If you think about narrative work like tending a garden, you might agree that too often, funders rush in gardening when the weeds have already taken over — when harmful, dividing narratives have rooted themselves deeply in the public consciousness, choking off trust in civil society and giving cover to repression. In those moments, the temptation is to fight the weeds directly, hacking and spraying in a desperate attempt to reclaim lost ground. But real change comes from planting early, nurturing the soil, and cultivating a healthy ecosystem that can withstand storms over the long term.
Narratives are like that: they need time, care, and the right conditions to grow strong enough to shape public imagination. And as funders, we have a choice. Will we continue to respond only when crises hit? Or will we invest in the slow, patient work of growing transformative narratives that can truly build trust, legitimacy, and support for independent and peaceful civil society to pursue their missions.
A new study published by the Trust, Accountability and Inclusion Collaborative ‘The Stories We Tell’ offers insights into how funders and civil society actors can develop and disseminate effective narratives that build legitimacy, bridge divisions, and counter authoritarian efforts.
Key Recommendations for Funders in the study focus on how funders can start planting narrative seeds rather than chasing weeds – for the detailed list of recommendations please read the full study here:
A Bigger Story Is Needed
Narratives focused solely on civil society are unlikely to resonate broadly. Instead, civil society actors should be part of a larger, value-driven narrative that reflects collective aspirations for justice, belonging, and dignity. Thus, funders should build civil society actors’ ongoing capability to develop and disseminate narratives.
Support Community-Rooted Storytelling
Narratives resonate when they connect to people’s lived realities. Support and connect with local messengers—faith leaders, artists, teachers, youth organizers—who hold trust in their communities and can carry messages in authentic ways.
Encourage Invitational, Not Polarizing, Narratives
Avoid funding approaches that fuel “us versus them” dynamics. Instead, back narratives that bridge divides, listen deeply, and create a sense of belonging—even across political differences.
Fund Research and Foresight
Support audience research, narrative mapping, and scenario planning so civil society isn’t always playing catch-up. Anticipate emerging threats and opportunities rather than reacting after the fact.
Align Internal Practices with Narrative Goals
Funders must “be the narrative” too. That means modeling transparency, trust, and collaboration in their own grantmaking. If funders want grantees to work across silos, take risks, and think long-term, funders need to provide core, long-term support toward shared story frameworks rooted in values like dignity, solidarity, and justice.
Why Traditional Funding Approaches Fall Short
Too often, narrative work is funded reactively—after the attacks, the smear campaigns, the legal restrictions have begun. The focus is on countering toxic messages rather than cultivating alternative visions rooted in empathy, belonging, and justice.
But fighting fire with fire rarely works. Research and lived experience show that repeating false narratives—even to refute them—can inadvertently strengthen them. It’s like stepping into quicksand: the more you struggle on the opponent’s terms, the deeper you sink.
Civil society leaders told us that what’s missing is not creativity or courage, but the time and resources to build long-term narrative power. Short-term, project-based funding leaves organizations stuck in a cycle of crisis response, unable to invest in the infrastructure, partnerships, and research needed to shift culture over time.
If we want narratives that change hearts and minds, funders must rethink not only what we support, but how we support it.
The Collective Journey Framework: Partnership Over Prescription
One of the strongest messages we heard in our research is that funders cannot script the story for civil society. Too often, grantmaking comes with pre-set narratives or messaging frameworks developed far from the communities they’re meant to reach.
But effective narratives grow from the ground up. They emerge when people closest to the challenges — and to the audience intended to reach — come together to imagine and articulate the future they want. That requires trust, listening, and collaboration.
As one expert put it, “If you tell people ‘We are on the Titanic, do you want to join us?’ of course no one will want to join.” Narratives built on fear and urgency may mobilize briefly, but they rarely inspire the sustained solidarity we need.
Instead, we need invitational narratives—stories that help people see themselves in a larger “us,” that connect across divides, that root big ideals like democracy and human rights in the everyday concerns of communities. And that kind of narrative work only happens through partnership.
Infrastructure Over Intervention
If there’s one thing we can learn from authoritarian actors, is that they invest for the long term. They fund media platforms, youth movements, cultural influencers, and digital tools that slowly but surely shift public attitudes.
Too much of the social justice funding, by contrast, focuses on short-term campaigns or rapid-response messaging. We underinvest in the narrative equivalent of irrigation systems, seed banks, and farmer cooperatives — the infrastructure that allows ideas to grow, spread, and adapt over time.
What does narrative infrastructure look like? It includes:
Research and audience insights to understand values, fears, and aspirations.
Networks and coalitions that share learning and align on broader story arcs.
Cultural work—arts, music, film—that carries narratives into hearts and homes.
Training and capacity building so civil society groups can “be the narrative” in how they organize, communicate, and collaborate.
Holistic protection mechanism – to provide digital, physical, psychosocial protection and solidarity to activists.
Funders should consider moving from episodic interventions to ecosystem-building. That means multi-year, flexible funding that supports experimentation, reflection, and adaptation.
A Call to Action
The garden of public imagination is always growing something. If we don’t plant and tend the seeds of justice, solidarity, and hope, others will sow division, fear, and mistrust.
As funders, we have more power than we realize to shape the narrative ecosystem in which civil society operates. But that power comes with responsibility: to move beyond crisis response, beyond short-term fixes, and toward the patient, collective work of culture change.
The question is not whether narratives will shape the future of civil society. They already are. The question is: will we help to grow the ones that make dignity, equity, belonging flourish?