity using it.