What if We’re Wrong?

A photo of a volunteer talking to a voter at the voter's door. The volunteer is a middle-aged woman with brown hair, wearing a grey jacket and carrying a clipboard. The voter is a young woman with purple hair, wearing a striped shirt.

When I posted this essay to LinkedIn, it generated more discussion than anything I’ve ever posted before. So, I’m reprinting it here to see what you think. Reply here or add your voice to the Comments on the LinkedIn Post.

It was a tough post to write because it’s about questioning a campaign tactic that we think is a fundamental truth – canvassing.

Maybe we’re wrong. Or maybe we’re not.

When I was having dinner with a campaign friend shortly after the election last year, we did what all of us did – a lot of sad staring off into the distance, what ifs and “if they had only . . . “

We also asked ourselves some hard questions.

He and I both are experts in field campaigns – the direct voter contact part of any political campaign. That’s door-to-door canvassing, phonebanks, peer-to-peer texting, crowd events, relational organizing.

We’re both pretty good at it. But we both failed last cycle.

Sure, there are lots of reasons. In my case, my clients drowned in a Republican wave. In my friend’s case, his main client struggled to raise adequate funds.

But it’s not just us.

We both know dozens of friends who dropped everything to knock on doors or make phone calls in swing states and districts.

And we see how that worked out.

So, I started asking “what if we’re wrong?” What if the answer to tough political campaign questions isn’t more and better canvassing?

I hardly want to say it out loud because what evokes an authentic campaign more than the image of a smiling volunteer at a voter’s door?

The truth is that we both know what wins political campaigns – relationships with voters.

Most Democrats aren’t investing in building relationships with voters. Many of the Democratic campaign institutions think that investment means starting the canvassing in August instead of September.

Investment means building relationships with voters who share our values, but maybe not positions on issues. It also means repairing relationships with voters who share our values and positions on issues, but feel taken for granted. Because we take them for granted.

It doesn’t mean throwing an army of canvassers at low-turnout neighborhoods at the last minute and thinking it makes up for broken relationships.

On the other hand, a lot of canvassers worked their butts off to successfully elect US House candidates like Derek Tran, Dave Min and Adam Gray. A good friend who knocked on thousands of those doors believes it was the canvassing operation that ultimately brought Tran over the finish line.

If you’ve been involved in campaigns or if you haven’t, I’m curious about your opinion – are we wrong about canvassing?

Hit reply or add your thoughts to the Comments on the LinkedIn post.

2024 at Organizing to Win

Twinkling silvery white lights in the background. The Organizing to Win logo is in the foreground. Above it is a garland of gold stars and tiny red balls. At the top, it reads Happy Holidays! in green. Across the bottom, it reads 2024 in green.

2024 had its ups and downs for all of us right?

While we probably have some of the same downs, I wanted to close out the year by sharing some of the ups with you.

Here are some highlights of the year at Organizing to Win.

Rhonda Bolton’s first campaign for public office

Rhonda is a true leader, who breathes integrity, honesty and a get-it-done ethic. She brought together volunteers who had never set foot in a campaign before.

It was the first time I directed a combined field campaign for three candidates – Rhonda and her two running mates Dan Kalmick and Natalie Moser. (Don’t let anyone tell you that three campaigns in one will be easier!)

Working with the SEIU Anti-Racist Crew for Transformation.

Union members have initiated an ambitious program to become an anti-racist organization. We kicked off the first stages of what will be a comprehensive and deliberate process throughout the 2 million-member organization.

Organizing Strategy with Virginia Interfaith Power & Light.

This year, we followed up on an organizing education and coaching series with a deeper dive into organizing strategy. In 2025, I look forward to continuing to work with organizers as they build power for climate justice in Virginia.

Design and facilitation of a day long Convening

With leaders of eight Nevada climate justice organizations. Our purpose was to start aligning on a legislative agenda for 2025 and to strengthen relationships within the coalition. It must have worked because the coalition coordinator told me last week about the four bills that have been introduced for the 2025 session – all of which were at the top of the consensus list of priorities at the Convening.

