Introduction

Community Catalyst's mission is to organize and sustain a powerful consumer voice to ensure that all individuals and communities can influence the local, state and national decisions that affect their health. Community Catalyst works to build the capacity, influence and power of state and local organizations to bring a consumer voice to health policy change.

What is Grassroots Organizing

To understand grassroots organizing, it is crucial to define and distinguish it from other advocacy capacities. 

The Power of Grassroots Organizing

Grassroots organizing is powerful because it allows you to bring large numbers of people to the table. These numbers impact decision-makers, and the bigger your numbers the greater your impact. 

More about Astroturf

We refer to manufactured attempts to mimic genuine long-term organizing efforts as astroturf, or a synthetic “grassroots” movement driven with large cash infusions, often from corporations, public relations firms or other deep-pocketed sources.

Resource Building for Grassroots Organizing

Whether you are hiring your own organizers or partnering with an existing organization, grassroots organizing requires an investment over time.

Building Your Internal Grassroots Organizing Capacity

What to look for when hiring and working with an organizer.

Partnering with Existing Grassroots Groups

There are two ways to enhance your grassroots organizing capacity. One strategy is to build your internal grassroots organizing capacity. The other strategy is to partner with an organization that specializes in grassroots organizing.

Methods for Building Your Base

Now that you’ve either hired your own organizers or established an effective partnership with another organization, it’s time to focus on the work of base building. Grassroots organizing is best done on the individual level, through relationship-building conversations with community members that highlight the importance of the issue and its relevance to their lives.

The Pyramid of Engagement

Community Catalyst has created a framework called the Pyramid of Engagement that we use to describe the various levels of engagement by different organizations involved in a coalition.

Appendixes