Resource Center

Organizing and movement building is core to the Lab’s Theory of Change. They are necessary for building the people power we need to meet the magnitude of the climate emergency. Organizing, built as it is on relationships of mutual trust, connection, and support among human beings, is often messy and non-linear and contains more than its fair share of demoralizing setbacks.
Keeping people engaged in the face of emotionally charged loss is a recurring challenge for organizers, especially when it comes after a long-term effort with high stakes. I was thinking about this in the wake of the news last week that Enbridge claims Line 3 is operational. Here are four suggestions for taking on a challenge like this.

Using humor in climate change communication can be persuasive to young audiences. A humorous video about climate change made survey respondents less fearful and more likely to perceive grave risks from climate change. However, humor did not increase intentions to engage in activism. Humor did not have any effect on older than their teens or early twenties. The rest of this resource replicated previous research and found no effects of humor or a threatening video on risk perceptions or intentions to engage in activism.

Certain organizing strategies can allow activists to develop leadership skills in different ways. In Australia, the organization School Strike for Climate (SS4C) has generated more involvement among high school students in the climate movement. SS4C has particularly employed some tactics such as “peer learning, mentoring, learning by doing, confrontation, reflective spaces and training” to allow new high school activists to develop leadership skills. SS4C used movement tactics such as mobilizing, organizing, and lobbying politicians, and these different avenues for involvement also allowed new activists to engage in different ways to develop different skills, and lead others in doing them. These different tactics also have different strengths and weaknesses in facilitating leadership development through their execution.

Environmental nonprofits often need to alter their board practices, build connections, and create co-powered solutions in order to recruit and retain Black members on their boards. This report argues that philanthropic funders don’t trust BIPOC-led organizations as much as white-led organizations, and this causes fewer Black placements onto nonprofit boards. Environmental nonprofit boards need to be “ready” for Black board members by showing true dedication to Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion and to combatting racism. Boards need to “recruit” by creating and network and pipeline of potential board members, and they need to “retain” by doing comprehensive onboarding, dealing with microagressions and overt racism, and not tokenizing Black board members. This report breaks down all these lessons in more detail.