CMJ Collaborations.

Cat Shieh, Janedra Sykes and I facilitated our quarterly Disrupting White Supremacy Culture in Nonprofits workshop to packed screens. This year, we went deeper into the characteristics of white supremacy culture and added a quarterly livestream. (The next one is on Jan. 9, about Worship of the Written Word. Want more info? See Books. . . Articles. . . etc. recommendations below.)

Let’s reconnect in the new year.

I’d love to compare notes on our plans for 2025.

In the meantime, here’s the important call to action:

Enjoy the holidays.

Take some time to rest, renew and have fun.

I hope you have just enough family time to remember how special they are but not so much that you forget again.

Hope is Alive and Well

A photo of US Vice President Kamala Harris at a rally. She is wearing a light blue suit. She is smiling an looking to the side as she strides across the stage.

Note: I wrote this post about a week before election day 2024. It hasn’t aged very well. I’m posting it anyway because it’s helpful to remember the optimism of July.

The most pessimistic, doom-and-gloom political watcher I know called me this week to say she thinks Kamala is going to win. By a lot.

Her call brightened up my day considerably. It reminded me of how I felt on July 21.

When Joe Biden dropped out in favor of Kamala Harris, I didn’t expect to be so . . .

Relieved. Happy. Excited.

Around Wednesday of the week before Biden dropped out, I knew it was coming.

I braced myself for the reality of a second Trump presidency.

If Biden stayed in, Trump would win. If he bowed out, the Democrats would descend into fighting and lose any chance of holding on to the White House. (Not to mention the Senate or flipping the House.)

Then it happened.

Immediately, some of my anxiety lifted. I didn’t think I would be this full of hope.

Like most people, I’m realistic about Harris’s chances of winning. There’s a lot of sexism and racism out there.

But there’s also hope. And action. And inspiration.

Suddenly, the people who make things happen – volunteers, activists, grassroots leaders, canvassers, social media amplifiers, phone bankers, relational organizers, texters, small dollar donors – are fired up!

Over 360,000 volunteers signed up for the Harris campaign in one week.

[Someone] for Harris groups sprang up all over the place.

Jewish Women for Harris

Black Women for Harris

Black Men for Harris

White Dudes for Harris (Don’t tell me you haven’t seen them!)

AAPI for Harris

Dads for Harris

Hotties for Harris (Seriously. It was on a sign at a rally.)

Since then, I’ve seen more calls to join organized teams of canvassers in Nevada and Arizona than I did in 2020.

It’s not too late to get in on the action. If you live in a swing state, contact your local Democratic Party or club. If you don’t live in a swing state, pick one and search for “volunteer for Democrats in [your favorite swing state].” Organizations will gladly put you to work making phone calls, sending texts or even knocking on doors if you’re nearby. Or go straight to https://kamalaharris.com/.

Don’t let this moment pass you by.

So. Many. Details.

I forgot how complicated this is!

The first time I managed a field campaign was 1990, on a hopeless congressional race in Richmond, Virginia.

The tools have changed. The tech has changed. The messaging has changed. The science of campaigns has changed.

What hasn’t changed? The details.

To make sure volunteers have a good experience and we talk to lots of voters, here are a few of the steps that need to happen to ensure a good day of canvassing.

  1. Identify the right neighborhood to canvas that day.
  2. Find a meeting location in that area.
  3. Create the assignments in the mobile canvassing app.
  4. Text or call volunteers one-by-one to sign them up for shifts.
  5. Draft an email to invite supporters.
  6. Circulate the email for review.
  7. Send the email.
  8. Write a train-the-trainer for lead volunteers.
  9. Create QR codes so volunteers can install the mobile canvassing app.
  10. Print scripts, QR codes and a sign in sheet.
  11. Ask businesses for donations of food for volunteers.
  12. Ask the donors to complete the in-kind contribution form.
  13. Send the form and receipts to the treasurer.
  14. Confirm volunteers.
  15. Assign turf to each canvasser or pair (Or help to create the pairs.)
  16. Break campaign literature into stacks of 50 or 100
  17. Set up sign-in, food, turf assignments, training and campaign literature.
  18. Train new volunteers.
  19. Debrief returning volunteers.
  20. Clean up the meeting site.

