Principles of Organizing | Achievements | Application | Donate

The Grassroots Support Center has helped to form and train dozens of new citizen organizations. Our work with citizens helped them achieve stirring grassroots victories including establishing shoreline protections for 40 miles of northern Lake Michigan coastline, finding alternatives to a $55 million highway and bridge south of Traverse City, reaching a $135,000 court-sanctioned settlement that restored the Cedar River in Antrim County, barring a utility in Cadillac from burning toxic tires for fuel, and forming a new citizen organization to protect Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore.

Here are some basic principles of successful organizing that citizens learn in workshops taught by Institute experts.

   Conduct probing and ongoing research to understand the scope of the problem.

   Develop reasoned goals and the steps to achieve them.

The key to winning at the grassroots is to make your priorities the priorities of the governing councils you are trying to influence. Too many goals tend to weaken a campaign’s focus, especially in the early months when groups are just forming, and their capacity to do all that’s necessary to win is not nearly as great as it will be as the campaign matures and as members become more seasoned.

   Develop messages and a communications program to disseminate them.

There is only one way for grassroots groups to compete with the money, insider influence, and power of wealthy opponents. Citizens have to build a large public constituency to support their goals. And the only way to build that public constituency is to develop urgent and simple messages, and to establish a communications programs to disseminate them persistently.

Public policy debates are essentially a competition over ideas. Thus, the heart of a successful campaign is how effective a group’s messages are, and how well they are communicated and disseminated.

   Build an effective organization and raise money.

Successful groups develop the organizational capacity to spread the work around, and efficiently manage publication schedules, deadlines, event planning, letter writing, recruiting members, and raising money. Building organizations, like developing a successful campaign, starts with planning and setting clear goals.

 

If you are interested in Grassroots Support Center services, please contact Keith Schneider, 231-882-4723, ext. 11, keith@mlui.org.