Caring Across Generations

A national organizing network that seeks to change how care is provided through “transform[ing] cultural norms and narratives about aging, disability and care; win[ning] policy change at every level; and unit[ing] a powerful coalition across the millions of us who are touched by care”.


Their report, The Importance of Building Narrative and Cultural Power: A Culture Change Primer is an excellent resource - especailly about understanding how cultural change is related to powerbuilding. 

Also, check out this interview with their leader, Ai-jen Poo, in Ms. Magazine about how Caring Across Generations and their partners made Care a key election in the 2024 presidential election. She says "I think what we’re seeing now is the first time in an election campaign that this is an issue where it’s seen as politically important to be connecting with voters and their everyday concerns around the cost of care and the challenges of having access to care. It’s squarely in the political campaign debate in a way that is also unprecedented. " This campaign is a great case-study of how narrative strategy can be used to win material changes. 

The Center for Cultural Power

“An artist-centered cultural strategy organization” that “activates and mobilizes artists to envision a world in which cultural, economic, and political power are distributed equitably and where all human beings can live in harmony with nature”

The Center for Story-Based Strategy

A strategy organization that “cultivates imagination spaces where story, grassroots leadership, organizing, and democracy are interwoven strategies to build power”.

The Center for Story-Based Strategy partners with grassroots organizations/frontline groups - and one of their strengths is how they make narrative strategy really accessible to community members involved in organizing. 

Check out their resources - they make all their tools and trainings accessible on their website. It's easy to understand and you can work through their frameworks with your organizing committee today. 

Fandom Forward

A small grassroots organization that organizes fans “by making activism more accessible and sustainable”.

Their "Save Our Progress" Campaign for the 2024 election cycle has Invited grassroots creative actions from their niche constituency to expand who is involved in electoral activism. It's a great example of a narrative strategy for a really specific community.

The Frameworks Institute

A think-tank organization that applies “social science methods to study how people understand social issues – and how best to frame them” to shape effective communications and cultural content. They collaborate with story-tellers, organizations, and coalitions to change how people think and talk about important issues.

Frameworks has been researching effective frames on important issues for a long while, and use a Strategic Frame Analysis to help shape stories. They have an immense library of reports as well as information organized by issue, and a set of tools to learn about framing. 

The Highlander Center

Both a center of historical importance and an organization that continues to support leadership of the most impacted and supports “grassroots organizing and movement-building in Appalachia and the South”.

Highlander has been trying new experiments in cultural organizing, and because of their longstanding role and expertise in movement leadership development, they have some amazing resources and trainings about what cultural organizing is and how to do it. For organizations wanting to build an arts and cultural production tactical approach to their organizing, Highlander is the first place to start. 

Look Loud!

A small consultancy that supports organizing groups to  take “control of their own media narratives,” through developing “action art, tactics and cultural strategy… to speak precisely and powerfully” with their target audiences.

It's worth a look through their Instagram feed to see how good they make actions look. How do they do it? Check out their Rally Staging Guide and posts like this one about how to make effective signs. 

Check out this interview with Rachel and Josh published in the Forge. 

Narrative Initiative

A strategy organization that collaborates “with social movements to transform deeply held beliefs and values to make equity and justice the foundations of multiracial democracy”

The Narrative Observatory @ Harmony Labs

A research-based non-profit that “provides narrative and cultural strategists tools … along with industry-grade data infrastructure to understand audiences relative to their place in culture; to identify, measure, and track narratives within audiences over long time scales; and to surface audience-specific story opportunities and threats.”

Audience is such an important part of narrative strategy work - and The Narrative Observatory @ Harmony Lab's audience quadrant model is an excellent framework for understanding audience. Rather than dive people firmly into fixed group, the model places audiences on a graph, allowing for there to be in-betweens in many directions. The model also highlights how some narratives might work great with our core constituency, but totally fail when we try to talk to other audiences - and this alone makes it worth checking out as you think about audience in your narrative strategy work.

Also important to note is that they use a huge set of media usage data for their research and reports. Meaning, they are tracking not just what people say in a poll but how people interact with media. This methodological difference means they have insights other data might be missing.

Reframe

A research and strategy organization that seeks to “understand narratives across society in real time, gain strategic insight, and forecast arising opportunities to advance just narratives.”

One of their projects is the ThisIsSignals Narrative Report. Here's their 2024 report and you can find past editions on their website. This report is based in a bunch of media data and gives a snapshot at cultural narratives. It is a very useful baseline for organizations engaging in any kind of narrative strategy work. 

Working Families Party

A political party “building out own party on top of the two-party system in the United States,” made up of individual and institutional members that runs, endorses, and supports candidates in order to build accountability to a left-based platform for working class people.

The Working Families Party has been engaging with narrative work in a few ways, some fandom organizing, some targeted media created by and for Black men (like this), and some targeted ways of framing civic engagement volunteering (like this). Unlike other groups on this list, the WFP has a real membership base and moves people at scale - and for this reason, it is an important case study to look at how they are engaging with narrative strategies within their existing infrastructure of canvassing, membership recruitment, leadership development, and coalition building.