The people doing the most important work are often the worst-resourced to show it.
A program director is in the field at 7am and writing grant reports at 11pm. A caseworker is managing forty families and the quarterly newsletter. An executive director is holding the vision of the organization while also sending thank-you notes to donors and preparing for the board meeting on Thursday.
There is no time. And there is never enough recorded evidence.
But here is what's also true: every single person your organization has served carries a story that, told right, would stop a donor mid-scroll. Would make a board member's skepticism dissolve. Would show a volunteer exactly why they keep showing up.
And stories do something spreadsheets cannot: they build belonging. They create bridges across the distance between the person writing the check and the person whose life was changed by it. Between the volunteer who gave a Saturday and the family who needed that Saturday to happen. Between a community member who has never set foot in your building and the mission that was built for people exactly like them.
The organizations that thrive — not just survive — are the ones whose communities feel seen. Whose funders feel connected to something real. Whose staff feel that the work they pour themselves into is witnessed.
That's what story does. And that's what we build together.
My name is Gwendolyn Kuhlmann, and I help your organization speak the truth. I'm a classically trained opera singer turned civic storyteller — I founded Seasons of Strength, a community oral history project that gathered 100+ voices from a tornado-devastated town, secured $38K in funding, and generated 17.2M+ in media reach by doing one thing well: listening until the real story surfaced. Before that, a single story I helped tell contributed to $170K raised and half a billion dollars in California housing policy funding. I've spent my career in rooms where the stakes were high and the words weren't coming — and I know how to find them.
| What's included |
Origin Story Report
$3,200
One-time · 2-week delivery
|
Story Library
$2,800/story
6-story package · your pace
|
Story Engine
$2,500/mo
6-month retainer
|
|---|---|---|---|
| Story Capture | |||
| Deep listening conversation (75–90 min) | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Thematic Insight Note | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Narrative essay (600–900 words) | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Short-form story (200–300 words) | — | ✓ | ✓ |
| Story Intelligence Summary | ✓ | — | — |
| Social & Content | |||
| Pull quote graphics (brand colors) | 3 | 3 | 4 |
| Social posts (LinkedIn + carousel or audiogram) | — | 2 | 2 + audiogram |
| Email or newsletter feature | — | — | ✓ |
| Monthly story deployment guide | — | — | ✓ |
| Video | |||
| Professional videographer on-site | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| 8–12 vertical clips, captioned & ready to post | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Six-Month Milestone | |||
| Cross-Story Synthesis document | — | ✓ | ✓ |
| Narrative Framework + "Year Ahead" roadmap | — | — | ✓ |
|
All offers include a one-time onboarding call. Video add-on can be waived on individual Story Library sessions ($1,600/story without video). |
Book Now | Book a Call | Book a Call |
Organizations who know they need better communications — and know that story is where that starts. Whether you have no communications staff, one person stretched thin, or a full team without the bandwidth to go deep on story, the signal is the same: the work you're doing deserves to be told better than it currently is.
Organizations scaling toward their first full-time communications hire, entering a capital campaign, navigating a leadership transition, or preparing for a major grant renewal — moments when story needs to be working harder than it currently is.
Community foundations, housing and community development organizations, arts nonprofits, workforce development programs, faith-based social service organizations, and civic groups where the founder's story has never been properly documented.
This is a fit for larger organizations if you have a communications team that is fully deployed on execution — managing your channels, responding to news cycles, producing campaigns — but doesn't have the bandwidth to also be doing deep story production. That's the gap this work fills. Your team doesn't have to stop what they're doing. What you get each month is a fully produced story suite they can pull from and schedule, so the content calendar stops being a problem that has to be solved from scratch.
What's Included
- 75–90 min recorded conversation with your founder, executive director, or a voice of your choosing
- Thematic Insight Note — the real story underneath, the universal thread, and how it connects to your mission
- One narrative essay (600–900 words) for annual report, website, or donor newsletter
- Three pull quote graphics in your brand colors, ready for social or print
- Story Intelligence Summary — a one-page document showing what a body of this work could do for your organization
- Professional videographer on-site during the interview · 8–12 vertical clips (9:16), edited and captioned, selected based on the thematic threads from the conversation
What This Is For
A low-risk way to experience the depth of the work before a longer commitment — and a complete deliverable in its own right. A narrative document your organization keeps, uses, and builds from.
Particularly powerful for organizations approaching a fundraising campaign, a strategic planning cycle, or a leadership transition — moments when the origin story needs to be clearly articulated before everything else can follow from it.
Each Story Includes
- 75–90 min recorded conversation with a person of your choosing — staff, community member, client, volunteer, or partner
- Thematic Insight Note — the thread, the mission connection, what this story is doing in the larger tapestry
- One narrative essay (600–900 words)
- One short-form version (200–300 words) for newsletters or email
- Three pull quote graphics in your brand colors
- Two social posts drawn from the transcript — text-only LinkedIn story post + audiogram or carousel
- Professional videographer on-site · 8–12 vertical clips, captioned and ready to post · Caption copy and posting guidance
How It Works
You schedule each story session at your own pace — some organizations move through all six in six months, others spread them across a full year around campaigns, anniversaries, or funding cycles. There's no expiration date.
Each story is a complete, deployable asset the moment it's delivered. By the time you've completed all six, you have a library.
After All Six Stories
- Cross-Story Synthesis — patterns, values, and unifying themes across all six stories
- Written for leadership, ready to inform your next strategic cycle or grant narrative
- Recommendations for deploying the body of work in campaigns and reports
Video can be waived on individual stories if the subject prefers audio-only. Adjusted pricing ($1,600/story) applies for video-free sessions.
Monthly Deliverables
- One 75–90 min recorded conversation — staff, community member, client, volunteer, or partner
- Thematic Insight Note
- One narrative essay (600–900 words)
- One short-form story (200–300 words) for email or newsletter
- Four pull quote graphics in your brand colors
- Professional videographer on-site · 8–12 vertical clips, captioned and ready to post
- Two text-based social posts — LinkedIn story post + story carousel
- One audiogram from the interview audio
- One email or newsletter feature, formatted and ready to send
- Monthly story deployment guide — when and where to publish each asset
What "Half Your Social Media" Means
Each month's story produces approximately 15–18 deployable assets: 8–12 video clips, 2 text posts, 1 audiogram, 4 quote graphics, 1 email feature, and a deployment guide. For most nonprofits posting 4–5 times per week, that covers roughly half your content calendar — fully produced, on-brand, and drawn from real stories rather than manufactured content.
This is not social media management. Your team schedules and publishes. What you receive is a complete, ready-to-deploy story asset suite each month — so the question is never "what do we post?" but "which of these do we use first?"
Six-Month Milestone
- Cross-Story Synthesis — patterns, values, and unifying themes
- Narrative Framework — your overarching story, each individual story mapped within it
- "Year Ahead" content roadmap built from identified patterns
On Nonprofit Pricing
Nonprofit pricing at Sounds Like Cool Studios is not a discount on standard rates. It is a deliberate decision, made because organizations doing direct community benefit work should have access to this kind of support — regardless of the gap between their communications budgets and those of for-profit businesses with equivalent communications needs.
The work that nonprofits and foundations do — holding communities together, advocating for the people closest to the largest problems, preserving what matters — is the work that most needs to be told well. If you are presenting this investment to a board or finance committee, you are welcome to share this note directly.
On capacity
The Story Engine retainer is available to four organizations at a time. Each retainer relationship requires genuine presence: a real conversation, a real story, a real human listening for what matters. If you're interested in a retainer, the best time to reach out is before you urgently need it.