Our Knowledge, Resources & Publications

We are always learning through our work, and we seek to accelerate change more broadly by sharing our frameworks, approaches, and lessons learned.

Feature BRIEF

When the Best Offense is a Good Defense


2019

We talked to advocates and funders to better understand how they think about advocacy on the defense. We wanted to understand whether it was a distinct category of work and the degree to which there were useful frameworks and tools for evaluating it.

Download
 
 

Data pager
Data pager
 Item 5 to 8 of 67
Page:of 17 GoItems Per Page
 
Data pager
Data pager
 Item 5 to 8 of 67
Page:of 17 GoItems Per Page
Briefs / Reports
2024

Narrative change has become an increasingly widespread approach among those seeking social change. What is narrative change, how do narratives change, and what is the role of narrative change in social change? What makes narratives resonant, what does it take to change narratives, and what types of change are relevant to narrative strategies? This report explores these questions through a review of the academic and gray literature on social movements, narrative persuasion, and storytelling for social change.

Download
Briefs / Reports
2024

Spearheaded by the Million Voters Project (MVP), this report assesses the state of narrative infrastructure within California’s power building ecosystem and identifies key priorities for growing narrative power from the ground up to advance racial justice and social change. Through research engaging power builders and other experts, the report contains ideas and recommendations for strengthening narrative infrastructure and building transformative power for progressive change.

Download
Frameworks
2023

Successfully addressing vital social issues—like the movement for racial justice and addressing climate crises—requires large-scale initiatives that address equity, complexity, and systems. By understanding how systems changes are occurring, social change actors can see the full spectrum of change that is possible, and gain vital knowledge for strategic development, and ultimately drive more powerful results. In this update to Impact, Influence, Leverage, and Learning (I2L2), we offer ways of grouping systems change outcomes and helpful ways of thinking about complex social change work.

Download
Articles
2022

From 2019–2022, the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities carried out a Safety Net Initiative (SNI). SNI supported state advocates and their partners to pursue two broad aims: (1) to protect and strengthen economic security policies, and (2) to strengthen short- and longer-term capacity around equitable advocacy practices and narrative change efforts. ORS Impact worked with advocates in Washington State—to write a case study that tells the story of their efforts to advance equitable advocacy capacity and an equitable tax code.

Download