Women’s Foundation of California

Using culture change strategies based in research, the Culture Change Fund seeks to change how the public thinks about gender justice more broadly by taking on specific issues like income inequality, violence against women, sexual assault, maternal health, abortion, and contraception.

The Culture Change Fund emerged from a series of conversations among reproductive rights, health, and justice funders who were frustrated by the onslaught of attacks on abortion rights. If the majority of the American public is in favor of safe, legal, accessible abortion, why was it constantly under assault? How could reproductive rights, health, and justice advocates change the narrative, shift culture, and make a more compelling case for not only abortion rights, but all gender justice issues?

A group of funders, including the Compton Foundation, worked with the Women’s Foundation of California to seed the Culture Change Fund in an attempt to answer this question. Cultural strategist Liz Manne and data scientist Dr. Riki Conrey spent a year doing deep research into the attitudes and beliefs of the American public regarding gender, and working with artists, culture workers, and advocates from across the country to develop a narrative framework for talking about gender justice in a way that the public can hear. The results of that work, Story at Scale, is a public tool and fantastic resource for any activist or storyteller to use in their gender justice work.

Now in its implementation phase, the Culture Change Fund partners closely with four national narrative- and justice-focused anchor organizations—the Center for Cultural Power, Harness, Illuminative, and the League—to lend support to grassroots organizations across the country integrating cultural strategy and the Story at Scale tools into their work. The Fund also partners with Funders for Reproductive Equity to move money to support grassroots organizations in Georgia, Michigan, and California who are integrating cultural organizing into their work.

Recent grant history