James is co-founder of the Change Agency and director of our Community Organising Fellowship.
Beautiful Rising
Beautiful Rising harnesses the insights of changemakers worldwide to help make our movements more strategic, creative and effective. Beautiful Rising is written by and for frontline activists — particularly youth, women, indigenous peoples, and others who face...
Raw > effective data visualisation
The missing link between spreadsheets and vector graphics. Create beautiful graphics.
Legal advocacy as a strategy
TCC Group has been examining how advocacy organizations use legal advocacy as a strategy and how funders can best support that work. Here, they share the results of their work to help inform funders, legal advocates, non-legal advocates, and evaluators about the field...
Common Cause Australia
Common Cause Australia is a growing network of people working to engage cultural values to create a more equitable, sustainable and democratic society. You can be part of it too.
Occupying the Movement Action Plan
The Movement Action Plan described by activist Bill Moyer gives a useful lens through which to view this. In Bill’s typology, Occupy Wall Street would be called a trigger event, bringing stark injustices into everyday conversation…
10 LESSONS FROM BRITAIN’S CAMPAIGN GURUS
Earlier this year, Sam McLean (former CEO of GetUp Australia) spent two weeks working with British campaigning wizards, 38Degrees — the British sister organisation of GetUp. Here are his top 10 lessons for campaigners from our British mates: “It was just a...
Oh for the love of sticky notes: The Changing Role of Evaluators Who Work with Foundations
Julia Coffman (Director and founder of the Center for Evaluation Innovation) writes: “I’ve been an evaluator for 25 years now, and I love it. I love the opportunity to apply research skills to important questions. I love helping people to think about their...
evaluation capacity building: Funder Initiatives to Strengthen Grantee Evaluation Capacity and Practice (report)
Evaluation Capacity Building (ECB) is the process of improving an organization’s ability to use evaluation to learn from its work and improve results. Organizational learning is incredibly important. Organizations that are adept at learning from mistakes and adapting...
Guide to system mapping
A system map is a visual depiction of the relationships between actors within a system. Often, system maps depict flows of information and/or resources. In this four-part blog series, Emily Gate, Srik Gopal, Lauren M. Smith, and Joelle Cook of FSG give guidance, share...
New style lobbying: How GetUp! channels Australians’ voices into politics
We see their spokespeople quoted in the papers and their ads on TV, but beyond that we know very little about how Australia’s lobby groups get what they want. This series shines a light on the strategies, political alignment and policy platforms of ten lobby groups...
Comm Org fellow profile: Paul Gorrie and SEED mob
My name is Paul Gorrie, and I am Kurnai/Gunai man from the Krauatungalung clan, currently living on Wurundjeri Country. Seed is Australia’s first Indigenous youth climate network, connecting young people to protect country and fight for climate justice. “My...
What makes me tired when organising with middle class comrades
After years and years of organising, coming up against similar frustrations, and after lots of conversations between working class mates, grassroots organiser Nicole Vosper writes about what is draining about working with some middle class activists: “You expect...
Rhiza collective
Rhiza is a women-led collective of cultural workers and facilitators that uses storytelling, healing, organizing, and research to support social transformation and environmental justice.
Why the environmental movement is not winning
This searing 2012 report says the environmental movement is not winning and lays the blame squarely on the failed policies of environmental funders. The movement hasn’t won any “significant policy changes at the federal level in the United States since the 1980s”...
Important qualities of authentic relationships across differences
Karen Pace and Dionardo Pizana write: “Our commitment to the ongoing process of developing an authentic relationship across racial and gender differences has helped us to identify important foundational qualities of our relationship. These characteristics are...
Tools for Grassroots Activists (paperback)
For over 20 years, Patagonia has organized a Tools Conference, where experts provide practical training to help activists be more effective in their fight. Now Patagonia has captured Tools’ best wisdom and advice into a book, creating a resource for any organization...
Black Lives Matter and America’s long history of resisting civil rights protesters
Black Lives Matter activists have received plenty of criticism from political candidates and their supporters and surrogates. The majority of Americans haven’t embraced the activists’ message or strategies, either; fewer than a third of Americans said Black...
8 keys to running a successful remote meeting
Planning a remote meeting may seem like a lot of work, but it can be much more efficient than getting everyone together in one room at the same time. Using these eight key elements will help you and your team members successfully make it through a remote meeting,...