By finding the narrative that drives change, we can get to the heart of successful campaigning. It requires clarity of purpose, clarity of process, and perseverance. Doing this work across a coalition is even more ambitious. In this brief blog, we harvest the insights from the two Narrative Power Collaboration Initiatives supported by Fenomenal Funds.
About the Collaboration Initiatives
The two Collaboration Initiatives grew from preexisting coalitions and evolved after the Collaboration Labs had been concluded. As a result, they had shorter time periods for their work. One of the initiatives supported the Alliance of Women’s and Feminist Funds of Latin America and the Caribbean to document their story and define and shape the narrative of their contribution to the region and beyond. The other initiative, On the Right Track (OTRT), brought together three European funds and two Latin American funds. These partners worked together for the past five years to shape narratives toward the expansion of democracy and the opposition of fundamentalisms, fake news, and hate speech.
Insights from the Collaboration Initiatives
The two Collaboration Initiatives had quite distinct objectives, and yet there are some common elements that offer useful insights for organizations and networks considering collaborative work on narratives.
Insight 1: Collaborative Narratives Support Multiple Organizational Outcomes
Narratives are commonly understood in a campaigning context, yet in reality, they can serve a diverse range of organizational outcomes. In our context, the Collaboration Initiatives were exploring collaborations to align messaging to support effective campaigning (OTRT), control the production of historical accounts of work (the Alliance), drive more effective resource mobilization (the Alliance), and strengthen internal organizational processes (both).
Insight 2: Clarity Is a Key Driver of Success
While other organizational infrastructure collaborations can—and do—operate successfully with quite flexible objectives, this did not seem to be the case for the collaborations focused on narratives. Both of the Collaboration Initiatives flagged that it is vital to have clarity on the messages to be delivered. They reflected that finding this common ground takes time and care, deep listening, and compromise.
Insight 3: Adapting a Narrative to Better Reach a Specific Target Is Hard Work
Very often, a narrative change project will involve reframing a previously agreed narrative to better reach a specific audience or to respond to a changing context. This is both inherently political and deeply challenging, whether the work is being done by internal actors or with the support of external consultants. Keeping the end goal in sight can help members deprioritize the issues they care about in the context of their alliance (as can the knowledge that letting the issue go in the collaborative space does not require them to let it go in their own organizational work). Trust, power sharing, and collective decision-making are the foundations of making this work.
Insight 4: Narrative Collaboration Can Strengthen Internal Process
A strengthening of internal processes is a positive side effect of the work required to align on common narratives. Deliberative discussions across a broader range of actors within the coalitions have the capacity to deepen relationships and consolidate an understanding of the purpose of the coalition among members. Participants in the Collaboration Initiatives reflected that the joint work had strengthened the clarity and speed of strategic decision-making across a range of functions, from strategy to resource mobilization.
Insight 5: Trust Transforms
Forming trust is a powerful part of the process. OTRT recognized its positive effect: “[The] really transformative power of trust that Fenomenal Funds showed to the funds then transferred to our partners…. They keep telling us that when this genuine atmosphere of trust is established, so many things are happening without fear of being monitored and controlled all the time, and people are relaxed and doing so much better. So many amazing things are happening. It’s really important, despite everything, to keep believing in each other and trusting each other from a very genuine place.”
Insight 6: Narratives Deliver Results
Both of the Collaboration Initiatives identified positive impacts within their coalitions from the alignment of shared narratives. These included successful resource mobilization pitches as well as sharpening collective strategy and honing communications and messaging to advance political objectives.
Insights for Donors
The two Collaboration Initiatives reflected on key insights for donors interested in supporting narrative collaborations:
- Resourcing collaborations isn’t just about funding activities; it’s about investing in the relationship and trust building that enables impactful and meaningful work.
- Regranting is necessary to enable work to be resourced across collaboratives.
- Supporting cross-regional collaboration through a model that centers trust and equity reduces competition and enhances collective impact
The Fenomenal Funds approach of collaborating is supporting the interconnectedness of struggles and the collaboration that is required to lift everyone. It is clear that while collaborating on narratives requires careful and skilled navigation, the power of landing a shared narrative that meets multiple needs can be powerful indeed.