Applications close February 2nd—don’t miss your shot!
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Applications close February 2nd—don’t miss your shot!
Fam, the 2025 Narrative Power Summit (NPS) is coming in hot, and we want you in the room. Join us and our co-host RadComms in New Orleans May 7-10, 2025— the city where culture, resistance, and storytelling collide—to build the narrative power our movements need to win.
If you’ve been searching for a space to sharpen your skills, collaborate with bold thinkers, and level up your narrative game, this is it! Whether you’re an organizer, a cultural worker, or a comms strategist, NPS is where you’ll find your people and the tools to amplify our collective power.
NPS isn’t your typical conference. It’s a three-day hands-on experience where you won’t just sit and listen—you’ll strategize, experiment, and build alongside a room full of values-aligned comrades. Here’s a taste of what’s in store:
NPS isn’t just a summit—it’s a space where our movements come together to dream, create, and build toward a better world.
We’re looking for narrative power-builders across social justice movements—organizers, communicators, cultural strategists, and anyone deeply rooted in the fight for justice. If you’ve been a part of ReFrame’s clinics, academies, or other programs, you already know the kind of transformative magic that happens when we gather.
NPS is the next level.
The deadline to apply is February 2 at 11:59 PM, and spots are filling fast. So, don’t sleep on this opportunity—get your application in today!
The power of multigenerational and regional narratives, intersectionality, and digital strategy will help us shape just futures.
On January 23, 2025, over 200 organizers, communicators and strategists joined ReFrame for our 2025 Narrative Predictions Townhall to discuss The Great Transition. We explored enduring narratives and emergent story trends and reflected on current social, political and cultural upheavals in play in the current narrative landscape. Our annual narrative predictions help you make sense of the changing social and political conditions likely to unfold in the new year while providing critical insights for crafting communications and organizing strategies. We highlighted three strategists who shared their experiences of making practical use of the predictions—seeding just narratives, uprooting harmful ones and scenario planning.
We focused on building narratives that connect generations, regions and identities and discussed tactics to adapt to the ever-shifting digital landscape. These themes came alive through real-world insights shared by our featured leaders including:
What Comes Next? We’re excited to offer opportunities to collectively strategize with these in-person offerings:
2024 was the year we leveled up, broke barriers and built power together. Let's talk about it!
2024 was the year we leveled up, broke barriers and built power together. Let's talk about it!
ReFrame kicked off 2024 with clarity and vision. Our 2024 Annual Narrative Predictions dropped in January and became the anchor for movements navigating a complex year. The report hit some major themes — economic narratives, labor struggles, the gerontocracy and cultural reckonings — and found its way into the hands of 14,000+ organizers and strategists, helping them sharpen the tools in their toolboxes. Over 300 organizers and communicators gathered to dissect the report at the 2024 Predictions Town Hall to ask questions, share musings, and strategize for the year ahead.
Now, we’re inviting you to join us again — The Great Transition: ReFrame’s 2025 Narrative Predictions report is live with insights for the coming year! These predictions are not just analyses but call to action for anyone ready to build new narratives and build the infrastructure needed to score some wins.
Mark your calendars for the 2025 Predictions Town Hall on January 23, 2025, to connect, strategize, and prepare for the year ahead. Register here.
In 2024, we wrapped up our inaugural Narrative Nexus: Power and Philanthropy program! Co-sponsored by The California Endowment and the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, with support from the Melville Charitable Trust, the series connected funders to the critical role of narrative in shaping movements and driving change. The six-part series, designed for 34 leaders across philanthropy, offered a deep dive into narrative power and infrastructure building, blending five virtual sessions with a final in-person convening. Facilitated by hermelinda cortés, Jung Hee Choi, and Joseph Phelan, Narrative Nexus became a space for big questions, bold ideas, and practical strategies—offering participants the tools to reimagine how philanthropy can support transformative narrative work. Keep an eye out in 2025 for recommendations for what philanthropy can do to support narrative power building sustainably!
This series is proof of what’s possible when we invest in building narrative power at every level of our movements. With your support, we can expand opportunities like Narrative Nexus, equipping even more leaders to amplify stories of justice and liberation. Donate today to help sustain and grow programs that connect philanthropy with the work of shaping narratives for lasting change.
Narrative power must reflect the diversity of our movements. This October, we launched our first-ever Spanish-First Training pilots, a project born from years of dreaming and scheming. Over the course of two trainings and feedback sessions, 17 organizations joined us to sharpen their narrative strategies and build tools in a space designed specifically for Spanish-speaking organizers and communicators.
