Unraveling Deeply Ingrained Narratives in Philanthropy

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In this episode we talk to philanthropy and social change experts Mandy van Deven and Chiara Cattaneo about their work on building and resourcing narrative power within civil society. Including:

• What is narrative power and why is it such an important tool for CSOs?
• Does narrative work tend to focus more on developing narratives that are relevant to cause areas in which philanthropic organisations work, or on developing narratives about the nature and role of philanthropy itself?
• What are the most prevalent narratives about philanthropy that need to be challenged or changed?
• What are the advantages of adopting an ecosystem approach to resourcing narrative work? How can funders support the various actors in the ecosystem to work well together?
• What infrastructure is required to enable CSOs to make the most of narrative as a tool?
• What particular role can foundations play in supporting narrative infrastructure?
• To what extent does developing narrative power require a willingness not to set specific goals/ timescales or to demand attribution of inputs to outcomes? Does this potentially make it harder to resource if funders demand measurability?
• How do you manage the tension between the urgency of issues such as climate breakdown or racial injustice and the fact that narrative work often requires patience and a willingness to work over longer timescales?

Related Links

• Chiara's piece for Alliance  magazine about a session on narrative she and Mandy ran at the 2024 Philea conference.
• Mandy's article for Nonprofit Quarterly (with Jody Myrum) on funding narrative ecosystems.
• Mandy's blog for Philea about the Confluence event in Colombia in 2023
• Chiara's piece on "Social impact storytelling in Southeast Asia"
• Mandy's article on "Philanthropy’s Role in Fortifying the Infrastructure for Narrative Power"
• Mandy's website
• The Elemental project#
• Philanthropisms podcasts with Fozia Irfan, Sara Lomelin, Joshua Amponsem, Martha Awojobi
• WPM article on Radical Philanthropy
• WPM article on language, philanthropy and civil society