IRIS is now building narrative and story-for-impact networks that bring storytellers, changemakers and innovators into new collaborations which strengthen narrative and storytelling capacity to address our most pressing challenges. The Spiral represents IRIS’ way of working, layering activities over time and expanding our networks in regions around the world. IRIS convenes, curates, connects, commissions and supports storytelling content that advances the issues that we and our donors care about.
IRIS believes that working in narrative networks rather than in isolation can make a significant, systems-level impact. These alliances require trust, time to develop, nimbleness, contextual knowledge and creativity. IRIS connects activities across its projects to form a steadily expanding set of narrative and storytelling resources.
Funding supported Sunshine Cinema to build a solar-powered mobile film screening model to promote conservation and community engagement in Southern Africa, and supported Sunshine representatives to participate in major global film industry events, facilitating collaborations and expanding their impact on a worldwide scale.
The Falling Sky, a film about indigenous Amazonian activism focuses on the Yanomami indigenous community in the Brazilian Amazon and their fight against illegal mining. It premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in 2024 after having received a grant from IRIS through Skoll funding.
Electric South contributes to building a robust storytelling ecosystem in Africa, grounded in immersive and interactive technologies. They create opportunities and resources for African artists and creative technologists through mentorship, labs, project funding, convenings, research, advocacy and field building. They also work closely with industry leaders, civil society and governments, bridging these diverse sectors to create an enabling environment for artists and to reshape the trajectory of emerging technologies.
WUCO Impact is the parent organization behind The Elephant & Butterfly, a project dedicated to the intersection of philanthropy, storytelling, and systems change. WUCO Impact's mission is to help catalyze the transition from extractive, dominant systems toward regenerative, emerging ones through the use of research, convening and the power of compelling narrative.
By combining strategic grantmaking across Latin America, MENA, and Sub-Saharan Africa with the support of local "Artivists" and field architects, we are shifting the center of gravity in philanthropy. This outcome is about more than just funding; it is about resource sovereignty. In supporting innovative leaders in the story and impact ecosystem, we are ensuring that the people closest to the world’s most pressing challenges have the financial and structural autonomy to define their own narratives.
The 2026 relaunch of the Narrative Directory and the Narrative Change Hub transforms diverse insights into a permanent, accessible global infrastructure. Coupled with high-level academic research and the broader Commons Library, this outcome contributes to a knowledge platform for the ecosystem. We are moving the field away from anecdotal success and toward a rigorous, data-informed practice where practitioners can find both the inspiration and the concrete tools needed to measure and execute deep narrative shifts.
This outcome bridges the gap between grassroots activism and mainstream cultural influence. By connecting regional networks through Confluence convenings while simultaneously producing world-class content, like the Cannes-winning The Falling Sky or the Kate Winslet-voiced Molly vs the Machine, we are creating a narrative megaphone. This ensures that indigenous worldviews and critical tech-society critiques don’t just stay within activist circles but penetrate the global conversation to spark wide-scale civic action.