After Philanthropy: Kataly’s November 2025 Newsletter

9 min readNov 24, 2025

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As a reminder, Kataly’s bi-monthly newsletter responds to reader submitted questions about the confusing world of philanthropy. Submit a question for a future issue here.

This month’s question: Why does nobody fund communications if everyone’s on social?

Why does no one fund communications?

This question is framed very broadly, so I am going to take some liberties with my answer.

“Why does no one fund communications” is basically my origin story for why I work in philanthropy. And to be sure there is nuance here: there are foundations who fund communications and who do so effectively and strategically. But it would not be hyperbole to say that they are the exception, not the rule.

One caveat — strategic communications and narrative power building are connected, and are not the same. Strategic communications is a process of creating messages, stories, frames, and other tactics to achieve a goal. Narrative power “refers to the ability to shape and control the stories told within a society, including which ones are told, who tells them, and how they are interpreted.” For the purpose of this particular newsletter, I am going to focus on the (lack of) funding for narrative power building.

To maintain some semblance of brevity, I’ll focus on two interrelated reasons why narrative is underfunded: 1) a prevailing narrative around scarcity within philanthropy, and 2) the dominant belief among many funders that they have more expertise in this arena than their grantees. [Mandy Van Deven and I write more in-depth on this topic in our chapter in Liberation Stories: Building Narrative Power for 21st Century Social Movements, edited by Shanelle Matthews, Marzena Zukowska, and the Radical Communicators Network.]

Let’s start with scarcity. Philanthropy is governed by a politic of scarcity, the belief that resources are scarce (though I would hardly call $1.7 trillion scarce) and must be used judiciously to maximize results. One of the consequences of this belief is the practice of funders “dipping their toe” in the waters of narrative, making small grants and then waiting to see big results.

For years and years, funders have project support-ed narrative infrastructure organizations to death. Groups have had to piece together funding, bit by bit, focusing on short-term projects that, by their nature, brought about short-term results. And now, funders lament that our movements are woefully behind on narrative. This is a self-fulfilling prophecy. Changing narratives is not a 1 year, 3 year, or 5 year project; it is generational. If we want to see long-term change in this area, there needs to be long-term, at scale funding. To be specific, that means millions (or billions).

A scarcity mindset in funding is also part of what feeds into the idea that funders know best when it comes to narrative. A lack of meaningful investment in skills building, capacity, staffing, relationship development, gathering, network weaving, and more within social movements leads to a less robust bench of narrative leaders. When funders see this gap, they rush to fill it themselves, establishing funder-driven initiatives. The answer is not for funders to fill the gap with their own ideas, but for funders to resource the ecosystem in such a way that there is a deep bench of narrative practitioners with the expertise to win.

A few additional thoughts:

Part of the issue is about WHO the money goes to. Funders tend to put resources towards trickle-down messaging and narrative projects led by think tanks, institutes, and firms who lack meaningful connections to communities impacted by injustice. Grassroots communicators have changed the narrative through movements like #MeToo, Black Lives Matter, and many others; it’s past time for funders to deeply invest in their narrative power-building work.
Relationships are essential to all power-building work, and narrative is no exception. For people to work together on narrative strategy, they need time and space to build durable relationships and connections; to engage in principled struggle, to disagree, to challenge each other, and to collaborate.
Ask your grantees who they learn from when it comes to both strategic communications and narrative strategy. Inquire about the spaces where they grow their skills, and invest in those spaces. That investment could look like capacity building offerings for grantees, but ideally is ALSO general support for organizations that strengthen the entire movement ecosystem. This is a model used by Kataly’s capacity building team: funding programming and offerings for our grantees, and infrastructure for movement ecosystems, as we recognize that our grantees are able to do their work more effectively when their movement partners are also well-resourced and stronger overall.
Resist the desire to duplicate initiatives. There are many funder learning communities to join if you want to learn more about narrative, and how to fund it. Kataly has recently joined the funder learning and action cohort for the Beloved Economies Collaborative for Narrative Infrastructure.
Interrogate your role as a funder in narrative projects. We are resource stewards, but it is not for us in philanthropy to set the narrative agenda of social movements.

Despite having a dearth of resources, social movements punch above their weight, contending for narrative power, disrupting dominant narratives, and seeding new liberatory narratives that tell a story of a world filled with possibility. Imagine what these brilliant narrative strategists could do with resources that matched the scale of their vision.

Zaineb Mohammed, Director of Communications

A non-exhaustive list of resources:

For the next issue of our newsletter, please share a question with us. Ask us anything about philanthropy — how it works, why we make certain decisions — and we’ll do our best to answer as transparently as possible.

