The Climate Advocacy Lab’s Blueprint for Multiracial, Cross-Class Climate Movement is an updated report and workbook providing tools to build healthier, more effective climate coalitions through strategic culture, governance, and conflict management.
Back in 2022, we noticed that there were a lot of active climate coalitions in the US climate movement, but not a lot of resources for how to build, operate, and maintain them. Instead, we found a lot of stories about hardship, conflict, and ––– more than anything else ––– frustration as advocates found themselves unable to build the political power they deeply desired. In most cases, these were in coalition settings where everyone involved came in with the best of intentions and commitment to a common cause, but without the skills and knowledge needed to collaborate effectively. Often, coalitions stumbled into pitfalls that they did not anticipate (or optimistically ignored) because they did not take the time to reckon with the racial, class, and/or political diversity of their members.
This realization led to the creation of our Blueprint for a Multiracial, Cross-Class Climate Movement, a research/training project to build healthier, more effective climate coalitions that we’ve previously written about on The Forge. Based on case studies, interviews, and literature deep-dives, we developed a Report and Workbook that felt honest, timely, and applicable to the needs of coalition facilitators and members.
Our process
That first edition of the Blueprint covered a lot of important ground, including analyses and recommendations for coalition fundamentals like governance (“who’s in charge?”), decision-making (“how do things work?”), communication (“where’s the information I need?”),
evaluation (“is this working?), and conflict management (“how do we keep this coalition together?”). It also felt timely for the climate organizers, especially as the progressive movement writ large was having serious discussions about our movement culture and building resilient organizations. We felt like the Blueprint had something to add to that conversation about how the US climate movement can become simultaneously more intentional, equitable, and effective.
However, we knew that we couldn’t cover everything the first time. That’s why we conceived of the Blueprint as a living, generative project. We wanted to use the project as a platform to learn more about the inner workings and real needs of coalitions. Since we first published the Blueprint, we have been taking it to trainings, convenings, and all sorts of conversations with advocates on the ground. In doing so, we have learned about so many more details and complications that coalition leaders and members face, including hidden power dynamics that obstruct democratic decision-making and “toxic” behavioral patterns in the climate movement.
Those touchpoints and insights have led to the brand new Second Edition of our Blueprint to help the climate movement (and hopefully progressive organizers more generally) develop stronger vehicles to build power and win. The Blueprint is made up of two components: a Report and a Workbook. The Report provides an analysis of how multiracial, cross-class climate coalitions function, as well as a list of 19 recommendations on how coalitions can intentionally cultivate internal alignment. The Workbook breaks down our recommendations into guided exercises for coalition leaders to facilitate meaningful conversations that make the implicit explicit. We want these updated versions of the Report and Workbook to be guiding documents for organizers who want to produce more effective coalition cultures.
What’s new?
The updated Report includes:
- A new overarching framework based around Strategic Culture, or how coalitions can stay grounded to the values and principles they set for themselves at the outset of their collaboration. Put another way, this means grounding in strong relational norms and practices that aren’t easily pushed aside when the going gets tough.
- Clarification on the purpose and limitations of subgroups in coalition governance and decision-making. An unexpected dynamic we saw from working with coalition facilitators was how easy it is for coalitions to develop subgroups that start making decisions outside the normal structures (or even knowledge) of the coalition body. Beyond the potential for harmful miscommunication, these “shadow governments” can seriously threaten the trust that is essential to collective advocacy.
- A closer look at the role of funders and how they can impact coalition leadership, whether through purposeful direction or inadvertently through unspoken power dynamics.
- Expanded guidance around conflict management and intervention frameworks. This includes examples of techniques that facilitators can use to prepare their coalitions for the difficult conversations that are inevitable in any collaboration. We also circle back here to the importance of regrounding in your coalition’s Strategic Culture and being able to fall back to a baseline of relationships.
- Theory-crafting about coalition outcomes, or what happens at the end of a coalition’s animating campaign. Too often, coalitions are left to sputter to inactivity or, even worse, implode in ripples of harm. We offer some considerations on how coalitions can preserve the best parts of their learnings and culture even if they need to be sunsetted.
The Workbook has also been revised to make it more user-friendly, such as:
- Guidance for facilitators on how to set appropriate containers for conversations with coalition partners that are both productive and psychologically safe. This includes a run-down of reflection questions that facilitators can ask themselves to help ground discussions.
- Updated exercises that have been rewritten for greater clarity and specificity.
- A collection of additional resources for facilitators, including links to various conflict management frameworks that we reference throughout the Blueprint.
For a taste of what the Second Edition of the Blueprint has to offer, check out this recording from our launch event from October 14, 2025 that was part-explainer, /part-training of our new content.
Ways to engage
While you are encouraged to check out the Report and Workbook on your own, we plan on offering a variety of training opportunities in 2026. These will include breaking out sections of the Blueprint into a series of standalone webinars on topics like coalition governance, conflict management frameworks, and decision-making processes. However, the project we are most excited about is our upcoming Blueprint Training Cohort, a grant-funded opportunity for up to 20 participants to learn from Climate Advocacy Lab trainers and fellow coalition leaders on ways to design better structures and deliver better outcomes for their coalitions. If you are interested in learning more about and applying for this cohort, check out our program webpage here.
Please feel free to get in touch with Jack Zhou at jack@climateadvocacylab.org if you have any questions, comments, or suggestions on ways to develop the Blueprint into an even better tool for progressive organizers.
