Storytelling for Impact: Tools to Amplify Your Mission, Build Your Influence and Unlock Funding
Tuesday, May 5, 2026
10:00 am - 12:30 pm
CLU Oxnard Campus
2201 Outlet Center Drive, Oxnard, CA 93036
Individual Members: $0
Organizational Members: $0
Non-Members: $55
About this event
Description:
The stories we tell shape the world we live in and the future we’re building. As funding becomes harder to secure and competition for awards grows, the ability to communicate your nonprofit’s impact with clarity, emotion, and purpose is no longer optional — it’s essential. This workshop gives nonprofit leaders the tools and confidence to craft stories that stand out and inspire action.
Learning Objectives:
- Explain the strategic value of storytelling as a tool for advancing their nonprofit mission, building trust, and influencing key audiences — including funders, advocates, and partners.
- Identify and shape compelling narratives that authentically reflect their mission, values, and impact.
- Apply practical storytelling tools and techniques to craft stories that inspire action, deepen engagement, and drive change.
- Design and implement a storytelling process within their organizations, including effective methods for sourcing, curating, and sharing authentic narratives.
- Develop and uphold responsible storytelling practices that ensure respect, dignity, and agency for the people and communities represented.
- Discover and surface powerful stories in unexpected places, expanding their organization’s capacity to capture and communicate impact.
Faculty
Kristen Caloca
Kristen Caloca is the founder and CEO of KMC Social Impact Strategies, which supports mission-minded organizations in advancing impact for stronger, healthier communities through strategic communications.
For nearly two decades, Kristen has advised national, state, and local social impact organizations in the public, private, and philanthropic sectors on using strategic communications as a lever for change.
Her expertise includes public affairs and advocacy, narrative change, media relations, crisis communications, internal communications, integrated marketing campaigns, and community engagement. She has also coached organizations through building and strengthening their internal communications capacity with strategic counsel and bespoke trainings.
Kristen is a highly skilled crisis communications counselor. She advises executives from small nonprofits to large organizations and government agencies. She has deep experience navigating issues alongside leaders and their legal counsel to manage threats and minimize risk while championing transparency to support brand trust and reputation. Her crisis experience includes developing communications and community engagement strategies in response to class action lawsuits and leading through significant brand reputation threats from law enforcement investigations to personnel misconduct and more.
Before launching her consultancy, Kristen was a leader at Cause Communications, a nonprofit in Los Angeles that helped other nonprofits use communications to advance social change. She was also a senior leader at international public affairs firm Mercury, where she worked alongside former Los Angeles mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and former California State Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez.
She received her BA in Communications with a concentration in Public Relations from Cal State Fullerton and is an alumna of Coro Southern California’s Executive Leadership Network program.