Changing the national narrative on poverty.
The Gates Foundation funds impactful work across our country and world. In the US, they recognized a funding need for not only the grassroots, on-the-ground work typical of non-profits, but also a collective effort to shift narratives around poverty in this country.
After selecting 28 non-profit organizations from all over the US to receive 6 figure financial grants, for 14 months they partnered with a dedicated team from Purpose across strategy, measurement, campaigns, and creative to change the national narrative on poverty.
Over the course of the Voices Incubator, our team individually supported each of the 28 non-profit organizations with direct coaching and guidance. A small selection of the over 70 individual support materials I helped make with the creative team for Voices Incubator Participants is shared below.
ACD: Becca Antonucci | AD: Genesis Henriquez / Ricky Altizer | CW: Me
Narrative Change
Changing narratives is what any professional in communications does, it’s our job to create and share stories and information in engaging ways. That’s not as easily understood for small non-profits with limited staff. The early months of the Voices Incubator was spent getting each org to understand what narrative change is, and why it’s an important addition to their grassroots work.
The Voices Creative Toolkit
Non-profit orgs are full of some of the most dedicated and passionate individuals you’ll meet, it takes something special to commit your life’s work to supporting others. That work is also not easy, and can be very mentally draining. Often the draining nature of the work paired with a general lack of communication skills and experience, means much of this hard work is done under the radar.
To address this, and get each of the 28 orgs up to speed on basic communication skills, the dedicated Purpose creative team on Voices developed the below creative tool kit, to serve as a primer on the mass communication skills each org will be developing over the full course of the Voices Incubator. This is a small section of the 100+ page toolkit,
Where’s The Rest?
After 14 months of work, this may not seem like that much content produced, GOOD! That was the whole point. The job of the Purpose team was to support Voices Incubator participants in developing THEIR projects, everything from podcasts to full feature length documentaries premiered on PBS.
Providing that level of individualized support meant countless hours spent in meetings and on calls with participant teams providing feedback, coaching, and direction. Essentially providing each member of the Purpsoe creative team CD experince!