Our Work
Imperative 21 worked across three interconnected areas to advance new narratives in service of economic systems change.
Build Narrative Power
The long-term, systemic work of building narrative capacity across a movement, bringing inclusive economy solutions into public discourse and imagination.
Featured Project
Margins to Mainstream
2026
Imperative 21, along with BLIS Collective and Beloved Economies, co-led a cross-organizational effort to bring inclusive economy solutions into public discourse and imagination. Building shared narrative infrastructure across a network of 300+ organizations, the initiative combined collaborative research, coordinated storytelling, and a field-wide campaign. This work piloted a new model for how movements operate collectively at scale. Supported by a coalition of 15+ organizations across movement, philanthropy, and business, and funded by a grant from the Center for Cultural Innovation through a participatory process led by Surdna Foundation grantees. Completing in 2026.
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Change the Conversation
Creating content that challenges the dominant economic narrative and opens up new thinking about what's possible.
Featured Project
Scene on Radio: Capitalism
2024
Imperative 21 co-produced Season 7 of Scene on Radio, a long-form narrative series exploring capitalism beyond one-sided stories. Hosted by investigative journalist John Biewen with co-host Ellen McGirt, the series traces how capitalism emerged and evolved, how it has been shaped by those with power, and how it can be shaped again. Downloaded over one million times, the series has been used in multi-week cohorts of business leaders to engage with its ideas and reflect on their role in today's economy.
Pioneer Collective Action
Bold narrative experiments that demonstrated what a broad, diverse network could achieve by collectively mobilizing around the Imperatives for Economic Systems Change.
Featured Project
The RESET Campaign
2020
Hundreds of allies across the Imperative 21 network collectively launched a multimedia campaign to raise awareness that we can and must create a just economy that centers people, not profit. The campaign included artwork and video on the Nasdaq Tower in Times Square, large scale public art projections in NYC and São Paulo, and full page ads in the New York Times and Financial Times. RESET generated important proof points and lessons on the value and challenges of collective narrative action, carrying the movement forward.
Campaign Artwork Produced by Amplifier