The pilot was also a space of affirmation. Participants shared that for the first time, they felt fully seen in a space dedicated to shoring up core narrative strategy and tactics to apply to their work. Real-time feedback is already helping us refine the curriculum and in 2025, we’re excited to expand this work even further.
ReFrame’s Spanish First pilot program marked a pivotal moment for narrative infrastructure building, and we’re just getting started. With your support, we can keep building on this foundation and ensure these tools reach even more movement organizers.
When it comes to building power, California has always been a bellwether, and the MVP Echos Academy is proof of that. In May, we launched this seven-month program in partnership with the Million Voters Project, bringing together 38 narrative practitioners in 19 organizations to align around shared goals: building multiracial democracy, advancing care and inclusion, and holding corporations accountable.
The work started in Costa Mesa, where strategy sessions unfolded under the California sun. Late-night brainstorms, fireside conversations, and real-world planning sessions set the stage for weekly virtual programming from June through November. These sessions became a testing ground for bold narrative experiments across the state. Echos launched 13 public education narrative projects by year's end to tackle urgent issues like climate justice, economic inequality, and immigrant rights. Supported by $334K in microgrants, these projects seeded narrative shifts in communities across the state.
When we invest in people and their moonshot ideas, we can build a narrative infrastructure that lasts. Your contributions make initiatives like this possible, and with your help, we’re ready to expand these efforts in the coming years.
We did our big one! In September, ReFrame officially became an independent organization with its own bylaws, infrastructure, and vision. But let’s be real: this was more than just an operational shift; it was about fully stepping into our power as a movement organization and network utility.
To mark the occasion, we brought the team together for a staff retreat where we reflected on the journey and dreamed about what’s next. Using an almost comical number of sticky notes and notes in an endless Google doc, we mapped out the experiments and milestones that led us here and charted the ones we’re making big bets on in the future.
With your support, we’re entering this next decade stronger, bolder, and more committed than ever to building the narrative power movements need to win.
Early in 2024, we launched the Narrative Salon Series, a laboratory for experimentation where informal yet rigorous strategy spaces took shape. These salons became a launchpad for our 2024 and 2025 Narrative Integration and Action work, offering movement leaders a space to workshop bold ideas and collaborate on narrative strategies that drive impact in the field.
Building from insights and practices developed in these salons, ReFrame’s Narrative Command Center served as a nerve center during the election season. Leveraging our weather station, the narrative research and action team published weekly blogs packed with insights and recommendations to help organizers and communicators cut through the noise.
The Command Center’s Signals in the Noise: Election Edition Strategy Clinics translated this research into action. With the expertise of narrative strategists nationwide, these clinics helped organizers break down the tactics behind anti-democratic narratives and mis- and disinformation, equipping them with stories rooted in hope, dignity, and collective power.”
The elections are over, but the work doesn’t stop here. These salons and strategy clinics have set the stage for the next phase of our Narrative Integration and Action efforts, ensuring that our movements stay ahead in a constantly shifting narrative landscape.
Help us keep this critical work going. Donate today to sustain the Narrative Command Center and support the next wave of narrative innovation. Together, we’re not just responding to the moment—we’re shaping it.
Our Narrative Research and Action team had a full plate this year, tackling some of the most polarized narrative terrains of our time. With support from the Wellspring Philanthropic Fund, we explored the story trends, narratives, and values shaping the United Auto Workers union drives in Tennessee and Alabama. Meanwhile, in partnership with the Energy Foundation, we dove into the evolving and contested narratives surrounding electric vehicles as a vector for mis-and disinformation. Set to publish in early 2025; these reports will offer organizers and movement leaders the insights needed to navigate and shift the narrative landscapes around labor, unions, transportation alternatives and climate justice.
With your support, we can continue producing cutting-edge research that informs strategy and drives impact. Donate today to help sustain this critical work and ensure these reports reach the most needed movements.
As we look ahead to 2025 — and our 10th anniversary — we’re celebrating the incredible work we’ve done together and dreaming bigger than ever.
With your support, we can:
Your contributions fuel this work. Every dollar supports our vision of a world where narrative power builds freedom, justice, and liberation for all.
Thank you for being part of this journey.
ReFrame's 2025 Predictions are here! Before we enter the new year let's look at the dominant and emergent narratives from 2022 to now.
