Think about the environmental causes you feel passionate about. They are the things that drive you to want to take action and change the world for the better. You likely first became aware of that cause because you heard a story. Perhaps you followed the progress of a turtle caught in plastic, or a local youth who cleaned up an empty lot and turned it into a community garden. Storytelling is powerful. People are more likely to remember a well-told tale than facts and figures.
This blog was written by Jane Marsh, Editor-in-Chief of Environment.co
Environmental nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) must show people how urgent the cause is by connecting with them and generating excitement. Interning gives you a chance to help others feel the urgency to change things for the better. You can shape the stories about the organization and influence your family, friends, and beyond.
You’ll be able to represent the nonprofits in a fresh, authentic, and relatable way to your peers. The skills you learn during your internship will follow you into your career and can show what value you bring to any business.
Understanding the Role of Storytelling in Environmental Advocacy
Storytelling is the secret to accomplishing advocacy. It keeps things in people’s minds and drives them to take action. An excellent tale accomplishes several things:
- It takes a complex issue and sparks awareness by making it easier to understand.
- It shows the human or animal side of environmental challenges, which creates empathy.
- It highlights other people taking action and inspires peers to do the same.
- It creates a call to action for the public.
In a 2025 Gallup survey, 40% of respondents indicated they believe the quality of the environment in the U.S. is “only fair,” while another 15% felt it was poor. People are already aware of the need to do something to protect nature, but may need to be convinced that they are the missing ingredient. They also might not know the ways to get involved, but will see what you’re doing as you share your story and feel motivated to make their own contribution.
Interns are vital to NGO storytelling because they often see the world differently. They may have ideas they’ve gained from recent college courses or campus events they’ve attended that they can apply to their work. They also have strong digital fluency skills and are adept at peer-to-peer communication.
One intern from Northeastern University, Annie, went to Zambia and offered educational programs to address local challenges. While there, she taught learners how to start a garden and a recycling club. On the surface, her effort is one of thousands. However, the changes she made in the community she lived and interned in greatly influenced the individuals she encountered.
6 Ways to Build Storytelling Skills During Your Internship
Collaborating on conservation projects creates lasting bonds and promotes long-term development for your community. You’ll fill your creative well with life experiences so you have something to highlight in blog posts and on social media.
Storytelling is essential for interns in communications and environmental fields. Building this super skill as a volunteer sets you up for success later since you can apply your new knowledge to education and work. You can hone your talents in this area by building the tools needed to hook readers.
Check out Creative Writing Internships with Nonprofits
1. Build Core Storytelling Skills
Before you throw a few posts up on Instagram or create videos for TikTok, learn the basics of good storytelling. Sites like Purdue OWL offer tips on honing your writing to grab attention. You should also:
- Check and recheck statistics: Excellent stories start with solid, believable facts.
- Understand your audience: Is your story for donors, the general public, or other advocates? Matching tone to readership can improve your story dramatically.
- Show the story: Paint a picture with your words. At the same time, a photo or illustration can expand on your points and be a powerful visual reminder.
- Write for the medium: You can expand the details and add additional visuals for stories printed in a newspaper or shared on a blog.
Internships are the right time to try different approaches and get critiques from mentors.
2. Shadow Communications Staff\
You’ll learn by watching people who are more experienced in communications. Attend campaign meetings and take notes about how staff determine the audience and which points they make to engage supporters. Ask questions to figure out how they refine the story. Some good ones to ask include:
- Does the tone change based on the platform?
- Why are you choosing that story over others?
- What is your opening hook?
- How long should a social media post be?
- Which photo are you choosing and why?
The more you understand why the marketing team makes its moves, the more you’ll learn. Keep a journal of the techniques to apply them to your NGO voice — experiment with what you know to get a feel for how each concept works.
3. Participate in Campaign Planning
When you collaborate on local or nationwide conservation projects, you’ll create lasting relationships and promote long-term development for your community. Since campaigns are the big picture, learn how NGOs choose the theme for ongoing content. What do they think works best on YouTube, Facebook, TikTok, and Instagram? Do these things to learn from your efforts:
- Volunteer to take notes during brainstorming sessions so you can see how ideas turn into themes.
- Understand how stories are adapted to speak to donors, volunteers, policymakers, and the general public.
- Learn how the organization approaches the mix of channels and ties the interactions to the primary campaign.
- Ask why a particular story resonates to understand leadership’s thought processes and know how to craft your content better.
- Focus on how the nonprofit measures success, because the goal can change your language. Some nonprofits want donations or member sign-ups, while others want to increase awareness about the environmental topic.
Help different team members so you can learn something new from each role. Volunteer to work on posts and then move to videos or articles. The more formats you can try while interning, the more skills you’ll build.
4. Create Content for Social Media and Blogs
Interns often excel at creating content for social media. Gen-Z grew up with the internet and is adept at social media norms. They instinctively know how to keep their audiences engaged with a good, short story. You can use your internship as a time to experiment with different formats and in short- and long-form stories. An internship overseas, like this Social Media Marketing Internship in Cape Town, allows you to manage various social media channels and put your theories to work. Try:
- Reels for Facebook or Tiktok
- Images for Instagram
- Hashtags for X
- Articles and links on Pinterest
- Funny posts on Snapchat
You can tweak your posts to perform better as you see how different user personas respond on each platform and with each type of content. Ask the organization’s director if you can try a recurring theme to practice consistency and refine your approach. Master one form before moving to the next.
