Narrative Initiative

Activities

The organization claims to advocate for shifting the “values and beliefs” of Americans in a left-of-center direction through communications training and advocacy programs. ¹ It promotes an advocacy model based on storytelling and narratives that engages audiences on emotional rather than logical levels. ³ The Narrative Initiative provides training and educational opportunities for left-of-center activists in areas involving public relations messaging. It also organizes advocacy working groups on topics such as “Asian American Narrative,” “Health,” “Climate Migration,” and “Rural Democracy.” ⁴

The organization connects professional political and public relations professionals with local activists to promote left-of-center advocacy changes. It operates localized workshop programs and conducts national webinars for national and international experts instruct local activist on framing stories in order to sell policy positions. In 2019, the Narrative Initiative claimed to have interviewed more than 120 “narrative change-makers and researcher.” ⁵

In 2017, Narrative Initiative conducted a project called, “Catalyzing Narrative Changes in the States” a state-by-state project for what the organization claimed was studying “authoritarian populism across the country,” with the first state focused on being Minnesota. ⁶

By 2020, the group started another initiative called the “Strategy for the Next Economy,” in order to promote climate and green energy policy such as the development of alternative power sources such as solar panels. In addition, the group claimed to have observed economy policy in order to address issues concerning climate change and income inequality. It further claimed it was interviewing scholars around the world and researching literature on the subject. ⁷

Convergence Partnership Report

In 2022, the Narrative Initiative was commissioned by Convergence Partnership to produce a report designed to encourage left-of-center donors to coordinate and focus their funding of left-wing efforts to create “narrative change.” ⁸ Several organizations that make up the Convergence Partnership includes the California Endowment, the Chicago Community Trust, the Community Foundation for Greater Buffalo, Conrad N. Hilton Foundation, Elevated Chicago, the Health Forward Foundation, the Foundation for Louisiana, the Kansas Health Foundation, the Kresge Foundation, the Sierra Health Foundation, and the W. K. Kellogg Foundation. ⁹

Leadership

Rinku Sen is the executive director of the Narrative Institute as of 2024. She previously served as the executive director of Race Forward. In addition, she has previously worked for PolicyLink, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), and the Ford Foundation. She sits on the board of journalism advocacy group Center for Investigative Reporting (CIR) and the Ms. Foundation, and was previously on the board of the Women’s March. ^{10 11} Sen was a guest speaker during an online webinar titled “#RaceAnd the Way Forward: Racial Justice After the 2024 Elections” hosted by self-described “racial equity organization” Race Forward on November 13, 2024. The webinar claimed to discuss the “next steps for the racial justice movement” following former president Donald Trump winning reelection in the 2024 Presidential Elections. ¹² Other speakers included Rukia Lumumba, the founder of left-of-center activist group People’s Advocacy Institute; and Ashleigh Gardere, the president of advocacy group PolicyLink. ¹²

Rachel Weidinger is the program director for the Narrative Initiative. She previously founded the ocean conservation group  Upwell, where she served as its executive director. She further worked at Monson Arts. ¹³

Shannon Hynes is the operations program manager with the group. She was previously a program associate with the California Community Foundation and was previously a legislative aide in the New York State Assembly. ¹³

Alexis McGill Johnson was a previous board member for Narrative Initiative. During this time, she served as acting president of Planned Parenthood Federation of America. ¹⁴

Advisory Board

Narrative Initiative has a four-member advisory board. Its members are Alvin Starks of the Open Society Foundations, former William and Flora Hewlett Foundation communications director Eric Brown, Race Forward vice president Jeff Chang, and Democratic Party operative and communications strategist Kristen Grimm of Spitfire Strategies. ¹⁵

Funding

The Atlantic Philanthropies launched the Narrative Initiative in 2016 with a $25 million grant to New Venture Fund over four years. ¹⁶ That same year, the Ford Foundation announced a $5 million grant in support of the Narrative Initiative over the same time frame. ¹⁷

As a project of the New Venture Fund, the Narrative Initiative does not publicly report its budgets or disclose its donors. However, a number of major left-of-center foundations and other donors have publicly announced their support for Narrative Initiative, including the Open Society Foundations, ¹⁸ the Henry Luce Foundation, ¹⁹ the Democracy Fund, ²⁰ the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, ²¹ the Andrus Family Fund, ²² the Meyer Foundation, ²³ Unbound Philanthropy, ²⁴ and the James Irvine Foundation. ²⁵