Resource Type: Case Studies

This training focused on the use of five elements in combination to implement a successful growth strategy built around Facebook ads. “Growth” in this case means growing your list of supporters, donors, organizing leads, etc. This training used a case study of the Allinace for Climate Education’s 2020 voter registration program to show how using the five elements can help build lists while also meeting more complex goals. The trainings also includes an in-depth discussion of how the elements work together and approaches to take to help you evaluate progress and troubleshoot challenges.              

Two core ways that movement organizations can build and wield “strategic capacity” are by (1) continuously learning about what tactics have worked and which haven’t and (2) re-organize or adapt its resources to new challenges and opportunities. “Strategic capacity” is the ability of an organization to make decisions with uncertain information about how to deploy its resources to achieve a goal. Democratic governance structures within organizations can be especially key in building and deploying strategic capacity. This report delves into much more detail about each of these components and describes a few organization case studies, such as of Deep South Center for Environmental Justice, Dakota Access Pipeline protests, and 38 Degrees. A secondary attached report provides guidance on how an organization can execute a process to evaluate its own strategic capacity.          

This series chronicles the Fight for 15 organizing campaigns in various U.S. cities and states over the past few decades. Examples include Detroit, Chicago, and Seattle. Various articles and interviews—written by different authors—describe the history of organizing efforts, policy goals, and organizing strategies behind both victories and losses. Multiple articles focus on the successful Florida 2020 minimum wage ballot question campaign—particularly the role of workers on the campaign, digital and communications GOTV tactics, and what overall lessons leftists and progressives can take away.             

Grassroots climate activist groups operating under the umbrella organization 350.org promote fossil fuel divestment by constructing a moral dualism to stigmatize the fossil fuel industry. Activists draw on several historical contexts to justify divestment, related to past instances where organizations or countries were penalized for morally inappropriate behavior. These analogies include tobacco, weapons and arms, South African apartheid, and boycotts of Israel and Sudan. Read a summary of this research in SSIR.