Action Kits /
Organizing to Build League's Grassroots Power
Organizing tools and resources for Leagues to build grassroots power in their communities. Includes standing resources, upcoming and past trainings, and related organizing materials.
Table of Contents
- Overview
- Supporting State & Local Leagues
- Standing Resources
- Recent Trainings
- Library of Past Trainings
- Related Materials
Overview
The LWVUS organizing department works to build and harness the League’s grassroots power by creating community, developing capacity, taking collective action, and leveraging the relational power of a network of families and friends to expand voting rights, transform policies, and ensure a more equitable and just democracy where everyone can thrive.
The LWVUS organizing team convenes trainings, community field calls, field events, League in Action demos and office hours, and volunteer opportunities focused on developing and implementing relevant organizing skills to equip Leagues with the resources they need to build their capacity, increase their impact, stand in their power, strengthen a people-powered movement, and reach their strategic goals.
For all upcoming volunteer opportunities, events, and digital actions, follow our League in Action!
LWVUS Organizing Team
- Nile Blass, Greater DC Metro Area (DC, MD, VA) Regional Organizer & Youth Empowerment | [email protected]
- Heather Bowles, Senior Field Organizer: Nevada | [email protected]
- Luana Chaires, Digital Relational Organizing Manager (League in Action) | [email protected]
- Demetrius Fisher, Southeast Regional Organizer | [email protected] | North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Florida, Tennessee, Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi
FOR GENERAL QUESTIONS OR TO REQUEST A TRAINING, EMAIL THE ORGANIZING TEAM
Supporting State & Local Leagues
How can the LWVUS organizing team support your state and local League?
Train: We offer specialized training tailored to the needs of your League. Some examples include:
- Voter Engagement and get-out-the-vote (GOTV) campaigns
- Organizing public actions
- Digital organizing
- Building online-to-offline strategies
- Relational organizing to leverage the power of our relationships
- Base-building or power-building
- Power-mapping
- Volunteer recruitment and management
- Development of issue campaigns
- Challenging and dismantling white supremacy culture/patriarchy/classism
- Storytelling or building and amplifying a collective narrative
- Advocating with an organizing lens
- Fundraising with an organizing lens
Strategize: We can meet with your League to help you develop plans to verbalize the Who, What, When, Where, Why, and How. Some strategies we can assist with include:
- Development of voter engagement and get-out-the-vote (GOTV) plans
- Development of work and campaign plans
- Visioning
- Debriefs
- SWOT Analysis
- Issue campaigns
- Mobilizations
- Public actions
- Recruiting and managing volunteers
Execution: We can support your League in the implementation and execution of your work with an intersectional and diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) lens, including identifying and creating moments for collective actions to flex the League’s grassroots people and digital power at the local, state, regional and national level.
Partnerships: We can assist your League to identify, develop and deepen partnerships with other pro-democracy and voting rights groups, and groups that intersect with the League’s priorities, including training and strategies for building and working in an effective coalition.
Standing Resources
- Introducing League in Action
- OutreachCircle Starter Kit
- OutreachCircle Resources for Leagues
- Bearing Witness: Active Bystander Intervention Training | This training covers de-escalation techniques to safely address tense situations at polling places to ensure every voter can exercise their right to vote safely.
- Relational Organizing Election Toolkit: This toolkit aims to provide a ready-to-go list of template League in Action actions to develop online-to-offline power that correspond with the LWV field election calendar and VOTE411 promotion. Please contact the LWVUS organizing team for additional questions.
Recent Trainings
Leagues can find all upcoming trainings and events on our calendar.
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July 6, 2023 | Amplifying Democracy: The 26th Amendment & the Power of Young Voters
- June 27, 2023 | Young Voters Mobilization Community Field Call
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April 25, 2023 | ERA Community Field Call Passcode: RbfqK.G0
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LWV 103rd Birthday Celebration “People Powered League” | Recording
Library of Past Trainings and Resources
Leagues can find recordings of previous community calls here.
GOTV Voter Contact and Outreach
Trainings and resources on voter engagement, voter empowerment, and GOTV efforts.
- Hustle FAQ - LWV
- For the People Act Friendbank: FAQs
- Get Out the Vote (GOTV) Best Practices | This training provides strategies and tactics for getting out the vote during a pandemic with just about 3 weeks left to go until Election Day!