Then there’s all the support and follow-up required to make sure everyone understands the system and can do their part. A.k.a. herding the cats.

Is this post already too long for you?

You’re getting the picture.

This is just the implementation. Never mind creating the strategy in the first place.

So, what’s the Call to Action here?

The hardest part of the whole operation is recruiting and scheduling volunteers. It’s also the most critical.

So, when that volunteer coordinator texts you about a shift, don’t leave them hanging! Reply and sign up for a canvassing, texting, phonebanking or yard sign delivery shift.

Agitation in Action

A still from the movie "Stir of Echoes." A man is digging in his basement. There is a bare bulb hanging from the ceiling. One visible wall is stonework, another is brick. There is a ladder against the brick wall, a hot water heater, several planks of wood and the corner of a fireplace.

A while back, I was the organizing director for an organizing campaign with state employees in Colorado. It was a huge campaign, with about 30 organizers and 40,000 workers.

Part of leading the campaign was going with organizers during their house visits – knocking on doors of workers and asking to come in and talk about their work for a while. It’s the best way to have one-on-one conversations away from the prying ears and eyes of bosses.

House Visits

One day, I went with an organizer to the home of a maintenance crew chief in the Department of Corrections.

He came to the door in clothes covered with dirt, dirt on his face, wiping his hands on a rag. He explained that he and his wife were in the middle of digging up their basement to do their own repairs on the sewage or plumbing system.

The organizer starts the conversation by asking about the crew chief’s job. He talks about the crew he coordinates, emphasizing that as a manager, he’s paid a little more. He understood that the members of his team might be struggling more than he was. A union might be good for them.

The two continue to talk about the work, the institutions, his co-workers and more. The organizer did a great job of getting to know this man and his work. The organizer also described the organizing that other state employees were doing to come together to form a union.

Asking the Question

At the right moment, the organizer asks “will you sign a union authorization card and join your co-workers in forming a union?”

“Oh, no. I think the rest of the guys on my team probably need that more than I do,” he said.

The organizer points out that he seems to care a lot about the rest of the team. “What other solutions have you tried to support them?” Of course, nothing.

This conversation continues for a while. They talk about values, teamwork, having the right tools to do the job. Then the organizer asks again about signing a card to form a union.

“Oh no. I’m not that kind of person. I’ll just let the others do it,” he says.

Agitation

At that point, I couldn’t take it anymore.

“Really??? You don’t seem like the kind of person who lets others do the work for you. You’re digging up your own basement!!!” I said.

He looked at me for a few seconds, then said “You’re right. Give me the card.”

Sometimes it takes a little agitation for someone to take action.

Safe Canvassing or Someone Always Calls the Cops Part II

volunteers preparing to canvass. About 100 people standing on grass in front of trees cheering with their fists raised in the air. There are a house and a canopy in the background and a canopy on the side. The sky is blue and clear.

As canvassing season heats up again, I’ve been thinking about how to keep canvassers safe.

From traffic.

From the heat.

From dogs.

Also from residents and police officers who haven’t read the memo that canvassing is first Amendment protected free speech. Especially if those canvassers are people of color.

Safety for canvassers means more than working in pairs and using crosswalks.

It also means protecting canvassers of color from harassment by residents and the cops.

If you are also thinking about ways to protect canvassers from this particular appearance of white supremacy culture, here are a few tips. They can help prepare your team for safe canvassing and deal with incidents if they happen anyway.

With these steps – and probably others – you can keep your campaign on track and support the canvassers

“They Said It Out Loud!”

A CMJ Collaborations logo appears in the upper right corner. Head shots of a white woman, Black woman and Asian American woman are in the other four quadrants.

A few weeks ago, my co-conspirators and I facilitated our quarterly workshop called “Disrupting White Supremacy Culture in Nonprofits.” It’s based on the Characteristics of White Supremacy Culture in Organizations, developed by Tema Okun.

