Throughout her career as a nonprofit executive, award-winning executive producer and producer/director, broadcast programmer, curator, teacher, and writer, Cara has championed the leadership role of artists in society, and worked to harness the power of cultural...
We have to imagine
a better future
before we can build it.
Storytellers don’t make change happen by themselves but change doesn’t happen without them. IRIS weaves together the imagination of independent storytellers, the expertise of narrative practitioners and the wisdom of the communities overcoming injustice.
IRIS’ story-centered initiatives build networks and gathering spaces internationally to exchange knowledge, share strategy and build skills in storytelling and narrative shift to benefit communities. By identifying content that speaks to local realities in universal terms and seeding unexpected collaborations, we expand reach and diversify audiences for creative, story-centered solutions.
Build with us
Explore
If you’re a storyteller
focused on communities, justice and power-building, we don’t have an open call for funding at this time but we want to get to know your work for that moment when the right opportunity emerges.
If you’re a civic leader
or other innovator, get to know our work and our world: check out our favorite projects, take a look at our narrative blog, and keep in touch through our newsletter.
If you’re a funder
IRIS can help weave independent storytellers, journalists and narrative strategists into your strategies, introducing powerful skills to supercharge your progress.
The Narrative
Directory
A tool for building narrative power
The Narrative Directory is a co-created international resource to support those using storytelling and narrative strategies to drive progressive change.
connect
with storytellers
Use the category filters, freeform search or browse the entire dataset.
Use the geovisualizer to see the big picture
Explore where initiates are active and discover gaps in the ecosystem.
Contribute to the directory’s dataset
Submit a new entry, correct an existing one or tell us what’s missing.
Safer
Storytellers
How can we strengthen safety and security resources for visual storytellers and journalists?
This study looks into the safety and security needs, resources and environment of visual storytellers and journalists, with a focus on independent documentary filmmakers. The study was commissioned by IRIS and the Ford Foundation out of a concern that while there are significant threats to the safety of visual storytellers and journalists, few safety and protection resources are available to them particularly in emergency situations.
Read the
Blog
Funding Narrative Ecosystems: The Highlights
Among the narratives that govern philanthropy, the most paradoxical is that a sector with so much abundance chooses to operate with a scarcity mindset. Discover how funders can counter this narrative in how we do our work. In Philea’s “How philanthropy can fund the infrastructure for narrative...
Digging out from Narrative Collapse
“The collapse of narrative is as much about a crisis of connection as anything else - we don’t know who or what to believe because we don’t know where we belong.” In a widely viewed TedX talk back in 2009, Tyler Cowen urged his audience to be suspicious of stories. Cowen’s advice came in the...
A Safe Space to Share Everything: Redefining Success and Celebrating Interdependence
By GIPA Co-coordinator Michelle Plascencia Edited by Mia Deschamps, IRIS In May 2023, Global Impact Producers Alliance (GIPA) hosted a two-day, two-timezone Virtual Assembly for the community of impact practitioners to connect, learn, grow and more than anything: create a Safe Space to Share...
Founding & Project
Funders
©2024 IRIS