{"id":4402231484901,"date":"2026-04-23T11:00:39","date_gmt":"2026-04-23T15:00:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.philanthropy.com\/?p=4402231484901"},"modified":"2026-04-29T16:02:02","modified_gmt":"2026-04-29T20:02:02","slug":"commons-stiffman-hollywoodtraining-0326","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.philanthropy.com\/news\/commons-stiffman-hollywoodtraining-0326\/","title":{"rendered":"This Nonprofit Whispers in Hollywood’s Ear About Polarization. They Hope You Tune In."},"content":{"rendered":"\n

When Erik Bork wrote The Elephant in the Room<\/em>, he wasn\u2019t trying to make a political statement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 2025 romantic comedy<\/a> centers on a pandemic-era romance about a new couple who seem well matched. They share easy banter and chemistry but soon discover they voted for different candidates. She\u2019s a proud progressive. He voted for Trump.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Key Takeaways<\/p>\n <\/div>\n

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Tips for Shaping Culture Through Entertainment<\/strong><\/p>\n

Nonprofits and funders are increasingly looking to entertainment to influence how people think about social issues. Bridge Entertainment Labs offers lessons for how to do that effectively.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Make the business case.<\/strong> In market-driven industries like Hollywood, social impact alone isn\u2019t enough. Framing ideas in terms of audience growth or commercial potential can open doors.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Target the decision makers.<\/strong> Influence often depends less on producing content than on shaping what gets made. That means engaging executives and others who control development and greenlighting.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Translate research into helpful tools<\/strong>. Academic insights need to be distilled into practical guidance: frameworks or questions that fit naturally into the creative process.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Subtlety beats overt messaging.<\/strong> Audiences resist content that feels didactic. Embedding ideas in characters and stories is often more effective than explicit lessons.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Plan for long timelines \u2014 and fuzzy metrics.<\/strong> Narrative change is cumulative and hard to measure. Funders should expect indirect impact that unfolds over years.<\/p>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Suddenly, ordinary conversations feel loaded. The budding relationship doesn\u2019t end, but it changes, as each character begins to see the other as someone shaped by a different set of assumptions, loyalties, and fears.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI never felt that it was supposed to preach or send a message or be some kind of social change agent,\u201d says Bork, an Emmy Award-winning writer and producer with credits on projects like the HBO series Band of Brothers<\/em>. He wanted to tell a story that felt real \u2014 \u201csweet, funny, edgy,\u201d as he put it \u2014 about something many Americans are navigating in their own lives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As Bork worked to get the film financed and shot, he found himself pulled into a broader experiment \u2014 and into the orbit of a nonprofit trying to influence Hollywood from the inside: Bridge Entertainment Labs, along with one of its seed funders, the Civic Health Project.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bridge Entertainment Labs works as a kind of consultancy to the entertainment industry: advising writers, producers, and executives on how to integrate themes of pluralism and shared humanity into their work. Rather than trying to reach audiences directly, the goal is to \u201cinfluence the influencers\u201d who shape what millions of people watch.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The instinct behind Bridge isn\u2019t new. Nonprofits have long tried with mixed results to influence culture with awareness campaigns on everything from breast cancer and bicycle lanes to climate change and marriage equality. They have spent funds on advertising, worked with celebrity spokespeople, and tried to push narratives through media of all kinds. Bridge\u2019s approach is more indirect: working upstream, with storytellers who shape what audiences see, rather than trying to reach those audiences directly. It\u2019s a potentially effective route that groups can use as part of their broader strategy to get their messages across to an ever harder-to-reach public. Big funders \u2014 including Stand Together and the Packard and John Templeton foundations \u2014 have invested in Bridge\u2019s approach. But this kind of work demands patience and a tolerance for ambiguity. Impact may take years to surface. If Bridge’s work is effective, funders may find that being patient and learning to accept quiet influence over visible results can yield important change.  <\/p>\n\n\n

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