Overview
Nonprofit (operating as SmartMeme) that trains organizers in narrative/framing strategy — useful when a campaign’s problem isn’t its tactics but its story, and needs a structured method for building one rather than improvising talking points.
How it works
The Center for Story-based Strategy (operating as SmartMeme, Inc.) is a nonprofit that trains organizers to treat narrative as a strategic discipline, describing its work as building “imagination spaces where story, grassroots leadership, organizing, and democracy are interwoven strategies to build power.” [src] It offers live trainings including an application-based Advanced Training program, self-paced online workshops, free tools and resources, and educational material on anti-oppression principles and theory of change. [src]
Its core contribution is a structured method for narrative strategy — treating “the story” a campaign tells (not just its demands or tactics) as something to be deliberately designed, mapped against the dominant narrative it’s contesting, and iterated like any other campaign asset. [src]
No Creative Commons license was found; the site has a Privacy Statement, Fair Use Statement and Cancellation Policy but no explicit content-reuse policy — treat as link-only. [src]
When to use it
Diagnosing why a campaign with a sound plan and real tactics still isn’t landing — often a narrative problem, not a tactics problem, and this is a structured way to work that. [src] Training organizers in narrative strategy as a distinct skill, complementary to the wiki’s existing framing-and-narrative material. [src]
Related methods
- affinity-groups
- campaigns-vs-movements
- citizen-lobbying
- civil-resistance
- coalition-building
- constructive-programme
- framing-and-narrative
- incidencia-politica
- leadership-development
- one-to-ones
- pillars-of-support
- power-mapping
- public-narrative
- spectrum-of-allies
- the-campaign-cycle
- the-tactic-star
- theory-of-change
- three-and-a-half-percent-rule
Open questions
None yet.