To look forward, we must look back. For this reason, we have examined our past predictions to help us ground ourselves before we enter the portal of 2025 and strategize for the challenging years ahead. We aim to highlight narrative predictions and offer concrete recommendations to shape compelling narrative and organizing strategies. While our predictions have been remarkably accurate, we anticipate the same narratives will inform new story trends as the narrative landscape responds to larger cultural, social and political currents. Nonetheless, we hope you find inspiration to strategize, organize and communicate more powerfully, with renewal and sustainability for the long haul. And as you read, we invite you to remember and reflect on grief beyond the individual experience into a collective endeavor.
ReFrame’s Narrative Predictions reports Through the Looking Glass (2022), Catalyzing Ripples (2023) and Vertigo Variations (2024) have helped us study dominant narratives and values that have endured since 2020. We have a strong track record of accurately forecasting narrative trends. In Through the Looking Glass, we anticipated the erosion of public trust in institutions, which became increasingly evident in pandemic-related misinformation and health inequities. Catalyzing Ripples clocked identity as a key battleground, a prediction realized in 2024 through the cultural and legislative fights over transgender rights and racial justice. Vertigo Variations highlighted the rise of artificial intelligence (AI) narratives, accurately predicting the heated debates over authorship and authenticity sparked by AI-generated art and storytelling. Here is our top-line summary of the narrative and story trends from our last three Narrative Prediction reports, which helped inform our 2025 predictions.
From majority to minority rule to debates about what America is and whom the country was built for, democracy and governance have been in the balance for years, undergoing pushes and pulls in different directions. The political fatigue felt during the 2022 midterm election season — along with failures of neoliberal governance, scandals and felony investigations and the testing (and breaking) of democratic norms — brought us closer to the precipice of authoritarianism and the normalization of fascism. Debates about power, leadership and legitimacy related to identity, perceived social position, religious affiliation and demographic change have influenced our current conditions, coming to a head during the 2024 election cycle.
In many ways, U.S. President-Elect Donald J. Trump spoke directly to the existential crises of many. He cast himself as a messianic hero who would restore America to wholeness. He filled up a spiritual vacuum for his followers and persuadable voters, appealing to their values, beliefs and worldviews. Trump promised to assuage their grief and grievances socially and economically. By going on the attack against the villains in his story — Biden, the Democrats, the “deep state,” and China as well as immigrants from Global Majority nations — Trump vindicated his base and, in the process, himself. Pro-Trump stories and messages were tested and refined throughout the entirety of the Biden administration, winning him a ticket back to the White House where he — and, by extension, his supporters — can govern in alignment with their values and worldview.
Throughout our 2022–2024 predictions research, dominant narratives in conversations about democracy and governance included:
While not as loud, these were narratives contesting for dominance:
Growing economic disparities have shaped the narrative landscape on the economy and labor, presenting plenty of opportunities to advocate for alternate economic systems beyond extractive capitalism. As elevated in our predictions from 2022, 2023 and 2024, economic trends highlighted a gradual recovery from the pandemic, supply chain woes, inflation, stock market growth and a massive wealth transfer benefiting economic elites. The story of American progress was about low unemployment rates and a healthy economy. Still, it stood in stark contradiction to the experiences that poor and working-class families were having. Legacy media propagated stories gaslighting Americans over their economic challenges, and elected officials echoed these messages, individualizing the problem instead of pointing the finger at disinvestment and corporate greed. Stories about the economy also elevated the ultra-wealthy and corporations as heroes for their record profits and performance in the stock market. In contrast, pro-worker narratives moved stories highlighting labor exploitation from legacy media’s “hero” figures. These stories contributed to the growing positive outlook on unions as an institution that promotes economic equality and helps build worker power. Since 2020, unionizing efforts have boomed, providing working-class people the tools and infrastructure to demand corporations give their fair share.
Throughout our 2022–2024 predictions research, dominant narratives in conversations about the economy and labor included:
While not as loud, these were narratives contesting for dominance:
The reactionary legislative agenda we have faced is the result of a repressive political strategy targeting queer and trans people and bodily autonomy. The loss of national abortion protection and attacks on the transgender, gender nonconforming and nonbinary communities have caused significant grief over bodily autonomy. However, voters transformed it into victories across downballot races and referendums during the 2022 midterms and 2024 elections. For the past nine years, there have been countless images of gender expansive people who have taken to the streets, For You Pages, podcasts and traditional media outlets to air their grievances and build cultural power. Popular content features their pain points, highlighting the denial of essential services like gender-affirming care and critical gynecological procedures for themselves and their loved ones. Content and conversations also highlighted the intersections of race, class, disability, gender and sexual orientation.
