Part of our role as communicators and organizers trying to make a more just and joyful world is to be able to imagine that world and describe it to people. But it can be hard to imagine that world, let alone build it, especially when it takes all of our time and energy fighting to hold steady in the flawed world we live in. And as the incoming administration begins implementing its rotten agenda, fresh outrages are already coming fast and furious. It’s going to take a lot of discipline for organizations to avoid getting thrown off kilter with every new atrocity.
To stay grounded, we need a plan to help us focus on key messages and core strategies, and we need to be ready to amplify the work of others doing the same when the time is right. The aim is to do visionary, transformational work, not just be on defense, playing whack-a-mole trying to block every bad policy and action.
Rapid Response Isn’t Always the Right Response
Rapid response can be the most stressful part of a communicator’s job. And we are often tempted to do more of it than we should.
As we think about what it will take to block the Project 2025 Agenda and build toward a more just vision, the bottom line is we need all of us doing our best core work in order to engineer both short-term wins and long-term change. That means doing what your organization does best as much as you can. And especially for communicators, it means your rapid response messaging should be driven by your day-to-day messaging.
Deciding if and how to respond when new policies are announced can be tricky, but we’ve got you covered with tools to help you discern if your organization should respond in a crisis with a statement or other approaches.
| Reminder: Don’t create crisis content, use crisis moments as opportunities to get attention for your everyday asks. And if you have to come up with brand new content to respond to an issue? That’s a sign that this is probably NOT your moment to take the lead. |
Amplify Your Allies
Remember we are all part of larger movements, and our job is to work together. When a crisis hits your community but is NOT your top-of-mind messaging, take the opportunity to amplify others. This is a way to do sustainable work and build scale and solidarity.
New Tool for Rapid Resistance
Enter the Rapid Resistance Planner. As the reality of a second Trump presidency set in, we asked ourselves: “What do folks need to stay strategic and mission-focused in 2025 and beyond?”
The Rapid Resistance Planner was created to help answer that. We compiled a set of resources to help you get ready now to amplify key voices from the frontlines of the incoming administration’s planned attacks. By echoing the messaging of those leading on the issues, you can focus on your core mission while being ready to lead when your issue is on the line.
How to Use This Tool
Though it has many resources, we see this as more of a tool. That’s because the resources aren’t exhaustive and may quickly become outdated.
We encourage you to make a copy and make this your own.
Use the first tab in this tool to store your messages so they’re always at the ready, and add whatever other resources you’ll want handy when things get hectic. Identify which resources are useful to you, and feel free to add others you encounter. Then, use the second tab to organize your social media follows and be ready to share others’ content and messages. You can link it to your editorial calendar—or add your audience and channels columns right there to prepare for distribution.
Tab 1: Rapid Resistance Planner
- Top Section: General resources around messaging best practices, tested concepts, and ways to understand the moment we’re in.
- Building off of LightBox Collaborator and independent journalist Janna Zinzi’s preview of the Trump administration in Afropunk, we start the tool with an educated guess of what policies and other attacks we anticipate coming soon after Inauguration Day.
- Column B: A list of groups working closely on the issues at hand.
- Column C: Messaging on these issues that smart and strategic organizations have developed for these moments.
- Columns D and E: Space for you to populate with your messaging and any other notes. This might be a good place to note who in your organization decides/approves content and when to post for each issue area.
- Column F: Smart thinking and resources we just had to share, even though they didn’t fit neatly into another category.
Tab 2: Groups to Follow and Amplify
This section builds on Rapid Resistance Planner (Tab 1), Column B. Being an effective movement communicator doesn’t just mean creating your own content; it also means sharing and amplifying the work of others. In this tab, you’ll find leaders who are creating powerful content and conversations on various social platforms. We hope you’ll add to this list as well so that you can be part of a positive echo chamber without duplicating work.
Don’t reinvent the wheel—carpool with someone who is already driving!
Note: We understand that asking you to prioritize and therefore deprioritize some issues may not feel in keeping with your values. Here at LightBox, we are driven by an intersectional understanding of justice and care. We know that none of these issues stand alone and that everyone facing these harms–particularly those of us dealing with many of them at once–deserves our support and effort. Our goal is to stand by and honor those values while also not adding to the noise and exhausting ourselves.
Build Alignment Now
Use this tool to build alignment with your team and your allies now, so that when things happen you have already made many of the key decisions and even drafted the messaging (or just as importantly decided not to!) and agreed on a process so that your rapid response can be as quick and painless as possible.
This isn’t a short-term struggle—we want this tool to help you do this work for the long haul with less stress and greater impact.
Many thanks to the folks who helped create and populate this, especially Anna Ghosh, Janna Zinzi, and Eliza Sherpa, and special thanks to Claire Donovan-Suguitan, Communications Director for Bay Rising/Resistance, and Zaineb Mohammed of RadComms and Kataly Foundation for previewing the tool and offering feedback.