Some of the comments we hear in the workshop and outside of it are:

Hard Questions

“Do you have to say white supremacy? Doesn’t that turn off some people?”

“How do we talk to people who aren’t comfortable with the words ‘white supremacy’?”

“You’re not concerned that people will walk out?”

“Wouldn’t it be better to say DEI or anti-racism?”

I love those questions because it gives me an opportunity to talk about the culture part of white supremacy culture.

When someone is uneasy with the terms, I start out by saying “No one thinks you have a confederate flag in the closet!”

The issue is the culture we’ve all internalized because it’s all around us.

The fault is not in being born in a place and time. The fault is in not questioning our socialization because it’s uncomfortable or might seem threatening.

Disrupting White Supremacy Culture in Campaigns

The workshop came to life when I started to wonder what I’d done in my campaigns that perpetuated, rather than disrupted white supremacy culture. I thought if I was asking these questions, other people might be thinking the same thing.

So I called a friend – a teacher and expert in anti-bias and anti-racism education who has designed ethnic studies curriculum – and said “Hey, do you want to do a conference workshop with me? Less about theory and intellectualism and more about everyday life.”

A New Workshop is Born

The initial Disrupting workshop was born.

Our third co-conspirator saw the recording of the workshop and said “Wow! They said it out loud.”

The three of us have been working together ever since.

We work with nonprofit organizations to create programs that disrupt white supremacy culture.

But TBH, we’re not for everyone. So, we created a workbook to help organizations (1) determine where they are in their own journeys to live up to their values statements and (2) find the best partner to do it.

The “How to DEI” workbook is free. Download it here.

If you lead an organization that is exploring how to live up to your values statement, check it out! I’d love to know what you think.

Organizing Strategy


The organizing cycle portrayed by four yellow circles arranged in a diamond shape with dotted lines connecting them into a circle. There is a line drawing of a handshake above the first circle. That yellow circle reads Outreach and Listening Build relationships, leaders and power through one-on-ones, canvassing, and house meetings. Moving clockwise around the circle, the line drawing above the next yellow circle is a fistbump. The words in that circle are Research Move from problems to issues. Issues are specific, measurable and can be linked to a person or people responsible. The next line drawing is five fists raised in the air. That yellow circle reads Action Come face to face with the person and/or people who have power to address the issue. The final line drawing is a set of fists in a circle. That yellow circle reads Evaluation What did we win? What did we do that worked? What could we do differently? What's next?
credit: NEKO

Recently a very good friend and political campaign ally said that sometimes she doesn’t know what I’m talking about:

“I have to admit, sometimes, even I don’t see it. I mean, how does bringing people together build power the way you talk about it?”

That’s the thing – organizing isn’t visible.

The rallies, voter turnout, lobby days at the Capitol, marches, civil disobedience – that’s all mobilizing.

When I meet with leaders of social justice organizations, unions and other nonprofits to talk about working together, I usually hear about one or more of these situations:

  • A pivot from advocating, lobbying or canvassing to a long-term organizing plan.
  • Frustration that their work to engage members and community leaders has not been successful.
  • A vision of member leadership structures like an organizing committee or regional action teams.
  • Organizers and organizing directors who need support building skills, confidence and strategic vision.

The Organizing Cycle

To address these situations, I develop a strategic organizing plan based on the organizing cycle. (The image above comes from a traditional cycle that many organizers use to plan their campaigns; credit for this version goes to NEKO.)

The rest of the cycle is where the organizing happens –

  • Building relationships
  • Surfacing the most important issues
  • Finding the strategic leverage to win
  • Taking public action together
  • Reflection and evaluation

Building Power

How do we know when we’ve built power? It’s a hot topic for social scientists, campaign analysts and pundits these days. Here are a few signs that your organization is building power:

  • Decision-makers come to you to discuss big ideas.
  • Decision-makers meet with member leaders and activists.
  • Your opponents get less oxygen for their terrible, no-good, very bad ideas.
  • Your members get shout-outs at public event
  • Your members get a nickname (for better or worse).*
  • Candidates come to you for endorsement and volunteers.

