Resource Type: Case Studies

This session was recorded on June 17, 2021. It was led by Yash Mori, the Managing Director of the Digital Climate Coalition, who built a cadre of 5000 volunteers at Indivisible all working to combat the disinformation that riddled the coverage of the 2020 election. After a 30 minute presentation Yash took questions from the audience for the second half of the session.
His presentation covered five elements of buiding a volunteer team to help fight disinformation, showcased current examples from ongoing work, and concluded with audience questions. The PDF of his deck is available for download by hitting the button above. 

This report looks at this process of power building for just transition in four states: California, Kentucky, Louisiana, and New York. We combine an analysis of the pillars of just transition – strong governmental support, dedicated funding streams, diverse coalitions, and economic diversification – with an analysis of how to change power at a state level that focuses on the conditions that impact possibilities, the community-level capabilities that facilitate effective voice, and the arenas in which power is contested.

Every year M+R Strategies, a digital services firm for progressive non-profits, releases its Benchmarks Study. The 2021 version analyzes the nonprofit digital advocacy and fundraising field using data from over 220 participating organizations. The Study covers these areas:

Digital advertising
Email messaging
Mobile/SMS messaging
Social media
Fundraising
Membership
Website traffic and useage

Movement organizations can make various decisions to find the right balance between breadth versus depth and unity versus autonomy. This report synthesizes hard fought lessons that organizers have learned in the face of complex challenges related to organizational structure. Movement organizations need to have the breadth—the capacity to organize the masses at scale. At the same time, movements need “cadres” with deep leadership capacity in order to be able to organize strategically in the face of constant uncertainty and local complexity. Organizing also requires unity—coordination to unify our power and resources such that the whole can be greater than the sum of its parts. On the other hand, people need autonomy in order to be able to take initiative, unleash their creativity, adapt to the particularities of their context and feel agency in the movement. Movements need to develop structures of leadership and clear authority that can manage the competing demands to create unity and enable autonomy. This report provides general lessons and some specific tips to find the right balance of breadth versus depth and unity versus autonomy.