When Impact Storytelling Misses the Opportunity for Systems Change
By: Elizabeth Gilbert Kaetzel
As a social impact writer and a trained folklorist, I have relied on the power of storytelling throughout my career. Storytelling can be an effective tool, connecting us more intimately to the communities and causes we care about.
Increasingly, in impact investing and philanthropy there is a marriage of storytelling with impact measurement, now referred to as “impact storytelling.” While traditional impact measurement relies on quantitative metrics, or an “impact by the numbers” approach, impact storytelling allows organizations to point to more qualitative measures- such as stories of entrepreneurial success- to show the scope of impact.
But folklorists know that stories are never just stories. Stories convey messages about what we value, how we see ourselves, and how we see the world. When organizations tell impact stories that prioritize individual successes, they also convey that it is individuals, not systems, that hold the keys to meaningful change.
Underlying the need for impact measurement is a question that permeates much of social impact work: how do we know that WE have had an impact? And how do we share that impact with others?
Organizations want to know whether their time and capital were well spent. How did their dollars directly lead to the success of that entrepreneur? How did that non-profit impact the lives of community youth? How can an organization determine whether its work has been successful? What does success look like, and how much is enough? Whether counting the number of houses built, or asking for stories of the personal economic success of the people who live in those houses, impact organizations still seek to draw a line of cause and effect back to their work.
Stories are never just stories. Stories convey messages about what we value, how we see ourselves, and how we see the world. When organizations tell impact stories that prioritize individual successes, they also convey that it is individuals, not systems, that hold the keys to meaningful change.
Just as stories build the systems we operate in (1), storytelling can also be an effective tool for changing those systems. Ella Saltmarshe says that “When it comes to changing the values, mindsets, rules, and goals of a system, story is foundational.” (2) However, impact storytelling often stops short of this systems-level approach. Impact storytelling is most effective when it points to not only the story of one person or community, but how their story intersects with and challenges larger systems. If the goal is systems change, then the focus has to be less on stories of individual success and more on the collective good we seek for all.
Trabian Shorters’ concept of asset framing (3) is a particularly helpful tool when understanding how impact storytelling can be leveraged for systems change. Asset framing leads with the identity of people and communities, not their circumstances. Shorters suggests that when we shift to asset framing the audience is more likely to associate problems with systems instead of individuals. The focus of asset framing gives the subject agency in their own story without ignoring the real problems that get in the way of them exercising that agency.
Let’s consider an example.
A community lender plans to share several borrower stories as part of their impact report. The lender has an opportunity to frame these stories in the larger system of problems that face their borrowers and center their ultimate goals in the interest of the communities they serve.
Compare these 2 impact statements:
We provide loans to low-income, BIPOC borrowers who struggle to get capital because they have low credit. We help these borrowers get on their feet and become successful.
Vs.
We provide loans to borrowers who have been historically marginalized and excluded by the traditional banking system. By driving capital to these underinvested communities we hope to contribute to their long-term economic success.
The first impact statement is technically true. Many low-wealth, BIPOC borrowers struggle to secure loans from traditional banks due to low credit. However, the statement does not interrogate what systems have led to these circumstances. Even worse, it implies personal fault of the borrowers. The goals of the first statement also end with the lender. The goal is simply to get the borrower financially stable. It is relatively easy to trace this impact from the lender to the borrower.
The 2nd statement leads by highlighting the systemic issues which define the communities they serve. By leading with the system, rather than the characteristics of the individuals, the reader is forced to reckon with their assumptions about the relationship between race and poverty. It is not that the lender loans to BIPOC communities because they inherently struggle with low-credit; it is that due to a long history of racialized capitalism, communities systemically excluded from traditional finance are most commonly BIPOC. The 2nd statement also sets out a goal that immediately decenters their role in its success. It will be impossible to trace any community-wide economic success to a single lender because the problems don’t originate from a single lender.
If impact is measured entirely as individual success, every impact story must convey change that feels individually, rather than collectively, meaningful.
There is almost a freeing feeling to using a systems frame for impact stories, because it relieves pressure from single organizations to solve some of our most entrenched problems. If impact is measured entirely as individual success, every impact story must convey change that feels individually, rather than collectively, meaningful.
By framing impact within a goal of systemic change, stories of both success and struggle show the importance of partnering with communities that face systemic barriers. Even impact stories that aren’t flashy speak to a larger goal of disrupting systems that work against community wellbeing.
Stories have the power to convey impact and create meaningful systemic change. To harness this power, organizations must thoughtfully interrogate their biases and goals. Otherwise, we will continue to see social impact organizations sacrifice large-scale change for the satisfaction of feeling that their contribution is important.
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References:
Rinku Sen, “Systems Language for Narrative Power”. Narrative Initiative (June 16, 2021).
Ella Saltmarshe, “Using Story to Change Systems,” Stanford Social Innovation Review (February 20, 2018).
Trabian Shorters, ‘You Can’t Lift People Up by Putting Them Down’: How to Talk About Tough Issues of Race, Poverty, and More, Chronicle of Philanthropy (2019).