5. Conduct Interviews With Staff, Volunteers, or Community Members
While you likely have a story to tell, you’ll also need to share the actions of others. Collect their experiences and look for ways to make them relatable to the audience. Here’s how:
- Start with a casual conversation to get to know the person. What are they passionate about?
- Move to a formal question-and-answer session, but look for the authenticity in whatever project they’ve headed up.
- Collect authentic stories that make campaigns relatable.
- Find the unique element they bring to the situation that no one else does.
The best interviews will come when you actively listen and follow up with targeted queries. A creative writing internship, allows you to contribute to environmental work while gaining hands-on experience in content creation. Consider this position in South Africa that will apply your writing skills to urban greening, reforestation, and environmental education efforts.
6. Seek Feedback and Iterate
The initial posts you create or the first draft of an article may not always be the final product. Get feedback to refine and polish the rough edges. Seek a mentor or marketing expert to give you insightful advice on improving your work. Don’t just get an assessment — ask specific and pointed questions to gain the most insight.
- Does the opening line pull the reader in?
- Is the message clear?
- Am I missing anything the audience would want to know?
- Does the ending make the reader want to take action?
Creative writing internships are often built upon mentorship and provide real-world practice. Since review cycles sharpen storytelling abilities, a willingness to improve can develop your skills faster than most other efforts.
Spending time gaining the soft skill of storytelling translates to every aspect of your life. Practicing these approaches daily will build your narrative voice and teach you how to connect with your audience.
Tools and Platforms Every Storytelling Intern Should Know
What if you’re at an organization that doesn’t have a big budget? You can still make a difference by knowing what free or low-cost tools can take your work from overwhelming to outstanding. Here are a few you can try:
- Visuals: Adobe Express, Canva, and Figma
- Editing: CapCut for videos and Audacity for audio
- Scheduling: Buffer, HootSuite, and PaddyPost
Each platform performs better when you post at set times and use more visuals. Pay attention to analytics and tweak efforts to get the best results.
Grow your Marketing Skills with a Nonprofit Communications Internship
Measuring Storytelling Impact as an Intern
Spending time on content looks good in your portfolio and is a strong use of your internship time. However, you haven’t made a difference if it doesn’t make a mark on the world. Be sure to track how well your efforts work, which will help you when seeking a job after graduation.
Some key performance indicators (KPIs) you can track include:
- Digital engagement through likes, comments, shares and clicks.
- Qualitative information, like positive comments or direct messages.
- Action outcomes like sign-ups or increased donations.
- Reflection reports summarizing what worked and what didn’t to show your growth and understanding.
You have a chance to drive real change with your storytelling. Partnering with an NGO that allows you to work on projects already in motion may develop areas such as pivoting when a campaign isn’t reaching goals set in your KPIs.
Overcoming Challenges With Unpaid Internships
Spending a summer or several months working without a paycheck is tough for many people, especially college students with looming student loan debt and worries about the job market when they graduate. Even though you may not get funds from the NGO, you’ll gain valuable experience that you can make the most of during your time there. Make sure you collect clips for your portfolio. Save any articles, posts, and promotional materials you create.
Although nonprofit internships are often unpaid, adding storytelling projects to your portfolio leverages any gained experience for future paid work. Ask leadership for recommendation letters and LinkedIn endorsements to show your value to the team. Focus on the difference you made for the organization. Potential employers may be impressed by your effort on unpaid projects and take a chance on hiring you.
Read on about the Reasons to do an Unpaid NGO Internships
How to Find and Apply for Storytelling-Focused Environmental Internships
Finding the right match for your passions takes a bit of legwork, but it will be worth it when you change something for the better. You can get started looking for the internship of your dreams by:
- Scouring university bulletin boards for NGO internships or “get involved” offers.
- Browsing NGO websites. You may already know which organizations are making strides in the fight you want to join. Go to their site and look for ways to get involved.
- Visiting platforms that connect students and NGOs, such as Roots Intern.
Highlight your communications experience when applying for opportunities, including classes you’ve taken and projects you’ve been involved in. Convey your passion for the issue. Did you organize a cleanup crew after football games in your senior year? Share the details.
Your Voice Matters
Although scientists, researchers, and public relations officials can impact how effective an NGO is, storytellers create brand awareness and drive an organization’s growth. Build these skills during your internship and apply them to shaping how people see environmental causes. You can inspire people to get involved, donate their time and money, and care about vital causes.
Apply to an opportunity today so you can begin sharing your voice and amplifying the cause. You may be the tiny spark that ignites true change in a generation.
Don’t worry about narrowing down a specific internship! Fill out the enquiry form and our team will be in touch to answer any questions you may have and help you find the ideal internship.
This blog was written by Jane Marsh.
Jane is Editor-in-Chief of Environment.co, where she advances sustainability and environmental awareness through reporting and editorial leadership. She also contributes to multiple publications and volunteers with environmental organizations in her spare time.
