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“Power For Social Change”
November 13, 2012 Webinar
Tom’s background…
ACTOR
INTERNET MARKETER
COMMUNITY
DEVELOPER
PRODUCER
EDUCATOR
“The Artist As Activist” –
DePaul Art Department
EXEC ED
DESIGNER/
FACILITATOR
Recent Civic Projects
www.publicassets.us
www.nogameschicago.com
www.civiclab.us
Agenda
• The Big Picture
• Organizing 101
• Stories About Power
• Building Infrastructure
• Expand Your Vision, Get Busy
• Who’s Ready? What’s Next?
> Q&A via email = [email protected]
> Twitter: #nppower
> http://afterschooladvocacy.wikispaces.com
THE BIG PICTURE
Challenge to the field
• Isn’t time to get out from BEHIND the
elephants?
• Isn’t it time to SET the agenda and not
REACT to the agenda?
ORGANIZING 101
INTRODUCTION TO COMMUNITY ORGANIZING
“The whole history of the progress of human liberty shows that all concessions yet made to her august claims have been born of struggle…Those who profess to favor freedom, and yet depreciate agitation, are men who want crops without plowing up the ground. They want rain without thunder and lightning…Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will. Find out what the people will submit to, and you have found the exact amount of injustice and wrong which will be imposed upon them; and these will continue until they are resisted with either words or blows, or with both. The limits of tyrants are prescribed by the endurance of those whom they oppress.”
- Frederick Douglass, Letter to an abolitionist associate, 1849
Direct Service
Self Help
Education
Advocacy
Direct Action
Source: Midwest Academy
FORMS OF COMMUNITY ORGANIZING –
TYPES OF HELPING ORGANIZATIONS
Direct Service
Source: Midwest Academy
United Way's mission is to improve lives by
mobilizing caring people to invest in the
community where their resources are
needed most.
FORMS OF COMMUNITY ORGANIZING –
TYPES OF HELPING ORGANIZATIONS
Self Help
Source: Midwest Academy
Alcoholics Anonymous is a voluntary, worldwide fellowship of men
and women from all walks of life who meet together to attain and
maintain sobriety. The only requirement for membership is a desire to
stop drinking. There are no dues or fees for A.A. membership.
FORMS OF COMMUNITY ORGANIZING –
TYPES OF HELPING ORGANIZATIONS
Education
Source: Midwest Academy
FORMS OF COMMUNITY ORGANIZING –
TYPES OF HELPING ORGANIZATIONS
Advocacy
Source: Midwest Academy
The mission of the ACLU is to preserve these protections and guarantees:
Your First Amendment rights-freedom of speech, association and assembly.
Freedom of the press, and freedom of religion supported by the strict
separation of church and state.
Your right to equal protection under the law - equal treatment regardless of
race, sex, religion or national origin.
Your right to due process - fair treatment by the government whenever the
loss of your liberty or property is at stake.
Your right to privacy - freedom from unwarranted government intrusion into
your personal and private affairs.
FORMS OF COMMUNITY ORGANIZING –
TYPES OF HELPING ORGANIZATIONS
Direct Action
FORMS OF COMMUNITY ORGANIZING –
TYPES OF HELPING ORGANIZATIONS
National People's Action (NPA) is a network of grassroots organizations with a fierce
reputation for direct action from across the country that work to advance a national
economic and racial justice agenda. NPA has over 200 organizers working to unite
everyday people in cities, towns, and rural communities throughout the United States
through direct-action, house meetings and community organizing.
NPA and its affiliates range from farmers in rural Iowa to youth in the South Bronx.
We have affiliate organizations in 14 states with remote network offices in
Washington D.C., California, New York and a central office in Chicago. Our target
population is not limited to a geographical area or regional group but rather works
with and on behalf of hard working Americans everywhere to ensure an equitable and
just democracy.
THREE PRINCIPLES OF
DIRECT ACTION ORGANIZING
Source: Midwest Academy
1.Win real, immediate, concrete improvements in people’s live
2.Give people a sense of their own power
3.Alter the relationships of power
FORMS OF COMMUNITY ORGANIZING
Dire
ct Serv
ice
Self H
elp
Educa
tion
Advoca
cy
Dire
ct Actio
nAccepts ExistingPower
Relationships
ChallengesExistingPower
Relationships
Source: Midwest Academy
Dire
ctServ
ice
Self H
elp
Educa
tion
Advoca
cy
Dire
ct Actio
nAccepts ExistingPower
Relationships
ChallengesExistingPower
Relationships
Source: Midwest Academy
Level of involvementof people directly
affected by problem
FORMS OF COMMUNITY ORGANIZING
Dire
ctServ
ice
Self H
elp
Educa
tion
Advoca
cy
Dire
ct Actio
nAccepts ExistingPower
Relationships
ChallengesExistingPower
Relationships
Source: Midwest Academy
Change of people involved in problem
FORMS OF COMMUNITY ORGANIZING
Dire
ctServ
ice
Self H
elp
Educa
tion
Advoca
cy
Dire
ct Actio
nAccepts ExistingPower
Relationships
ChallengesExistingPower
Relationships
Source: Midwest Academy
Level of structural change
FORMS OF COMMUNITY ORGANIZING
Dire
ct Serv
ice
Self H
elp
Educa
tion
Advoca
cy
Dire
ct Actio
nAccepts ExistingPower
Relationships
ChallengesExistingPower
Relationships
Source: Midwest Academy
Level of Conflict
FORMS OF COMMUNITY ORGANIZING
www.industrialareasfoundation.org
Saul Alinsky (1909 – 1972)
• Pioneer in grassroots
democracy theory and
practice
• Founder of the Industrial
Areas Foundation (IAF)
• Master organizer and
challenger of the status quo
“Change means movement.
