Communicating Through Storytelling and Data

A clever meme; a photo that tells a story; an engaging blog post: Storytelling is a powerful method for sharing new or updated public health interventions. At Breakthrough Accelerator, we strive to develop creative communications that share the stories behind the scenes of our program and humanize the accelerator experience.

That creativity, however, is guided by a communications strategy based in data. After all, we aim to ensure that our content reaches the audiences who can benefit from it the most, where they already are, with information that they can actually use.

In Spring 2026, we developed a communications strategy for Breakthrough’s recruitment period that was successful at achieving these aims while guiding our creative pursuits. In fact, social media—a cornerstone of our strategy—was a top referral source for Breakthrough applicants in 2026! Because recruitment is a vital time for Breakthrough, this digital success is critical: We must reach a diverse range of potential applicants so they can apply for a chance to be in our next cohort of innovators. In this blog post, we’ll walk you through how we used data to guide our specific recruitment goals and what tactics we found worked well.

How We Used Strategy to Set Goals

As we wrote Breakthrough’s 2026 recruitment communications strategy, we looked at both broad and specific data to set our goals. We researched benchmarks for nonprofit organizations, drew on our experiences and data from previous recruitment cycles, and kept up with trends and expertise from science communications leaders.

Our first goal was to increase engagement—defined using specific goal metrics—with Breakthrough’s communications channels. For example, we aimed to see a 10 percent average engagement rate across all our recruitment-focused LinkedIn posts. We set our goal metrics based on trends in our monthly analytics,* aiming for slightly higher numbers since we wanted to reach new audiences and knew that recruitment season draws increased traffic. We also used our monthly analytics to identify which aspects (e.g., image type, caption length, subject matter) of our previous posts resonated best with our audiences and shaped our new content to align.

Our second goal was to convert new individuals viewing or interacting with our posts into Breakthrough followers. Again, recruitment season is the best opportunity for this given that we have something we can offer: a funded opportunity to work with Breakthrough! We set goals for increasing followers and engagement on LinkedIn, Instagram, and our newsletter; increasing traffic to our website; and, ultimately, the number of applications to Breakthrough we wanted to see. Attracting new followers directly led to finding new innovators that we could potentially fund.

The final goal of our recruitment communications strategy was to draw on the voices of Breakthrough alumni, partners, and current innovators to create person-forward content. Storytelling is an incredibly powerful tool because it builds connections between people. In our experience, audiences engage with our content more when we highlight one of our innovation teams: These posts humanize the project and help potential innovators see themselves as a part of the program.

Caption: An example of a quote graphic used on LinkedIn and Instagram to showcase the perspectives of Breakthrough’s alumni

While digital human connection can feel like a vague concept, tangible proof can be seen in metrics data: Posts featuring people in our program consistently gained more likes, comments, and reshares. We wanted to lean into this dynamic as people and organizations began to consider whether Breakthrough was an appropriate opportunity for their vision. Many of our creative ideas for marketing Breakthrough’s funding opportunity stemmed from our goal of creating person-forward content because, at its core, Breakthrough’s program is about connection. It’s about connecting innovative teams to experts who can help them grow, connecting audiences to potential resources, and connecting innovative projects to the communities that can benefit from them the most.

How We Turned Our Goals Into Success

Once we set goals, we turn to content creation. Even though we have lots of information to share—from application specifics to general information about Breakthrough’s program—we know our audiences do not have the bandwidth to digest a deluge of information when scrolling through social media. Instead, we focus on elements that have worked well in past communications:

• Pictures of real people are more appealing than stock or AI images. Research has shown that people connect more with real people in photos, a medium that builds trust, cuts through digital noise, and fosters deeper emotional connections compared to overly polished images or corporate-sounding messaging. As a result, we intentionally share images of our teams and staff to humanize the program and help potential applicants visualize themselves in Breakthrough.
• The level of formality in videos does not matter. Our prioritization of authenticity and relatability extends to videos. While our audiences love a polished video, they also love things like informal interviews with current innovators that offer potential applicants a deeper understanding of Breakthrough’s program and a genuine look into what it’s like to be a Breakthrough innovator.
• Lists of easily digestible information perform better than long captions. As proponents of the program, we want audiences to be as excited about Breakthrough as we are. But overloading them with information would drive them away instead of sparking their interest to learn more. While we’ve found that posts with short captions perform better on Instagram, you could also add information in other ways to keep it engaging and digestible. We’ve learned that using carousels of graphics allows us to share larger amounts of information in a short, interactive way.

This gif that cycles through important details about Breakthrough’s application process captured attention on social media.

Communicating online doesn’t have to be overwhelming for either the content creator or their audience. When data guides your creativity, communications such as newsletters and social media posts can be great tools for making connections, sharing your story, and finding an audience of people who are just as excited about your innovation as you.

Suggested citation: Zarick, L., & Stowers, M. (2026). Communicating through storytelling and data. Breakthrough Accelerator. URL

*Breakthrough Accelerator’s monthly communications analytics include quantitative metrics/trends—such as number of newsletter subscribers and average engagement and click-through rates on social media posts—and descriptive analysis of notable mentions and new followers.