Throughout our 2022–2024 predictions research, dominant narratives in conversations about gender and the body included:
While not as loud, these narratives were vying for dominance in the narrative landscape:
We have yet to fully understand the level of collective grief we hold in the wake of devastating wildfires, hurricanes and subsequent mudslides that have resulted in loss of life and property. Still, key moments give us a good idea of where we can make narrative interventions. Conversations that linked environmentalism to equity drove popular content about the climate, especially when paired with demands for meaningful change over sustainability. With the upward trend of catastrophic superstorms came an unavoidable growing awareness of climate issues and their impacts on infrastructure, promoting narratives of safety and preparedness. Despite the state’s constant threats, activists, climate justice organizations and land defenders utilized viral moments (ex., hurricane Helene TikToks from an influencer’s POV) to combine their demands for accountability and reparations from corporations, fossil fuel beneficiaries and government institutions.
Throughout our 2022–2024 predictions research, dominant narratives in conversations about the climate included:
While not as loud, these were narratives contesting for dominance:
We understand the narrative landscape as an uneven playing field. As we prepare to release our 2025 Narrative Predictions and prepare for a second Trump administration, it remains clear we will need fortified organizers, communicators, influencers and practitioners for the long haul, and that requires our sustained vision, collective power and unyielding determination. We must continue to fortify our numbers and grow movement communications and narrative infrastructure for the long haul. The stories, messages and narratives we have elevated over the years will endure into 2025 and beyond. Team ReFrame will be there every step of the way, rigorously assessing the data, applying visionary thinking in our interventions and continuing to build the narrative North Stars that we need to win.
✨🪞 CLICK HERE TO READ THE GREAT TRANSITION: REFRAME'S 2025 NARRATIVE PREDICTIONS 🪞✨
If 2024 taught us anything, it’s that the stories we tell in moments of grief, nostalgia, and resistance don’t just reflect our reality—they transform it.
If 2024 taught us anything, it's that grief does not derail the work of transformation — it centers it. This year, collective grief emerged not only in the tragedies that called for mourning but in the ways we clung to nostalgia, wrestled with authenticity and our longing for connection through stories. As we prepare to release our 2025 Narrative Predictions Report, we reflect on the stories that defined 2024, weaving a narrative about who we are and who we might become.
The murder of the UnitedHealthcare CEO placed unprocessed grief and righteous anger squarely in public view. It revealed the contradictions in a healthcare system that claims to provide care but instead delivers indifference—forcing people to navigate crises without real support. Outrage surged immediately, but like so many moments of collective trauma, it risked fading into nihilism and disconnection. The Atlantic described the shooting as emblematic of polarized apathy, revealing a collective inability to sustain the energy needed for systemic change.
Yet something powerful emerged. Meme culture acted as both a release valve and a rallying cry, showing how solidarity and apathy can coexist in the same space. As Malkia Devich-Cyril writes in Grief Belongs in Social Movements, "Grief is not just the work we must do; it's the ground we must build from." This moment and the conversations it sparked remind us that when named and channeled, grief can move people together and transform fleeting outrage into collective action.
Reflecting on grief and resistance also recalls themes from our Signals in the Noise: Election Edition series, mainly our November 19th blog, where we examined how media narratives magnify moments of crisis. These reflections underscore how strategically channeled grief can shape collective action rather than sow division.
We've explored nostalgia and its connection to resilience in "Vertigo Variations," our Narrative Predictions for 2024; we anticipated how cultural memory would become a critical tool for navigating societal upheaval, and we were right. Nostalgia, as we've seen, not only comforts but also empowers communities to reclaim agency. Charlie XCX's unexpected comeback album, BRAT, redefined a generation's connection to identity and memory. The cinematic debut of Wicked reimagined a beloved story for a new audience, proving that the past can serve as both an anchor and a starting point to hold space for reinvention. These moments did more than revisit old favorites—they created stability through stories and messages that remind us of who we are.
Drake's ongoing "Drake vs. Everyone" saga plays up on a different type of nostalgia — rap beef. The drama underscored a growing skepticism toward celebrity culture and revealed how fragmented fame mirrors societal tensions surrounding identity, power and authenticity. More importantly, it showcased how decentralized narratives emerging from online discourse can redefine the relevance of public figures and the broader social imagination. This shift matters because it forces us to confront who holds cultural power and how collective attention is mobilized (or not).