Movement means friction. Only in the
frictionless vacuum of a nonexistent
abstract world can movement or
change occur without that abrasive
friction of conflict.” - Saul Alinsky
Challenge to the field
• Being right means NOTHING.
• What is your POWER analysis for
getting your agenda accomplished?
A POWERFUL ORGANIZATION
2010 revenue =
$227,811,279
• 4.3 million members, mostly gun owners.
• Grassroots connections with extensive membership, NRA affiliated state
associations, local gun clubs, the Boy Scouts and other organizations
•. When restrictive gun legislation is proposed at any level, NRA members and
supporters are alerted and respond with individual letters, faxes, emails, and calls
to their representatives.
• Several websites and seven monthly publications for subscribers and
newsstands to get its message out.
• 2010 revenues = $227,811,279
• Federal level lobbying = between $1.5 million and $2.7 million from 2001 - 2010.
• During 2010, they spent over $7.2 million at the federal level.
• 2010 federal congressional elections = NRA contributed $902,700 to Republican
candidates and $373,350 to Democrats.
• Some statistics show that the NRA and its allies outspend gun control groups by
27 to 1.
• Members of Congress have ranked it as the most powerful lobbying
organization in the country several years in a row.
• Seven permanent lobbyists in DC.
• 200 pro-gun members of Congress.
• NRA particularly effective in influencing swing voters.
“During my career as a trauma surgeon at Cook
County hospital, we saw a lot of gun violence
victims. I became an advocate for gun control,
even being invited to give testimony before the
senate subcommittee concerning the assault
weapon ban. At every turn the NRA was there. It
is an extremely powerful, well organized machine,
that just bulldozes over its enemies.”
- Former student in Tom’s “Public Policy” class
POLITICIANS HAVE A REPTILIAN BRAIN…
Challenge to the field
• Do NRA members care more for the Second
Amendment and their guns than do the leaders
of America’s nonprofit sector care for social
justice and their constituents?
A STORY OF INFRASTRUCTURE
2011 revenue =
$9,168,949
LI programs trains thousands of people each year to:
• Form independent conservative student groups
• Manage grassroots-oriented campaigns
• Publish independent conservative school newspaper
• Succeed in the competitive field of broadcast media
• Run successfully for elected office
• Communicate a conservative message using the media
• Formulate policy as elected officials or key staff members
Offers 40 types of training schools, workshops, and seminars
and a top-notch intern program.
Since 1979, the Leadership Institute has trained more than
100,000 students. Graduates include US Senators and
Congressmen, governors and state legislators, city council
members and local mayors, and conservative activists and
officeholders at every level. The Institute's unique college
campus network has grown to more than 1,400 conservative
campus groups and newspapers.
Challenge to the field
• What does OUR Leadership Institute look
like?
• Would YOU sign up?
IT’S TIME FOR US TO BE DIFFERENT!
Operation 2014 – Seek out, train, support
50 nonprofit leaders to run for local office
as champions of a Human Agenda.
Donna Edwards was elected in 2008 as a Democrat to represent Maryland’s fourth district in
the House of Representatives. Most of her previous experience was in the nonprofit
world, including jobs as:
• Lobbyist, Public Citizen’s Congress Watch project, 1992-94
• Executive director, Center for a New Democracy, 1994-96
• Co-founder and executive director, National Network to End Domestic Violence, 1996-99
• Executive director, Arca Foundation, 2000-8
Ms. Edwards says she loved working for
nonprofits but appreciates “the power of the
voice and the office” that she now enjoys as
a lawmaker.
“Being a member of Congress is like a big
bully pulpit for the things you feel passionate
about,” she says, recalling that two decades
ago she worked with a group that was
pushing to overhaul the health-care system.
“Then I get to come to Congress,” she adds,
“and I preside over the health-care debate
and [help] pass what is probably the most
significant legislation we’re going to have in
a generation that’s really going to make a
difference in people’s lives.”
Watch video @ http://afterschooladvocacy.wikispaces.com/Background
