Over the last few weeks, we have shared our belief that narrative resilience is the key competency for nonprofit organizations to build in the current climate. In this article, we demonstrate some examples where we see the glaring need for it in action.
In one of the most high-profile recent policy conflicts, the value of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) has been publicly questioned, leading to its temporary suspension, and ongoing questions about additional work requirements for previously exempt recipients. Although funds are now flowing again, serious damage has been done to the public perception of this important safety net for many of our elderly or disabled community members, or those not being paid a living wage for their work.
Below are a couple of common narratives hostile to SNAP programs, and others like it. They are followed by our narrative resilience recommendations for how to build counter-narratives to effectively resist messaging that denigrates our community members and cedes the power of social safety nets.
Hostile Narrative #1:
“I’m sick of subsidizing their groceries when mine cost so much.”
Why it Works: This narrative trick pits us versus them, creating an immediate, natural pull among the audience to identify where they stand. It also inherently links to deeply held collective but often unexamined beliefs about who qualifies as deserving.
Standard SNAP Talking Point: SNAP benefits are used to cover basic costs, feeding families, the elderly, or disabled members of our community. Approximately 12% of the US population relies on them.
Downside: By mentioning the three categories of people who most often benefit from SNAP, we actually play into the narrative frames used by hostile actors by inadvertently answering who we believe is deserving of help: young children, the elderly and people who are disabled. This information is true, but not necessarily helpful, and can actually be harmful in that it focuses attention on vulnerability.
Offer a Completely New Frame: Consider using communications that offer snapshots of what people buy with SNAP benefits: breakfast for a family of four on a school and work day; ingredients to make a birthday cake; basic cleaning supplies needed to maintain a home, etc. Showing people a different version of the story helps them step out of the cycle defined by the hostile narratives.
Hostile Narrative #2:
We need to ensure that people are “genuinely disabled” and “literally vulnerable.”
Why it Works: People are often drawn to rules—whether to enforce them or break them—partly because they are easy to point to and change, while increasing income inequality and social inequity is multifaceted and complex to resolve. The logic of both political parties’ rhetoric around SNAP has been focused on qualification for benefits, which inadvertently feeds into another related hostile narrative of “waste” and “fraud” in social services support like SNAP.
Standard SNAP Talking Point: Current recipients already go through regular processes—some as often as every 4 months—to ensure they still qualify for benefits. There are very low levels of fraud documented.
Downside: Again, this information is true, but it is dry, bureaucratic and doesn’t speak to the living, breathing human beings impacted, for whom we want our audiences to feel empathy—sharing an emotional experience—a feeling of concern that maybe requalification requirements are already too onerous.
Offer a Completely New Frame: Lean into vignettes or stories about what can be done with SNAP benefits that wouldn’t be possible without them. Extra points if you can focus on themes that are understood as basic rites of passage in everyday American life. For example: a hearty homemade lunch for a student, the relief of a midday snack in the midst of a grueling day of work, or an individual grocery shopping to buy food for the week. By showing what is possible with SNAP and how it advances the American dream that encompasses all of us, you are more likely to shift the audience’s attention and spark action.
Takeaways for Impact
Effectively addressing these hostile narratives means not only correcting mistaken public understanding fed by the misinformation of regressive actors, but also requires organizations to lean into what we know about compelling social change communications when crafting messaging to address that misinformation. Your organization can work to build narrative resilience into your communications by remembering the following:
- Although communicating factual information is essential, relying on fact-based logic to convince people is often not enough. Communications that elicit emotional reactions, and particularly those that adopt narrative elements through storytelling, are known to be significantly more effective. By taking this approach, you ensure that your audience remembers your messaging longer because they have made a personal connection with it.
- Communications that prompt behavioral change avoid repeating the language used in the hostile narratives—even when showing that it is incorrect or inhumane. Studies show that just by repeating your opponents’ language, it becomes more likely that audiences will adopt it, thereby weakening their own reflective capacity to think through the critiques and counter-messaging your nonprofit is sharing. For resilient narratives, don’t be taken in by the opposition’s framing—instead, propose a new way of thinking about the topic that highlights the values and key takeaways that support your cause.
- How you communicate narrative justice is always evolving, according to the circumstances and current attacks on equity. Be sure that as you are shifting your messaging, you are always running it through a narrative justice lens, to insist that while moving quickly, you’re covering all the bases necessary to deploy thoughtful, effective, and equitable messaging. This will ensure that while you are evolving, you are not opening your organization up to the additional risk of losing trust among your key audiences who already align with your values.
The attacks on basic support for members of our communities will not stop. If anything, they are likely to grow. Nonprofits need to take into account the hostile narratives that are breaking down the ability of undecided audience members to consider siding with social change.
The Wakeman Agency’s Narrative Resilience Program for nonprofits helps build this invaluable strategic communications competency to ensure the ability to withstand the current challenges and advance social change, toward a better, more equitable future.
If you are uncertain about how to strengthen your organization’s capacity to deploy resilient narratives, or if you fund organizations that could benefit from developing this skill set, reach out for a confidential, exploratory conversation.