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.

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Briefs / Reports
2024

In 2023, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation worked with ORS Impact to conduct an evaluation to understand progress during the 117th Congress on three federal policies: the Advance Premium Tax Credit (APTC), the Child Tax Credit (CTC), and closing the Medicaid coverage gap. This brief summarizes what we did and what we learned about: (1) collecting and analyzing data, (2) developing and testing hypotheses, and (3) reporting to conduct process tracing on the three policies. The primary audience for this brief is the evaluation field, particularly evaluators considering applying process tracing to a policy advocacy evaluation. Our hope is that sharing our approach and lessons learned can make it easier for others to implement this method with high quality for other advocacy and policy change evaluations.

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Working Papers
2024

While the strategic use of narrative change has become increasingly widespread, the underlying mechanisms by which narrative change is important for social change remain unclear. Why narrative change, and for what ultimate purpose? How does narrative change relate to systems change? This working paper delves into the building blocks or components of narrative change, including stories, narratives, mindsets, paradigms, and culture, and examines their interrelationship as part of cultural and systems change.

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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.

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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.

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