It's Time to Shift How We Talk About Results
October 23, 2025
By: Peter Panepento
We’re communicating in a climate where cynicism is the default currency.
Our primary audiences — donors, policymakers, and community partners — are bombarded with disinformation and opinions.
And in a world where AI-generated content is exploding and the loudest voices are rewarded, cynicism is not only warranted, it’s necessary for survival.
But for those of us who continue to work in the realm of truth, it’s hard to cut through the noise. It’s even harder to generate content that truly moves your audience to action.
Feel-good stories are often met with eyerolls. Statistics are easily dismissed as fake news when they don’t align with a person’s existing worldview.
Yet you can still deliver content that shows the value of your work and demonstrates how your organization is creating meaningful change.
To do that, though, it's time to shift how you talk about results.
Too often, we default to using simple metrics to describe impact: "We distributed $5 million in grants," or "We served 1,000 meals."
These are outputs. They are transactional numbers. They are not impact.
When you move from outputs to outcomes, however, the conversation changes.
When you show your outcomes, you’re more likely to build trust, unlock major funding, and protect yourself against attacks from naysayers.
Here are three ways to shift the way you talk about your organization’s impact:
1. Change the focus from activity to progress
The single biggest failure in philanthropic communications is confusing activity for progress.
Your audience doesn't care about the number of workshops you delivered. They care about what happens after the workshops.
To make this shift, you must ask the "So What?" question with every data point:
Instead of: We granted $250,000 to local artists. (Output)
Say this: Our $250,000 investment stabilized the income of 15 local artists, whose work reached 5,000 youth in our community last year. (Outcome)
Your grants and activities are the action; your communications must center on the reaction.
This takes some extra work. But when you learn how to translate every dollar spent or service delivered into the life-altering result it produced, you generate memorable and moving stories that inspire your audience to take action.
2. Weave data with dignity
Data without a narrative is lifeless. Narrative without data is anecdotal.
Your most powerful communications combine the impersonal metrics found in a spreadsheet with the emotional weight of a human story.
Combining data with humanity requires discipline.
Here’s a three-step approach for weaving personal stories with compelling data to create stories that connect with the head and the heart:
Lead with an anecdote: Introduce the individual (or community) and their challenge. This establishes the emotional connection.
Insert your intervention: Detail how you are taking action— the program, grant, or policy change at the heart of your work.
Show the result: Close the loop by showing the measurable change in that person's life or in your community, using specific numbers, percentages, or milestones.
A single, powerful story that shows a person moving from point A (a problem) to point B (a solution) with evidence of the journey it took to get there is so much more persuasive than 10 bulleted statistics.
3. Communicate your vision — not just the next step
Donors and partners want to feel like they are contributing to a meaningful goal — not just filling a gap in your annual budget.
Your most effective communications point toward your vision.
Ideally, you'll set your vision high and tell the story of your progress toward it, even when the path is long.
Define your finish line: Is your goal to end chronic homelessness in your city by 2035? Is it to close the academic achievement gap by half in five years? Is it to create an economy where everyone has a fair chance to succeed?
Define your vision in clear terms and make sure it’s front and center in every story you tell.
Show incremental victories: Once you’ve defined your vision, every communication becomes a progress report. When you report a metric, frame it as a percentage achieved toward your vision. When you face a threat, detail what's at stake and what needs to be done to overcome it.
As you communicate your vision with clarity and your progress with discipline, you transcend the transactional relationship of asking for money.
You invite your audience to become investors in a long-term, high-stakes mission.
You turn them into believers, rather than cynics — and you contribute to a future centered on trust and abundance.