How The Impact Lounge Is Pioneering Storytelling For Go

The Impact Lounge

Every year, billions of dollars are poured into social causes—through grants, programs, and policy change. But despite all that effort, the deeper challenge remains: how do you shift culture? How do you change hearts, not just headlines?

That’s where storytelling comes in.

Because while data can inform us, only stories can move us.

This is the belief driving The Impact Lounge, a traveling creative hub that brings together filmmakers, foundations, and brands to tell stories that don’t just raise awareness—but spark action.

A Stage That Moves Around the World

The Impact Lounge isn’t a single venue—it’s a traveling stage. One that has already appeared at places like Cannes, Sundance, and the Lumen Awards. This year, it expands to Climate Week in New York, with one day at the United Nations and multiple days at different location in midtown.

The format is immersive and intentional—built to foster connection, inspire action, and elevate the storytellers too often left out of mainstream film circles. Whether it’s a young Indigenous filmmaker in Georgia or a conservationist director working in Morocco, Impact Lounge is designed to give them a platform—and the network to support their vision.

In a time when outrage is easy and attention is fleeting, The Impact Lounge offers a different kind of power: empathy, imagination, and the belief that the right story can become the spark that changes everything.

At the heart of it is Heather Mason, who spent 20 years in the world of philanthropy—while quietly carrying a love for film she never let go of.

“I wanted to bring those together,” she says, “and really see the alchemy of these organizations working with film. Because films truly can move mountains when it comes to narrative and culture change.”

From Funding Reports to Funding Films

After two decades working inside foundations, Mason began to ask a different kind of question. What if these powerful institutions stopped thinking of film as a communications tool—and started seeing it as a cultural investment?

Her long-term dream is as daring as it is logical: foundations acting as studios. Not just funding a few passion projects each year, but backing entire slates of impact-driven films, just like Hollywood.

“Wouldn’t it be incredible,” Mason says, “if foundations... became studios, either on their own or as a consortium… to do slates of 10, 20, 40, 100 films a year... and create that marketplace for impact film?”

In this vision, the ecosystem is already there: NGOs doing the work on the ground, foundations funding them, and filmmakers ready to craft meaningful stories—but struggling for support. The Impact Lounge becomes the place where all those threads are woven together, where narratives are born, and where change begins.

Brands Have a Role to Play

Heather Mason, Founder of The Impact Lounge

While many of the early backers of The Impact Lounge have been forward-thinking foundations like Omidyar Network, MacArthur Foundation, Doris Duke Foundation, and the National Geographic Society, Mason believes this is only half the story.

The future, she argues, must include brands—not just as funders, but as active participants in cultural change.

“Corporations... touch employees, touch all sorts [of people], you can’t leave them out,” she says. “If you leave that out, you're leaving everything out.”

She points to American Express as one example of what's possible when brands commit to storytelling with depth. Years ago, AmEx produced a short documentary called Spent: Looking for Change, which explored the lives of everyday Americans locked out of the traditional banking system.

It told the story of the unbanked and underbanked—nearly 70 million Americans—who rely on payday loans and check-cashing services to survive, often paying far more in fees than they would with access to a basic checking account. The film was raw, heartfelt, and illuminating.

“I’d love to bring that back,” Mason says. “It’s still so relevant.”

Through The Impact Lounge's platform—whether at major festivals or its own curated events—projects like Spent can find renewed life and reach new audiences hungry for meaningful, purpose-driven content.

The Empathy Machine That’s Been Left Behind

At the heart of everything Mason does is a deep belief in storytelling as the most powerful—and too often overlooked—tool for change.

“The empathy machine is being left to the side,” she says. “It’s too easy to rely on guilt and shame. But if you actually want the outcome... storytelling is how you get there.”

“Guilt and shame won’t change us. But wonder might. Film has the power to inspire—to bring beauty, hope, and possibility into our lives. And that’s what moves people.”

That’s the quiet power of The Impact Lounge. It’s not trying to lecture. It’s not trying to go viral. It’s trying to spark something deeper—by giving the right stories a place to be heard, and the right people the tools to tell them.