What is Grassroots Organizing?

As a Grassroots Organizer,  I enjoy creating democracy in this way. By engaging ordinary people in its compaigns, grassroots organizing works from the bottom up to make decisions and take action.

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It does this by working with its constituency to determine issues, strategies, tactics and finding its volunteer leadership from the people being organized. 

Since the power of grassroots organizing is in ordinary people, it seeks to mobilize in LARGE numbers.

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An activist group of five people may be able to reach 5,000 people in a week by putting up posters, sending e-mails, or making phone calls. Democracy at it's finest!

What is a Grassroots Leader?

Grassroots organizing works to increase the capacity of a social movement by training new volunteer leaders and by involving new volunteer activists.

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Leadership development helps to increase the size of the movement and to increase its power. Leaders learn a variety of skills, such as flyering, running meetings and writing letters-to-the-editor to help their cause.

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Eventually leaders learn how to be organizers: they learn how to pick an issue, run a campaign and how to train other new leaders.

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Successful citizen advocacy is a trade-off...

Getting elected is a lawmaker's primary concern. They need us to be elected and re-elected. We need our lawmakers to achieve our legislative and regulatory agenda.

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Successful citizen legislative advocacy is possible when the reciprocal nature of this relationship is fully understood.

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Remember that time is precious. All letters, e-mails, phone calls or office visits should be "short and sweet". Get to the point soon and focus on your issue.

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Always include the Bill number and /or name of the legislation or regulation in all communication.

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Explain in simple and straightforward terms the logic supporting your position. The most effective logic often involves jobs, cost and how many people it will affect.

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Include your name, address, phone and e-mail address on all communication. This helps for follow-up and to remind your lawmaker that you are his/her constituent.

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Write a thank you note to the lawmaker no matter what the outcome of your issue. It never hurts to show your appreciation for their effort on your behalf.

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 Contact me about legislative issues here.