#13 - A Chat with Bill Thompson, Executive Director of Young Storytellers

What It Covers

Bill Thompson, Executive Director of Young Storytellers, shares how the LA-based nonprofit empowers marginalized students to write original stories performed by professional actors, building empathy and voice through volunteer mentorship programs across elementary, middle, and high schools.

Key Questions Answered

• •Collaborative Writing Model: COVID forced Young Storytellers to shift from one-to-one mentoring to small group "writer's room" sessions with 2-3 students and volunteers. This unintended model proved valuable for combating isolation, allowing kids to connect authentically with peers while maintaining individual character ownership in collaborative stories.
• •Volunteer Retention Crisis: Pre-COVID volunteer base dropped from 1,300 to 300-400 people post-pandemic, now recovering to 500. This reflects permanent workplace culture shifts. The organization pivoted strategy to create program toolkits for community organizations and PTAs, enabling grassroots replication while maintaining 25 years of proven curriculum and outcomes data.
• •Personal Pitching Strategy: Effective nonprofit pitching prioritizes authentic personal connection over jargon. Thompson leads with his own transformation story—from non-theater kid to arts advocate—demonstrating program impact through lived experience rather than tokenizing student stories. Research funders' values beforehand, position your organization as solving their specific problem, and maintain confidence in your mission's fit.
• •Empathy Through Poetry: Research using fMRI scans shows poetry and creative writing activate brain regions associated with empathy. This functional shift occurs in the same frontal lobe area where empathy resides. Arts programs correlate with lower recidivism rates, suggesting storytelling literally grows empathy capacity in developing minds and adults alike.
• •Abundance Over Scarcity: The "limited favors" mentality in entertainment is self-perpetuating fiction. Thompson advocates genuine belief-based connections—introducing people or projects you authentically support creates trust in your judgment. When recommendations come from real conviction rather than transactional thinking, people respond with unlimited reciprocity. Help others solve problems without expecting direct returns.