Building a Strong PEARS Success Story

Start With Three Questions

A strong Success Story should help the reader understand three things:

Why does it matter?

Provide enough context for someone who may know nothing about the program, project, or community.

Consider:

• What need, issue, or opportunity are you addressing?
• Why does this work exist?
• Who benefits?
• How does this work connect to a broader community, regional, or statewide need?
• What is the public value of this work?

What happened?

Describe Extension’s response and what took place.

Consider:

• What did Extension do?
• Who participated or was reached?
• Who were the partners or collaborators?
• What was unique or significant about the approach?
• What happened that helps someone understand the story?

What changed?

Move beyond describing activity to explaining the difference the work made.

Consider:

• What outcomes or changes occurred?
• What did participants learn or do differently?
• What do evaluation results tell you?
• Are there measurable results such as behaviors changed, practices adopted, dollars saved, or other indicators related to the program’s goals?
• Why are these results significant?

What Supports the Story?

Evidence and supporting materials help demonstrate impact and bring a Success Story to life. When available, consider including:

• Quantitative data and evaluation results
• Quotes from participants, volunteers, partners, or stakeholders
• Photos
• Video
• Other materials that help document the work or its impact

Quotes

A strong quote provides an authentic voice and can help others understand the experience behind the results. Consider capturing quotes from participants, volunteers, partners, or other stakeholders who can speak to the value or impact of the work.

Photos and Video

Photos and video can provide important context and become valuable assets for future communications and storytelling.

When including photos, video, or other media featuring participants, make sure appropriate releases or permissions are available.

Resources:

• [Photo release guidance/form]
• [Photo best practices]
• [Video best practices]

Think of the Success Story as a Container

You do not have to wait until the end of a program or project to begin building the story.

Make deposits along the way—context, data, outcomes, quotes, photos, video, and other supporting materials.

PEARS can be used to capture these pieces as the work progresses, helping preserve important information and making it easier to develop a strong story as outcomes emerge.

Collaborate and Strengthen Your Story

Success Stories do not have to be created in isolation. Consider sharing your story with collaborators or colleagues who can:

• Provide additional information
• Verify outcomes
• Contribute data, quotes, photos, or other supporting materials
• Provide another perspective
• Help strengthen the story before it is finalized

Within PEARS, collaborators can also be associated with a Success Story.

A contributor is someone who actively contributed to the program or Success Story. A non-contributor may not have participated directly but can be given access when it would be helpful for them to reference or use the information.

Sharing access can help teams capture a more complete story and make impact information available to colleagues who may need it for their own reporting or communications.

One Entry, Many Opportunities to Share Our Impact

Entering a Success Story in PEARS establishes a record of the impact of your work and creates opportunities for that story to reach beyond its original purpose.

Success Stories can be reviewed and used by program and system leaders, Nebraska Extension leadership, and IANR communications and media staff to identify examples of impact worth sharing more broadly.

A single story may contribute to multiple storytelling and reporting efforts—from Extension “N” Action and media projects to reports, presentations, stakeholder communications, and other opportunities.

Think of this as a compounding effect: one strong entry can provide the foundation for many ways of communicating Extension’s impact.

Building a More Complete Picture of Extension

Collectively, these stories do something even more important. They help us build a more complete picture of how Nebraska Extension engages with communities across the state.

By consistently capturing the need, our response, and the resulting impact, we can provide greater transparency and better demonstrate the reach and public value of Nebraska Extension’s work.

Capture it once. Build on it. Share the impact.

Take One Final Look

Before marking a Success Story complete, look at it from the perspective of someone who doesn’t already know the program.

Ask yourself:

Would someone who knows nothing about this program understand what we did, why it mattered, and what changed because of it?

If the answer is yes, you’ve probably written a strong Success Story.

Also consider:

• Is there enough context for someone outside the program to understand why the work matters?
• Have you described outcomes rather than only activities?
• Have you included relevant data or evaluation results when available?
• Is there a participant, partner, or stakeholder quote that could strengthen the story?
• Are there photos, video, or other supporting materials that should be included?
• Have appropriate releases or permissions been obtained?
• Would input from a collaborator or colleague strengthen the story?

Marking the Success Story as Complete indicates that it is finalized and available for broader reporting, communications, and impact storytelling.

Using the PEARS Success Stories Module

This page is intended to help you develop a strong Success Story. For step-by-step instructions on using the Success Stories module, use the PEARS Support resources.

PEARS Support provides instructions for:

• Creating a Success Story
• Entering general information
• Adding collaborators and partners
• Writing the story narrative and adding a favorite quote
• Completing other required sections
• Marking a Success Story as complete

Resources:

• [PEARS Success Stories Support]
• [Photo release guidance/form]
• [Photo best practices]
• [Video best practices]

A Simple Gut Check

No matter the program, audience, or type of impact, come back to three questions:

Why does it matter?
What happened?
What changed?