Building Organizational Advocacy Power

Building strong organizational advocacy power that is rooted in justice and equity is difficult. The Climate Advocacy Lab is here to support you. Whether you are a new organization or have been in existence for some time, it is never too late to make shifts that maximize your ability to bring about change. This guide will help you think about different practices you can implement to create a winning path. Download the slidedeck here.  

Additional tools and resources to support your work:

5 Evidence-Based Insights for Building Organizational Advocacy Power
Tipsheet: 5 Evidence-Based Tips for Building Organizational Advocacy Power
This tipsheet covers five ways organizations can build advocacy power through a strong, durable organizing culture.
Building Organizational Adovcacy Power
Slidedeck: Building Organizational Power Activity Slides
This slidedeck can be used to complement the building organizational guide to think through different questions and activities related to the topic.
Power & Strategy Part 1: Developing a Power Analysis
Webinar: Power & Strategy Part 1: Developing a Power Analysis
Understanding how power flows in our communities is key to developing an effective campaign strategy.  Watch this training to understand power and how we can map influence.
Power & Strategy Part 3: Developing a Theory of Change
Webinar: Power & Strategy Part 3: Developing a Theory of Change
A theory of change can help clarify how change happens, what progress and success look like, and what it takes to get there. This training will take you through step-by-step instructions on how to develop one.
Power & Strategy Part 4: Developing a Strategy
Webinar: Power & Strategy Part 4: Developing a Strategy
What is a strategy? How are your strategy and theory of change interrelated? How do you develop a power-building strategy? In this training, we teach you how to build a transformative strategy.
Campaign Planning
Guide: Campaign Planning
This guide show you how to be laser-focused on winning using evidence-based advocacy building blocks to create powerful campaigns.
Relational Organizing
Guide: Relational Organizing
This guide will help you develop a relational organizing strategy, teach you how to use your existing network to build power, and provide a few tactics to push people up your ladder of engagement.
So, you say you want a coalition
Insight: So, you say you want a coalition
This insight shows how you can develop powerful coalitions through a greater understanding of why and how they are important to progressive advocacy.
 
Check out more content on this topic in our Resource Library!

 

Key Points
  • Ensure your organization is at the nexus of critical capacities of successful movement-building. Building power at the nexus of narrative, disruptive, electoral/institutional increases organizational capacity necessary to build and sustain all the other capacities.
  • Ground yourself with an organizational vision statement, community power map, and plan for integrating equity to build just, equitable power. Think about how you have used community power mapping, lay of the land, vision and integrating equity to maximize your internal and external power and influence.
  • Develop a strong theory of change and strategy so you can be clear about why and how you will win. Your theory of change is why you will win and your strategy is how you will win. Outside of clarifying your value add to the movement, both can be strong recruitment and retention methods.
  • Being able to respond during key pivotal external events can be important for scaling your work and organizational power. Using trigger events as seen on the Moyers Map will be beneficial when scaling and building power. Non-violent direct action when done strategically can increase active popular support and absorb more people.
  • Coalitions with strategic direction can build more power with others collectively. When joining a coalition, remember you are in this space to do something you cannot do alone. Think about how you can build power through effective and disciplined strategies to maximize your power collectively and bring about the social change you want to see in the world.