Getting Started with Folktale

Everything you need to know before you get started.

🎯 Who is this article for?

Anyone exploring Folktale for the first time. No technical background required.

What is Folktale?

Folktale is a cross-cultural engagement platform that helps organisations listen to their communities at scale. It enables you to ask meaningful questions, gather people's experiences directly, understand what people are telling you, and share what you've learned.

It is built for teams across the global development sector:

Programme Managers - run campaigns and share live results without data exports
MERL - turn field responses into audit-ready evidence
Communications and Community Engagement - surface and publish community stories with consent intact
Government and Grants - structure community input into policy-grade evidence
Academia and Research - collect and analyse participant data at scale

Why Use Folktale?

Most organisations collect information using a mix of separate tools: one for surveys, one for recording stories, and another for compiling reports. The data lives in different places. Pulling it together takes weeks.

✨ Folktale puts all of that in one place. You do not need to use different tools for different tasks.

How to Get Started

Everything in Folktale starts with a campaign. A campaign is a structured collection effort: surveys, story prompts, or interview questions targeted at a specific group.

Campaigns generate responses. Responses generate insight.

💡 Note: Folktale's free plan includes one campaign with no time limit. You do not need a credit card to start.

Step One: Create Your Account

Go to folktale.io and start a free campaign.

Step Two: Launch Your First Campaign

Once you sign in, create your first campaign. Folktale's AI campaign assistant guides you through setup. You can start with either:

Story invitation - includes videos, audios, images, and written responses
Survey - structured with multiple choice, scales, ratings, and text responses

Built-in consent management and distribute your campaign via email, link, or QR code.

Share your campaign link with the people you want to hear from. Once your first 5 responses arrive, Folktale's AI starts analysing your campaign insights.

What to Expect After Your First Campaign

You do not need to wait for a full dataset before you see value. As soon as responses come in, Folktale's AI gets to work.

Automatic Theme Detection

AI surfaces themes and patterns across every response. You see what your community is saying, grouped by meaning rather than just by question.

Sentiment and Quote Attribution

Folktale identifies sentiment and pulls attributed quotes from responses, with consent flags preserved. You always know which quotes you can use and how.

Filters and Demographics

Filter responses by demographic to understand how different groups experience your programme. Spot outliers. Confirm patterns.

Reports Ready to Share

Folktale produces branded PDF and web reports. Evidence trails, CSV exports, and shareable insight links are included. Your funder gets the report they will actually read.

Unlock More as You Grow

Your free plan gives you one campaign to get started. As your work grows, Folktale grows with you.

See everything included on each plan: folktale.io/pricing.

Talk to Our Team

If you want to talk through whether Folktale is right for your organisation, our team is available to help.

Get in touch at folktale.io/contact.

🎉 Ready to give it a go?

Start with one question. You do not need a perfect plan.

Try it first! See what the community is really telling you. 😊