Announcement rollout support
Allied Media Projects
Allied Media Projects (AMP) partnered with Spitfire ahead of several announcements related to an organizational restructure of resources and priorities as well as the departure of a key leader. To strategically reground AMP’s work in their local community of Detroit, prioritize their staff’s wellbeing and continue supporting an ecosystem of liberation-focused media, AMP decided to sunset two long-standing and beloved programs— the Allied Media Conference (AMC) and the AMP Seeds Program.
Spitfire supported AMP by creating a robust announcement strategy with messaging for each priority audience, materials and a rollout timeline to effectively and thoughtfully communicate these monumental shifts. The AMP’s leadership and communication team created a months-long fruitful trust-building strategy for their priority audiences, which includes funders, grantees, longstanding AMC partners, collaborators, attendees and the larger AMP network. That set the stage for the announcements and offered useful insights into the language and tone preferred by AMP audiences. Their audiences walked away confident in the future of AMP, with clarity over why the programs were sunset, grateful for the experience of how these programs impacted their lives and excited for the future evolution of AMP.
Ahead of the announcements, AMP leadership wanted to make sure that their audiences did not conflate the departure of a beloved co-executive director with the sunsetting of the AMC and AMP Seeds. AMP leadership also wanted to reassure their priority audiences, including funders and other partners, that the organization is a critical part of the liberation media ecosystem. Spitfire framed the organizational shifts as a further evolution of AMP’s effort to do the work as a social justice leader that seeks to create a sustainable workplace centering a culture of care and regeneration, and providing direct resources and support to grassroots workers organizing on the frontlines of injustice.
Spitfire provided a toolkit with suggested designated messengers and tailored materials for announcing the sunsetting of the AMC and AMP Seeds as well as the departure of their co-executive director. Alongside tailored outreach materials based on priority audiences (emails and newsletter content for staff, funders, partners of current and sunsetting programming and the broader AMP network), Spitfire also drafted social media posts and threads, created a comprehensive general message platform, FAQs and talking points for potentially difficult questions. Additionally, Spitfire made recommendations for updating AMP’s web pages to be consistent with the announcements.
Following a tiered announcement rollout, AMP publicly shared the departure of their co-executive director followed by the sunsetting of the AMC and AMP Seeds program. The announcements were well-received on their social channels, via email and in one-on-one conversations with important stakeholders across the AMP network.
AMP leadership is grateful to have had Spitfire by their side during these pivotal organizational changes. Knowing they could be supported by a thought partner who provided them with a comprehensive announcement strategy permitted them to focus on other important internal and external priorities.
AMP stands as an excellent reminder of the resilience and love that is the undercurrent of liberation-focused social change work. Spitfire looks forward to partnering with AMP as they continue to evolve and collaborate with organizations focused on the important liberation-media ecosystem.