Strategist · Organizer · Storyteller
Strategy for the movements that matter.
Founder of Slow Clap. 18+ years of movement, engagement, and advocacy campaigns with partners across 40+ countries.
Services
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Strategy
Building public engagement strategies to activate, persuade, mobilize, and transform
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Capacity building
Unlocking potential through leadership development, coaching, facilitation, and training
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Storytelling
Developing narratives that break through the noise and resonate
ABOUT
“Passionate about humanizing our politics and building social impact — at home and around the globe”
Kate Catherall is the founder of Slow Clap. She is a strategist, organizer, and storyteller with 18+ years of experience working on the most pressing issues of our time — from clean energy and reproductive freedom to gun violence prevention and affordable housing to international conflict resolution and public health.
Kate previously served as Senior Advisor and Chief Engagement Officer at Avalanche Insights, where her team guided messaging for over $1B in media spending across the 2020 and 2022 election cycles. She is also the co-founder of Arena, which has trained 9,350+ campaign professionals and helped elect 61 candidates to Congress and beyond since 2017.
Earlier in her career, Kate was a Senior VP at 270 Strategies, and taught a global campaigns and movement-building fellowship course at Cornell University. She is an alum of Barack Obama’s 2008 and 2012 campaigns, and has partnered with campaigners and trained movement-builders from across more than 40 countries. Kate lives in Oakland with her partner, daughter, and retriever mix Louie — and can usually be found outside, watching a film, writing, or eating pizza.
18+
Years of leadership in public engagement and advocacy
40+
Countries my work has touched
$1B+
Media spending for which my team guided the messaging
Approach
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We believe effective strategy starts with clear goals and a deep understanding of the landscape.
Drawing on extensive experience with grassroots organizing, we will work with your team to develop your strategic plan: whether you’re building and scaling an organization or launching a campaign. Strategy sessions. SWOT Analyses. Power mapping. Org charts. Establishing metrics for success. Putting pen to paper. We’re here for all of it!
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The quickest path to a more equitable and just society is one in which new leaders hold power to change policy and culture. We believe that leadership comes in many forms, and strong leadership is not as simple as providing clear vision. The best leaders are inspiring communicators and coaches who ground in shared purpose, foster psychological safety, and create the conditions for their teams to do their best work while maintaining well being.
We offer facilitation of retreats and workshops on organizing, storytelling, communication, management, and leadership as well as ongoing one-on-one coaching. We’ll work with you to tailor our approach to your needs.
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Messaging is part art/part science. We partner with clients who know what they want to say, but need support in finding the most effective way to say it.
Too often, strategists present a false choice between a message that is popular and inoffensive and one that is controversial and evokes urgency. We’re working to change that paradigm. We believe the best messages tell a clear story, lead with values, and connect on an emotional level. And all of that begins with a deep understanding of your audience.
We take a data-informed approach, drawing from key learnings in behavioral science and social psychology. As we work through message development, we’ll help you identify partners and pathways to test efficacy through survey research, A/B testing, and randomized controlled trials (RCTs).
FAQs
WHAT’S WITH THE NAME?
A slow clap [that builds to applause] happens in a creative environment when something surprises you, you’re reminded of a simple but powerful truth, you’re made to look at something from a completely new perspective and realize something profoundly meaningful. At its best, it’s that magical moment of inspiration! And we could all use a bit more of that.
WHO DO YOU WORK WITH?
Slow Clap partners with values-aligned movement builders, advocacy organizations, and philanthropies to develop leadership teams, build engagement strategies, and craft winning messages.
Slow Clap maintains a large network of experienced consultants to assemble the client teams for our larger-scale projects.
WHAT CAN WE EXPECT OF YOU?
We strive to be warm, organized, focused, and calm problem-solvers. We are guided by values of equity, compassion, and justice. We do our best to listen deeply and bring our humanity to every conversation. And you can count on us to always share recommendations with honesty, directness, kindness, and respect.
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