Once upon a time: using the hero's journey in development stories.

Development organisations have begun to utilise storytelling as a means of furthering their agendas, fundraising goals or as means of education about the issues at hand. This article examines the hero's journey - a type of emotionally resonant story - as a means of successful storytelling within the world of development. Using the NGO Kiva as a case study, it determines that the hero's journey structure can be used to engage donors in a fundraising cause. It also addresses how these stories are incomplete journeys and what can be done to tell "better" hero's journey narratives in the field of development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]