The team at Fat Rat Films who have been successfully telling stories for INGOs and nonprofits for twenty years are bringing a brand new storytelling capacity building approach to you.

The Small Window — A storytelling course for change-makers is a self-paced online course that teaches programme teams and communicators how to identify, shape and share the stories that already exist within their organisation and how to embed storytelling in their strategy.

Stories are powerful not just because they persuade in the moment, but because they are remembered better, come to mind more easily later, and therefore shape future beliefs and decisions more durably than raw statistics.

Who it's for

The most powerful stories in your organisation are often sitting in the most unlikely places, in the minds of people who wouldn't think to call themselves storytellers.

This course is for all of them: communications professionals, programme teams, technical staff and managers at INGOs, UN agencies and nonprofits who want to embed storytelling in their work whether they're building on existing knowledge or starting from scratch. No fancy equipment or prior experience required.

What's in the course

Six short lessons (10–12 minutes each), led by storytelling and communications experts Fred Grace and Sarah Vivier, with downloadable resources. Each lesson combines core concepts, practical tools and direct guidance on how to apply what you've learned in your day-to-day work.

By the end, teams will know how to spot a story, approach it ethically, shape it with intention and deploy it where it will do the most good whether that's fundraising, advocacy, reporting or internal communications.

The course culminates in the development of your organisation's Story Hub: a live and structured searchable system that keeps your stories organised, connected to your strategy and ready to use across campaigns, fundraising, advocacy and reporting. This is the main takeaway: a live organisational resource your team builds and owns.

Included with the course:

• 6 video lessons with corresponding downloadable resources
• Your organisation's Story Hub, developed as you go
• A free 60-minute 1:1 strategy session with Fred and Sarah
• Access to the Story Circle – a peer learning community where course participants connect, share work in progress and support each other beyond the lessons

What comes next

The course provides the foundations and the Story Hub. For organisations that want to go further, we offer three ways to deepen the work:

Story Hub – implementation and maintenance
We work alongside organisations to implement, embed and maintain the Story Hub in the short-to-mid term, integrating it into existing workflows and making sure it runs confidently without us. This is for organisations that want hands-on support to make sure they turn the course output into a permanent strategic infrastructure.

Tailored workshops
Hands-on sessions designed around organisation's specific storytelling challenges, audiences and goals to deepen the skills developed in the Storytelling Fundamentals course. Available in three formats:

• Online Workshop – Open Session: A 2-hour live session for up to 20 participants. Covers Storytelling Fundamentals with Q&A. 
• Online Workshop – Working Group: A smaller-group format across multiple sessions (2 x 1 hr/week over 5 weeks), working through a real story project with direct input and feedback. 
• In-Person Workshop: 1–2 days on-site, building storytelling fundamentals and producing a real story project with outputs.

Story production
When a story demands more than an internal team can produce, we make it with the rigour, craft, and production power of a team that has told stories for WHO, Amnesty International, UNODC and more.

Who's behind it

Fat Rat Films is a storytelling and strategy agency whose work has generated over 20 million views, supported £1–2 million in annual fundraising for Amnesty International, and partnered with organisations including WHO, UNODC and the International Transport Workers Federation across 55 countries.

The Small Window is led by Fred Grace, documentary filmmaker with 20 years of experience turning complex subjects into stories people actually feel with broadcast credits across the BBC, PBS, Al Jazeera, and The Guardian, and Sarah Vivier, Director of Strategy, who spent a decade leading impact communications for global organisations before joining Fat Rat Films.

Launching Spring 2026

Know someone this would help? Get in touch.