Moving forward with the Narrative Infrastructure work

Written by Sian Williams, UK Portfolio — The National Lottery Community Fund

Narratives have the power to change heart and minds. They are the overarching ideas and themes that guide us, shape our culture, and help us make sense of the world. They are also a critical ingredient in effecting transformational change, helping to underpin and guide the behaviour of the system. Yet, efforts around narrative work in the not-for-profit sector are falling short of what is needed to tackle society’s urgent challenges.

There has been a tendency to focus on individual stories and individual perspectives, while campaigns have often been driven by the pursuit of short-term goals. A lack of alignment between different stories and causes has also served as a stumbling block for organisations working on narrative strategy.

So, how can we better equip civil society to tell more systemic narratives? A new narrative infrastructure project led by On Road Media, along with researcher Shelley Durrans, is on a mission to find out.

Developing a narrative infrastructure

A question at the heart of this research is “what would it take for narrative change work to have more real-world impact?” Last month, On Road Media brought together a group of funders to share this starting point and to ensure that the work going forward is shaped by, and relevant to funders. The workshop included representatives from the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation (UK Branch), Carnegie UK, City Bridge Trust, Comic Relief, Dulverton Trust, Esmée Fairbairn, Lankelly Chase, Paul Hamlyn Foundation, The National Lottery Community Fund, and Unbound Philanthropy.

Participants were asked to share their organisation’s interest in narrative change work and provide examples of initiatives that they had supported. The discussion revealed the breadth of exciting projects and organisations that have been supported by funders in the UK. While some participants were new to the narrative change space, everyone agreed that this area is an organisational priority. For some, the strategic shift to supporting narrative change work was due to recognition that their communications initiatives were failing to have the desired level of impact.

More than the sum of its parts

The next part of the workshop invited participants to comment on the research outline and reflect on the opportunities and challenges for boosting existing narrative change infrastructure. The group felt that a shared infrastructure would help ensure that narrative change work becomes more than the sum of its parts. There was a desire among participants for greater alignment of narrative initiatives; for a narrative infrastructure “place” that sits across sectors; and to embed narrative change work more strategically.

Reflecting on how funders could work together more effectively, there were calls for the sector to get better at collaboration and sharing learning. Co-funded infrastructure initiatives such as 360Giving and Catalyst were also pointed to as examples of valuable collective endeavours.

Some concerns were raised about how political narrative change work might be, and whether it would be seen as pushing particular agendas. There was also interest in learning from the US narrative infrastructure and what may or may not translate well to a UK context.

“What would it take for narrative change work to have more real-world impact?”

Next steps

Over the coming months, the research team will explore the question above, explore what civil society organisations and practitioners need in this space, and how technology can be better integrated and deployed for greater efficacy. The project will draw on expertise in the UK and the US where the field is more developed (Narrative Initiative, Narrative Observatory and Pop Collab are notable examples). Next steps include mapping the sector, producing a rapid evidence review, developing working definitions, and conducting interviews.

On Road Media has recruited a transatlantic group of expert advisors to guide the research: Rinku Sen, Executive Director, Narrative Initiative (USA); Mandy van Deven, writer, editor and communications strategist (Netherlands); Abigail Scott-Paul, Director of External Relations at Leeds 2023 (UK); Adeela Warley, CEO CharityComms (UK) and Ella Saltmarshe, Co-founder of the Point People and the Long Time Project (UK).

We’ll be sharing insights from the journey as the work develops on our Medium.