I2I's Heart-2-Heart for the narrative curious, simple yet powerful gratitudes, and a new client!

Hey there,

Welcome to Intention 2 Impact (I2I’s) Heart 2 Heart (H2H) newsletter - where we share what’s on our minds, in our hearts, and up-our-sleeves. This is an archived newsletter from September 2023. Want to read the newsletter in real time? Click here to subscribe!

Happy November! 🍂🦃 Welcome to Intention 2 Impact’s Heart-2-Heart — our monthly newsletter where we share what’s on our mind, in our hearts, and up our sleeves.

We’re hoping to squeeze in a quick Heart-2-Heart before we all succumb to postprandial somnolence.

This month, we’re wondering if anyone has a direct line to Taylor Swift so she can help us with some narrative change work, feeling grateful for the little things, and introducing a new client to the I2I multiverse. Thank you for also being a part of it!

On Our Minds

***Change the narrative, change the world***
In today’s world, one could argue algorithms and influencers are more powerful than policies and policymakers. 😳
Social movements start online before the picket line or voting booth. **That’s why foundations are heavily investing in narrative change as a critical strategy for social change.**
Over the past few years, we’ve been working with our foundation partners to measure, learn from, and evaluate their narrative change efforts. At the end of the day, narrative change is pretty straight forward. All you have to do is bulldoze echo chambers to shift hearts and minds through stories quippy enough to fit in a hashtag — yet powerful enough to change paradigms and uproot systems… easy peasy, lemon squeezy, amiright?
***Insert obnoxious game show buzzer for being extremely wrong.***

Narrative change is hard. Measuring in real-time is even harder. But, we have learned a few things along the way.

Since 2021, Intention 2 Impact has served as the MEL partner for the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative’s Housing Narrative Project. CZI has funded 10 housing advocacy and base-building organizations to collectively shift the narrative so Californians view housing as a basic human right and community issue, rather than a personal problem.

Recognizing that narrative change requires everyone singing the same tune, we led a participatory process to co-create a “Theory of Transformation” that captures individual org’s theories of change. We used the ToT (not to be confused with taters) to co-design shared metrics for measuring progress. Read more about our work with CZI in their recently published case study: Lessons for the Narrative Curious.

Speaking of singing the same tune… we have yet to implement our most recent lesson: the real key to narrative change is weaving it into Taylor Swift lyrics. There’s No Place Like Home (Taylor’s Version).

In Our Hearts

At I2I, gratitude is always in season, and with Thanksgiving in the US next week, giving appreciation is extra top of mind.

We asked I2I core team members to share: “What are 1-2 "unconventional" things you are grateful for this year.” Here’s what made the list this year:

Sahiti: Going from caregiver to best friend to my 3 year old munchkin.
Nina: The safety to make mistakes (and grow from them); rare spontaneous weekends (with the time and freedom to do whatever the heart desires)
Blake: When meetings are canceled; the way the air smells on a chilly autumn morning.
Kathleen: The feeling of my mom's warm cheek on my cheek during a long-awaited hug. And the sound of Toby (my pug) snorting when he eats his kibble.

Collectively, we’re feeling grateful for authentic connection, spaciousness, and life’s simple pleasures.

What “unconventional” things are you feeling thankful for this year? Slide into our inbox and let us know.

Up Our Sleeves

NEW CLIENT SPOTLIGHT 🔦 The Families & Workers Fund 🔦

*Cue DJ Khaled* Anothaaaa one….

I2I is delighted to have just launched a new monitoring, evaluation, and learning (MEL) partnership with The Families and Workers Fund. Started in 2020, the Fund started as an emergency response to the economic turmoil exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic…. and more than three years later, it has quickly evolved to address root causes preventing all people — especially women, people of color, and those without college degrees — from economic stability and upward mobility.

The I2I team is charged with co-creating & implementing a MEL framework for the Fund to measure and learn from the progress of its strategies. Through MEL, we are stoked to contribute to the Fund’s mission to build a more equitable economy that uplifts us all!