- Contacting Voters Through Phonebanking | Direct Voter Contact is the most effective way to get out the vote. On October 1st, we went over the best practices focused specifically on phonebanking and how to overcome barriers to get your phonebanks off the ground. Leagues can download slides here.
- Growing Our Democracy: From New Citizens to New Voters | In partnership with the National Partnership for New Americans, we learned how to engage new voters and expand our democracy.
- Voter Registration in the Time of COVID | This training went over best practices and considerations for your voter registration efforts and ways to participate in National Voter Registration Day.
- Getting out the Vote in Unprecedented Times | View the above recording to learn best practices for turning out voters during these unprecedented times.
Relational Organizing and Basebuilding
Trainings and resources to organizing people and communities and harness the power of relationships (friend-to-friend, family-to-family, neighbor-to-neighbor).
- Grassroots Organizing 101 : Defining and Understanding our Power | This training provides a framework for understanding how we build power through organizing.
- The Power of Relational Organizing Meetings | This training reviews key elements for a successful relationship-building meeting — often called One on Ones — to get people involved and committed to the work we are doing together.
- Train the Trainers: Organizing Conversations for Redistricting | This training covers how to have organizing conversations to bring people into the redistricting effort and conversation.
- Maximizing Impact and Visibility for your People Powered Day of Action | This training discusses best practices on how to maximize impact and visibility through planning your actions and events for the April 29 People Powered Day of Action!
- We are VRAA: Using Your Own Networks to Maximize Impact | Join LWVUS as we collaborate to honor the Legacy of John Lewis by equipping attendees with action steps to move the Voting Rights Advancement Act and build the base of support to create lasting change.
- Facilitating and Building Engaging Meetings on Digital Platforms | In this training, we go over key tips and best practices for facilitating and hosting interactive online and offline meetings!
- Digital Organizing for Redistricting Reform | This training by League of Women Voters and StateVoices discusses key digital organizing concepts and best practices that you can apply to your redistricting efforts on the ground.
- Volunteer Management | This two part volunteer management training helps Leagues get focused and ready for the election season and beyond!
Maximizing Digital Impact
Trainings and resources to leverage the power of the digital space and social media.
- Introducing League in Action by OutreachCircle | League in Action powered by OutreachCircle makes it simple for Leagues to recruit, engage, and activate community members while being able to track and manage their efforts every step of the way.
- Digital Organizing Primer | A look into the strategies, tools, and techniques you can use to continue building League power and getting people involved in your efforts. Please view the supplemental handouts to learn more about ways to put these skills into practice.
- A Beginner's Guide for Social Media Tools | Learn the basics for how to use your available social media platforms to maximize your presence, power, and reach. Leagues can download the slide deck here.
- An Intermediate's Guide to Social Media Tools | This is a training focused on taking your social media skills and expertise to the next level! As a primer, we encourage you to watch the May 7th training recording listed below for review! Leagues can download the slide deck here.
Voter Education
Trainings and resources of past campaigns and days of collective action.
- Recess can wait, Our Summer of Democracy Teach in! | This session reviewed the core voting rights bills, the For the People Act, the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act, and DC Statehood
- Civil Rights and the Filibuster: What to Do about this Jim Crow Era Relic | Together with Common Cause and State Voices, we led a session discussing the filibuster and its impact on civil rights progress.
- People Powered Day of Action | On April 29, 2021, the League of Women Voters hosted events with partners across the country to increase public awareness and engagement around the redistricting process.
- Reclaiming Our Districts: A Redistricting Introduction For the People | LWVUS, Common Cause, and State Voices discussed how the redistricting cycle is going to work this year, how the For the People Act would impact it in the future, and what you can do to get involved.
- The Fight for the Right to Vote | On July 23rd, we were joined by guests from the Leadership Conference, And Still I Vote, and All Voting is Local to discuss the systemic racism embedded in our election processes and the voter suppression tactics that disproportionately target Black people and people of color. Our partners will give information on how to get more deeply involved as we collectively work to upend these practices.
Related Materials
- Relational Organizing Toolkit (Updated Sept. 2022)
- LWVUS Protest Safety Guidance | Guidance for all attendees participating in any protest or rally coordinated by LWVUS
- Community Norms | Guidelines for groups or meetings to help facilitate conversations in a positive and productive way