While nostalgia grounded us, technology disrupted us. AI-generated music, immersive video games and AI-written scripts blurred the boundaries of authorship and authenticity, sparking debates over creativity's future.
At the same time, Caitlin Breedlove's memoir, All In: Cancer, Near Death, New Life, offered a poignant counterpoint, reminding us that authenticity is deeply personal, rooted in lived experiences and relationships. Her reflections resonate as a call to center humanity in our stories as algorithms increasingly challenge the equity of narrative creation. These themes echoed insights from our Signals in the Noise: Election Edition series, which explored power dynamics around storytelling and platform control. Breedlove's words, "What survived was my love, not just for life but for all that brought me here," offer a reminder to safeguard connection as we shape stories in this new era.
In 2024, the media ecosystem revealed its power to shape public consciousness, from Trump’s headline-grabbing interview with Joe Rogan to the growing amplification of fear-based narratives under the guise of “free speech.” These moments highlight how dominant forces manipulate narrative terrain to manufacture fear, belonging, and control—reminding us that narratives are never neutral.
For a counterpoint, ReFrame’s Executive Director hermelinda cortés breaks it down on Convergence Magazine’s Block & Build podcast. “Trump didn’t just win on the doors—he won on the fanfare of an air war,” Hermelinda explains, urging movements to build long-term narrative infrastructure that responds to chaos with clarity. She challenges us to go beyond storytelling and instead reshape the ideological terrain where beliefs take hold. 🎧 Listen to the full interview here.
In our 2023 Narrative Predictions, we anticipated that identity would remain a critical battleground in 2024's societal narratives. This foresight is evident in the recent political landscape, where transgender rights have become central to cultural and legislative debates. The 2024 elections highlighted both progress and backlash, with trans existence framed as either a political wedge or a site of liberation, naming storytelling's role in advancing and resisting anti-trans narratives. Jen Soriano's Nervous: Essays on Heritage and Healing underscores how stories rooted in trauma can become tools for healing and resistance because "Healing is not linear; it is circular and collective." highlighting the transformative power of shared narratives. Our accurate forecast underscores the importance of understanding identity's role in societal discourse and prepares us to navigate the ongoing intersection of identity and resistance in cultural and political arenas.
2024 felt overwhelming because it was. Still, it also offered possibilities, reminding us that nothing is permanent. Narratives evolve, collide and shape our world, and there's always an opportunity to widen or change the conversation. Grief, nostalgia, authenticity and resistance defined 2024 and will continue well into 2025. The work ahead is not just about telling more exciting, complex and compelling stories—it's about influencing the ones that shape us at scale. As we release our 2025 Narrative Predictions, we invite you to reflect on the stories that carried us here and imagine the ones we can create together.
Stay tuned for the full report, and let's craft a narrative future grounded in justice, resilience, and collective power-building.
“Narrative power isn’t just about storytelling—it’s about shaping the terrain of ideology, worldview, and meaning.” hermelinda cortés, ReFrame's Executive Director, talks to Cayden Mak (Convergence Magazine) about Building Meaning, Belonging, and Safety
In a recent Block & Build episode, ReFrame’s Executive Director hermelinda cortés chats with Convergence Mag's Publisher Cayden Makdives about what narrative power really means for movements fighting to win. If you’re thinking about “narrative” as just a series of stories or good talking points, hermelinda is here to challenge you.
hermelinda reminds us that we’re swimming in narrative conditions—an invisible yet powerful force shaping people’s beliefs, ideas, and behaviors. Social movements that only focus on tactics like messaging or storytelling risk missing the forest for the trees. Instead, she argues, we need to think long-term and strategically about narrative power and its connection to organizing, governing, and meaning-making.
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So what does that look like?
hermelinda explains that building narrative power means responding to the rapid, braided interplay of broadcast media, social media, and micro-conversations across networks. It’s not just about amplifying what we say—it’s about understanding how ideas move, who they reach, and why they resonate.
And it’s not just about belonging—it’s about safety. As hermelinda names in the episode, “Our opposition doesn’t just create belonging; they manufacture fear and offer themselves as the safe haven. What they’re selling is safety.”
As we face escalating crises—climate disasters, attacks on trans communities, and the dismantling of social safety nets—movements need rapid-response infrastructure not just to meet physical needs but to sow and set the narrative in moments of chaos.
This is the hard, necessary work ahead: to win people’s trust, to confront fear with clarity, and to mobilize narrative power for liberation.
