community organising
A win for patients, thanks to grassroots campaigning
Health advocacy organisations could increase their impact by harnessing the energy of committed citizens. Creating people-powered grassroots campaigns helps win changes in health policy. Patients with cancer and chronic conditions are the immediate beneficiaries of...
Identifying leaders and leadership
Jane McAlevey has sharpened many organisers’ thinking about how to identify, cultivate and harness leadership. Here’s a links to an 11 minute video where McAlevey explains her thinking. This New Syndicalist blog summarises her three ‘takeaways’...
Coalitions of the winning [blog]
Amanda Tattersall explores how community organisations and unions can work together: “Although we understand that most battles can’t be won by one organisation acting alone, we are missing a clear understanding of what makes coalitions successful and what makes...
Coalitions of the willing [blog]
Amanda Tattersall explores how community organisations and unions can work together: “Coalitions between unions and community organisations can be a powerful means for achieving social change and reinvigorating civil society. But not all coalitions are made...
Leading groups online
The coronavirus pandemic has created new challenges for facilitators and educators. Across the globe, people are being asked to lead groups online: teachers, trainers, professors, event managers, organizers, activists. Jeanne Rewa and Daniel Hunter swiftly wrote this...
Locked down? Try organizing
“We’re caring for our communities as best we can – but many of us also find ourselves stuck indoors, looking for new ways to build resilience so we can come out of this crisis into a more just and sustainable world. For some, organizing is a big part of getting...
Can NGOs and social movements be authentic allies? [blog]
[Michael Silberman writes] Many NGO staff rightly have an overwhelming fear of causing harm to movements by acting in ways that are (or appear to be) self-serving or co-opting. They also fear causing harm to their own organization through legal risks or supporter...
Blueprints for Change Progressive Organizing and Campaigning Manual
This 180+ page volume offers progressive organizers 14 vitally important how-to guides containing the strategic and tactical wisdom of over 100 progressive campaigners. These guides focus on in-demand topics (see below) and include strategies and tactics that are...
It would really warm my heart if these concepts were more popular in the left
Jonathan Smucker (author of Hegemony How-to) shares his insights on campaigning. “Politics is not something you “have.” It’s something you DO. If your “politics” doesn’t involve building and wielding collective power,...
Community Organizing Capacity Tool
PowerCheck can help you assess a baseline of groups’ organizing readiness skills, resources and other capacities, plan how to strengthen the organization, and mark progress in doing so.
Becoming Unstuck With Relational Activism
Here are three relational activist values that can be practiced in everyday relationships and workplaces, along with examples of how they can lead to social action >
Ask Labor Jane: “I Quit My Job to Dedicate Myself to Organizing. What Now?”
Jane McAlevey has been an organizer and negotiator in the labor movement for over twenty years. While she continues to organize, she writes for various publications and is the author of three books. Hundreds of new organizers have passed through her trainings. Now,...
The Commons Social Change Library
The new Commons Social Change Library recently launched online with hundreds of resources to support community action. The Commons contains articles, manuals, training materials, practical tips, podcasts and videos all in one handy online location. Topics include...
Embracing the Network: How to Build a Powerfully Collaborative Campaign
“Embracing Networks” in campaigns can lead to powerful results. Many of the largest campaigns in the world, mobilizing millions of people, use the power of networks. It’s easier than ever to embrace networked campaigning thanks to new technologies that have come...
Full Spectrum Engagement
Build community power to win campaigns. Full Spectrum Engagement is the combination of strategic principles and multi-channel tactics that together enable campaigners to effectively activate community power, target decision-makers and win. This engagement framework...
Playbook for Progressives [book]
An organizing manifesto for the twenty-first century, Playbook for Progressives is a must-have for the activist’s tool kit. This comprehensive guide articulates pragmatically what is required in the often mystifying and rarely explained on-the-ground practice of...
Tools To Engage: Resources For Nonprofits
Tools to Engage is an ever-changing compilation of the best resources from across the social sector, chosen for their particular focus on supporting constituent engagement and addressing systemic challenges, such as race, gender, and power inequities in the sector....
Changemakers podcast
There are 140 million people engaged in social change work across the globe. These are the ChangeMakers. The ChangeMakers podcast is a weekly, half-hour globally focused series that tells stories and lessons about the world of social change. Each week, host Dr. Amanda...