How Ethical Storytelling Becomes a Movement With Diana Farias Heinrich
Listen on Apple | Listen on Spotify
In This Episode
Diana, CEO of Habrá Marketing and creator of the Equastory framework, joins us for a conversation about what it takes for trauma-informed storytelling to become more than an individual practice. It becomes a movement when people begin challenging harmful norms, building new practices together, and treating consent, privacy, and agency as shared responsibilities.
We explore how the stories we share can shape not only audience understanding, but a story owner’s sense of safety long after something is published. We reflect on what it means to tell stories with people, not about them, and why lasting change requires community, accountability, and ongoing practice.
About Diana Farias Heinrich
Diana Farias Heinrich (she/her) is the CEO of Habrá Marketing and a champion of ethical nonprofit storytelling. Through her Equastory™ framework and The Ethical Nonprofit Summit, she actively safeguards equality, respect, and dignity in nonprofit communications while helping organizations raise funds with integrity. She's a certified Advocate for Survivors of Domestic Violence and for DEI in the Workplace. Diana's proud to be a mom and wife and has supported women in Ghana in starting a sustainable clean water business.
Get Your Ethical Nonprofit Tix!
Register for the Ethical Nonprofit Summit at ethicalnonprofitsummit.com, and use the code MARIABRYAN15 to save $15 on your ticket.
Connect with Maria
Speaking & Training | LinkedIn | Email
Transcripts
Maria Bryan:
Diana Farias Heinrich has dedicated her work to helping nonprofits communicate with integrity and care. Through Opal Marketing, the Ethical Nonprofit Summit, and the Equastory™ framework, she guides organizations toward storytelling practices that honor the people at the center of their work.
In today’s conversation, we explore why this shift in storytelling is not just a technical change, but a communal one. The work grows stronger when we learn together, challenge harmful norms together, and build new practices together.
Diana and I talk about what becomes possible when storytellers gather to rethink their lens, the lasting impact of the Ethical Nonprofit Summit, and creating a community of practitioners committed to ethical storytelling and beyond.
Diana, welcome to the show. It is always such a joy when you pop in.
Diana Farias Heinrich:
Thank you for having me, Maria. I am so happy to be here and excited to chat about this today.
Maria Bryan:
Yes, cheers to community. Your work and your journey are grounded in your earlier work. How has that shaped your understanding of ethical storytelling and the responsibility it carries?
Diana Farias Heinrich:
Yeah, it comes back to the way that this all started for me. My very first in-house nonprofit job was as a communications and development coordinator for an organization that worked with young mothers.
Right out of the gate, I got to write their stories, and I got to photograph them and their kids. I got to publish all of these stories on the website and on LinkedIn and in all these different places because we were promoting the annual fundraiser for the organization.
And lo and behold, a couple of months after the fundraiser, after we had already had the fundraiser, met our fundraising goal, and done all of that, I found out that one of the young moms whose story I had published had been in a domestic violence situation.
As an advocate for survivors, I knew that all of the information I had put out about her and her child, her name, her program location, meant I had basically created a digital breadcrumb trail for the ex.
It was in that moment that I realized that even though I thought I had the best intentions, and I was doing my job, and everything had gone well, I had unintentionally put this young woman in harm’s way.
That is where the responsibility really started for me. I knew that I was the one always hitting the publish button. I was the one writing the bios without approval from the moms. I would ask them which photos they preferred, but that was more of the photographer in me, not so much from the ethical storytelling standpoint.
That is really where it all started. And then when I launched my consulting practice about four years ago, I knew that I wanted to teach other folks how to do this, how to do ethical storytelling in a practical way.
And that is where the Equastory™ framework came from.
Maria Bryan:
That story that you share is so potent and so vulnerable, so thank you. I am curious because sometimes I wonder if folks think that the harm we can do in storytelling is just a matter of embarrassing our story owners, and it goes so much deeper than that.
There is real harm that can happen. I also appreciate your vulnerability and honesty that you did have the best intentions. And when we know better, we do better.
Since then, now you are on these big stages. You are on the third year of running the Ethical Nonprofit Summit. I have had the joy and honor of seeing you speak virtually and in person on those big stages.
So I am curious, as you have been speaking on ethical storytelling, what are some of the aha moments that you are seeing light up in audiences?
Diana Farias Heinrich:
Yeah, I always see people’s eyes light up around the idea that we all deserve our privacy. Just because somebody signs a media release clause does not mean that we have a right to publish whatever we want about them, even if the media release clause says that we can.
And as our friend Ally Levine says all the time, just because it is legal does not make it ethical.
Maria Bryan:
Yep.
Diana Farias Heinrich:
That one is a big aha for people. They are like, yeah, you are right. Because if you think about it from the other direction, would I want my hardest life moments published like this?
I have seen really bad examples. If you think about all that poverty-porn-style stuff, that is the worst of it.
And then there are others, folks who are further along on their ethical storytelling journey, where they do address the hard moments. It is not like they are leaving them out, but they are doing it in a way that is dignified. They are telling the story with the story owner, the person who has that lived experience. They are collaborating and co-creating that story so they are accomplishing their mission in a way that is safe and dignified for the story owner and the community.
