A guide for families, individuals and foundations
Narrative Impact Capital
Investing in storytelling, the infrastructure of positive change for people and planet.
Storytelling is infrastructure for social and environmental change, and it is chronically underfunded. This guide explains the evidence and shows families, individuals and foundations how to invest in it, as investors, as philanthropic catalysts, or both.
By Peter M. Lupoff, Partner, Investments & Partnerships, Beatrice Advisors, and Katie Macc, Chief Executive Officer, Sorenson Impact Institute
What does the research say about stories and change?
Two things are happening at once. The science of story has matured, and the erasure of stories has become organized. Stories work as a delivery mechanism for difficult truths, and as a ledger that keeps perspectives alive. Both functions are investable. Both are chronically underfunded.
Stories move norms first, and beliefs follow.
In a yearlong field experiment in Rwanda, villages assigned a reconciliation radio drama showed changed perceptions of social norms and changed behavior, including around intermarriage, open dissent and cooperation. Private beliefs moved little. Randomized field experiments in India, Nigeria and Colombia point the same way.
The audience is there. The financing is not.
People of color make up more than 45 percent of the U.S. population and were the majority of opening-weekend ticket buyers for half or more of the top twenty films in every year since at least 2021. Fewer than five percent of top film directors are women of color, a figure essentially unchanged in twenty years. That is a capital formation problem, not a demand problem.
Stories are being removed on purpose
PEN America has documented nearly 23,000 instances of book bans in American public schools since July 2021, across 45 states. Two states have enacted statewide "no read" lists. Federal datasets and web archives are also being removed or altered.
Each medium does a different job.
Books author the paradigm. Film distributes it at scale to audiences that did not ask for it. Music makes it singable and permanent. Archives keep it alive against deletion. A narrative allocation is built across that chain.
Sources include Paluck, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology (2009); PEN America; USC Annenberg Inclusion Initiative; UCLA Hollywood Diversity Report; U.S. Census Bureau. Full references are in the guide
What is inside the guide?
Twelve sections cover the evidence, the financial case, a framework for choosing where to start, and how to measure results.
01. Introduction
Why storytelling is foundational, and why both of its functions are investable.
02. The evidence
Narrative transportation, field experiments, and how media differ.
03. Whose stories get told
A capital problem, not a demand problem.
04. Understanding your narrative values and objectives
Delivery or ledger. Investor, patron or catalyst.
05. The intentionality spectrum
From public markets to direct participation.
06. Narrative impact areas
Film, documentary, books, music and archives, with a genre-film case study.
07. The erasure clock
The data on book bans and disappearing records.
08. Measuring narrative impact
Co-authored piece distribution and promotion strategy - Claude
09. Field infrastructure, donor-advised funds, first-loss capital and preservation.
Co-authored piece distribution and promotion strategy - Claude
10. Investment implementation
Portfolio construction, risk management and the four Ps of diligence.
11. How you can engage
Entry points for families, individuals and foundations.
12. Building your narrative legacy
What the next generation inherits besides the resources.
Who is this guide for, and how can they take part?
Families, individuals and foundation program officers who want to understand the evidence on storytelling and see where philanthropic and investment capital can participate.
Families and individuals
Market returns alongside impact
Slate and genre funds, direct participation and catalog assets, for those with approved alternatives allocations.
Philanthropy and donor-advised funds
Charitable-route participation, grants to field infrastructure, and endowment of archives and access programs.
Advocacy through relationships
Using board seats and standing in media, publishing and technology to put narrative on agendas.
Foundations
Grants from the charitable budget
Narrative fits education, equity, civic health and free-expression programs.
Program-related investments
Recoverable, payout-eligible investments in documentary funds, emerging-manager vehicles and access programs.
Mission-related investments
Delivery-side vehicles from the endowment where mission alignment is direct.
Narrative impact allocations belong inside prudent portfolio construction: sized appropriately, diversified across projects and functions, and never a substitute for the core portfolio.
Authors
Peter M. Lupoff
Partner, Investments & Partnerships, Beatrice Advisors
Peter brings more than 30 years of investment experience across all asset classes. He sits on Beatrice's Executive Management Team and Investment Committee and oversees client engagement. He launched and managed the Lupoff/Stevens Family Office, and teaches impact investing at the University of California Haas School of Business. He previously taught at Yale School of Management and Fordham University.
Read Peter's full bio
Katie Macc
Chief Executive Officer, Sorenson Impact Institute
Katie oversees the Institute's work connecting capital to social and environmental solutions through impact investing, impact measurement, impact finance and impact strategy. She co-founded the fintech company Juntos Global, which served more than 5 million customers across three continents before Nubank acquired it in 2021, and previously led grantmaking and impact investing at the Dovetail Impact Foundation.
About the Sorenson Impact Institute