Cooperation Racine

An architectural rendering of a lively cityscape at 1201 W 71st Street. Green street signs indicate the central intersection: “W. 71st St.” and “S. Racine Av.” Despite having 7-lanes, the intersection is pedestrian-friendly with dedicated bike space and traffic-calming measures, such as sidewalk planters doubling as bollards. The building is comprised of three sections, each with roof-mounted solar panels. Rendering by DAAM, LLC.

As the season’s abrupt, first snowfall mushes sidewalk leafpack beneath our feet, Cooperation Racine, LWCA reflects, not only on the weight of uncertainty, but how to collectively shoulder it. For example, with the recent shift to Standard Time, we asked our community about the generative or restorative potential with these earlier hours of darkness. From tea rituals to a designated “no doomscrolling” couch, to resuming a postcard writing practice, folks are seeking and creating moments of grounding.

Indeed, after a full season of commissioned art fabrication, Park District and Public Library programs, Harvest Seasoning seed-sharing, and screenprinting pop-ups, we are poised to deepen our commitment to cooperative economics in Chicago’s South Side, with the launch of The Regenerative Retirement Program in 2026. During the next three years, over 2,000 Englewood residents and creatives will receive knowledge and tools to foster economic resilience–including enrollment in Roth IRAs with Just Futures–and redirect capital into enterprises that benefit their neighborhoods.

We stay grounded in this work by consistently sharing time and space. A mere four months into our 30+ member Community of Praxis gatherings and folks are imagining actionable scenarios of activating shipping containers as creative spaces, to provide proof of concept and meet an immediate material need, while capital campaign fundraising continues for our permanent Creative Hub (see photo). What other shifts might we (better) weather together? Let us know at partnerships@cooperationracine.com

Miss Major Alexander L. Lee TGIJP Black Trans Cultural Center

From left to right: TGIJP Co-Executive Director zy’aire nassirah, CEO Janetta Johnson, and Co-Founder Miss Major Griffin-Gracy seated, holding hands, and smiling on a couch in TGIJP’s Black Trans Cultural Center in May 2024. Photo credit: TGIJP.

Miss Major Alexander L. Lee TGIJP Black Trans Cultural Center’s mission is to challenge and end the human rights abuses committed against Transgender, gender-variant, and intersex (TGI) people, particularly against Black and Black/brown Trans people inside and outside California prisons, jails, detention centers, and beyond. TGIJP (Trans-Gender Variant and Intersex Justice Project) is a local, state, and national hub for leadership development and organizing for Black Trans grassroots leaders and organizations, while building a strategy against the epidemic of violence facing Black Trans folks.

TGIJP’s strategy is led by Black Trans community leaders and includes comprehensive services that address the holistic well-being of each person and the community as a whole, with programs in reentry, legal, housing, leadership development, and wellness. Programming takes place in the Black Trans Cultural Center space in San Francisco.

Co-founder and movement mother Miss Major Griffin-Gracy transitioned to the ancestral realm on October 13th. The TGIJP community and far beyond mourns her passing, and we are strengthening ourselves for the ongoing work of carrying her legacy and embodying what #MissMajorTaughtUs.

The Miss Major Legacy Fund was established to support the Black Trans Cultural Center in San Francisco and to help solidify the inheritance of Miss Major’s legacy, by and for Black Trans people. Please consider contributing to the Miss Major Legacy Fund here. For more information about TGIJP, reach out to erik@tgijp.org.

Southwest Workers Union

Organizational volunteers at the 2025 International Women’s Day March in San Antonio, Texas. Photo credit: Centro por la Justicia.

Southwest Workers Union (SWU) envisions a resilient, grassroots-led movement that harnesses local solutions to strengthen community, economy, and environmental sustainability. Our goal is to complete the renovation of our regional healing and resilience hub — an accessible space for safety, protection, and community-building, especially for women, queer, and trans folks. This center aims to counteract the rising tide of fear-based, racist policies.

Centro SWU is on the front lines of advancing policy that protects public health with the passing of two Council Consideration Requests. The first restrictions and updating of codes for Metal and Auto Recycling facilities ensure that fenceline communities are protected and appropriate emergency standards are set within those facilities. The second is advancing a commitment to develop a process for tracking weather related deaths and subsequently understanding the reality of the situation and developing appropriate programs to ensure people are safe during extreme weather events. Both of these collective wins involved deep community organizing using training, committee meetings, and petitions.

In the upcoming year we will take on utility rates and ensure communities are protected during extreme weather. We do this through consistent member meetings, popular education events, and canvassing programs that engage people at every level. Our aim is to build a large base of informed residents ready to identify community issues and build solutions together. For more information, please contact diana@swunion.org.