And then the second thing I would say, and this is more for story owners themselves, is that I get to do training with story owners around what parts of their story they want to tell and can tell from a healed place.
So the phrase for that is telling from a scar, not a wound, as you have often said to me in your trainings. That one is, to me, one of the biggest and proudest aha moments I can help people come to, that they have the option to say no.
Maria Bryan:
Okay.
Diana Farias Heinrich:
To any request that a nonprofit may make of them, because it is their story, it is their life. At the end of the day, they are the ones who will have to live with the consequences.
So just even telling them that no is an option, that is a big aha. Just setting boundaries is a big aha.
So I think from both perspectives, for nonprofit leaders to realize everybody has a right to privacy, and for story owners to realize I can set boundaries, those are the two biggest things for sure.
Maria Bryan:
What other aha moments have you had as you have listened and learned and grown alongside this community?
Diana Farias Heinrich:
When I mentioned earlier that I had launched my consulting and thought, I want to teach other people how to do this, I wondered if I could possibly be the only one who had gone through this.
That has been one of the biggest aha moments of my life. There are definitely a lot of other people who are going through this, have gone through this, have done something similar to what I did, or have seen someone do it and thought, yeah, this is a problem.
So realizing the scale of the work that is in front of us has been an aha, but also a driver for me to keep doing what I am doing.
I would also say that another long-term aha is that this is long-term work. I wish I could put out the Equastory™ framework and then everybody would get it and everybody would make the change.
I am sure a lot of people inside organizations feel that way too. They keep trying to do this and implement this, and sometimes it feels like they are just talking into the void. No one cares, and everybody is too set in their ways.
So it is a long-term commitment that we are undertaking as ethical storytellers and fundraisers for our work and our sector to align with the values that got us into it in the first place.
We are pushing back against a system that was built on us versus them, and that is not easy work. So it takes commitment, and it takes community.
Maria Bryan:
I could not agree more. We are not just teaching a person at a time. We are foundationally trying to change the sector. Ethical storytelling, to me, is a movement, and I think the Ethical Nonprofit Summit is such a beautiful part of this movement.
Why is gathering people so essential to this movement’s growth and momentum?
Diana Farias Heinrich:
Yeah. Going back to what we said at the very beginning, it is about responsibility. We start, I think, with individuals. In my case, I messed up, and that is what brought me this strong sense of responsibility for doing things better.
But then where does that go by myself?
I could have never even started what would become the Equastory™ framework process by myself. I had to be able to talk with the program staff, the finance staff, legal, and my other development colleagues in order to create a process that would put the client’s agency front and center.
So while we may feel a sense of responsibility, the execution part of it requires community. It requires our colleagues. It requires bringing the client’s voice into the conversation, from everything to yes, I like the way this story sounds, to this is what I need in my program.
It is not about program taking care of the clients and development taking care of the donors. It is not like that. We all live in this community, and we must take care of each other, know what is important to others, honor that, and have things that we share collectively as being important, like our values.
Maria Bryan:
There is something really special at the Ethical Nonprofit Summit, and this goes back to so many things that we have said so far in this conversation. There is this feeling of, oh, others are struggling with this challenge. Other folks are unlearning. All of us are craving learning this together and being together.
The 2026 Ethical Nonprofit Summit is right around the corner. What can we expect?
Diana Farias Heinrich:
Yeah, so I am very excited about this year. This year we are doing two half days with six practitioners and in-house leaders leading the main presentations.
We are really focusing on having more tactical tools and frameworks for how to practice ethical storytelling, and that is really where our focus is this year.
I will say too, as I like to call them, my ethical explorers should also keep in mind that all the tools in the world are not going to make you take action. You have got to be responsible for that part.
But I am really confident with our speakers this year that they are going to be bringing a lot of practical, tangible things that you can use in your everyday work.
I am just really excited. We are jam-packing it into two half days, but hopefully that makes it a lot more manageable for people to live their lives and still get this education that they want.
Maria Bryan:
So where can folks learn more about the Ethical Nonprofit Summit this year and get themselves registered?
Diana Farias Heinrich:
Yeah, all the information, the speakers, the session topics, and all of that is going to be available at ethicalnonprofitsummit.com.
And when you get your tickets, you can use the code MARIABRYAN15 to save $15 on your ticket.
Maria Bryan:
Oh, thank you so much for that gift for our listeners. I cannot wait for the summit this year. I cannot wait to be in community with all of you, and I know a lot of our listeners do attend this summit.
Thank you again, Diana, for the work that you do.
Diana Farias Heinrich:
But wait, there is more. I also want to mention, before we forget, that this year’s VIP ticket, which includes coaching sessions with me, is also going to include a special prerecorded session from Maria about what to do when you mess up.
Maria Bryan:
Yes, ma’am.
Diana Farias Heinrich:
It will also include the harm repair plan that Maria will be providing inside the VIP package.
Maria Bryan:
Absolutely. That is one of my favorite parts of the When Bearing Witness program. That is where people really light up, knowing that they can be human when they have a harm repair plan in place.
So yes, check out the summit and the VIP package. We are both excited to see you there.