Will all of this transformation happen in one campaign? No. A member leader of an education justice organization recently said it took a year and a half to get to their first victory.

If we’re going to transform our communities, we have to invest in them. In addition to money, that means time, brainspace and maybe even internal political capital.

When my friend asked that question, I wasn’t surprised. It helped me think of better ways to talk about organizing strategy.

Turning Mobilizing into Organizing

A selfie of two women at an abortion rights march. The woman on the left wears a gray hat, glasses and a blue surgical mask. The woman on the right wears a blue mask with a butterfly.

If you’ve ever organized or participated in a rapid response action, you’ll know what I’m talking about.

TL;DR

Skip to the bottom for five tips on turning mobilizing into organizing.

Responding to a Crisis

We’ve all thrown bodies at a problem because it was a crisis.

  • The legislature was about to kill our most important bill.
  • Our favorite candidate was about to lose.
  • That giant corporation was about to get its climate-killing wish.
  • Anti-abortion zealots threatened the only abortion care provider in town.
  • The police killed another unarmed person.
  • A resident shot another teenager for breathing while Black.
  • An employer fired yet another worker for organizing a union

Not to mention daily gun violence.

A crisis means we drop everything to mobilize.

We can’t ignore a crisis, even if we don’t have our organizing house in perfect order.

But we can do more than mobilize. Who said never let a good crisis go to waste?

Organizing is bringing people together to build power.

That power grows from relationships. So, use the opportunity of that rapid response to build and strengthen relationships.

Here are five suggestions for turning a mobilization moment into an organizing moment.

  • One-on-ones. Ask each organizer to identify five people who came out to the protest, picket or canvas to invite to a one-on-one meeting.
  • After-action debrief. Plan an evaluation meeting for immediately afterwards. Activists and leaders should know the debrief date at the same time they know the action date.
  • Keep track of who brings someone else to the action. They might be your newest leader.
  • Review social media posts, reactions and comments for potential one-on-one prospects. Same with sign-in sheets.

Here’s where it gets tricky. . .

Number 5 will be controversial –

Prioritize. Ask yourself if this action is strategic for the organization at this time. We’re so accustomed to jumping into action that sometimes it becomes automatic. If the action doesn’t help grow the organization’s power, you might not want to do it.

How do you turn mobilizing into organizing? Reply here or in the Comments on my LinkedIn post on this topic.

We Say It Every Year: THIS IS THE MOST IMPORTANT ELECTION EVER!

volunteers preparing to canvass. About 100 people standing on grass in front of trees cheering with their fists raised in the air. There are a house and a canopy in the background and a canopy on the side. The sky is blue and clear.

In the 2024 election cycle, every race will have larger implications. Those candidates for tiny school board districts in your community? Their potential votes on policy will reverberate nationally. Think book bans, restrictions on access and misrepresentations of US history.

And don’t get me started on what’s at stake in state capitols and Washington DC.

Powerful Elections

Instead of telling voters, volunteers and activists – again – that THIS IS THE MOST IMPORTANT ELECTION, let’s make it the most powerful election.

Let’s make it the year we organize in addition to mobilize.

Let’s build power in addition to winning.

Let’s plan the campaigns with the goal of bringing people together to build power, using the opportunity of the election to do it. Not the other way around.

What’s that I hear?

“We have a million doors to knock!”

“I don’t get what you mean by ‘build relationships.’ How does that get us to power?”

“Winning is the best demonstration of power.”

“We don’t have time to hold everyone’s hand. We have a campaign to win.”

All true. It’s hard to think long-term with an election-day deadline looming.

But would we be in this movement if we couldn’t do hard things?

Mobilizing ===> Organizing

Here are some ideas for introducing organizing tactics into a mobilization (election) campaign:

  1. A script that includes some deep canvassing elements. Sure a canvasser might spend more than 3 minutes at a door. The voter is more likely to remember the conversation and more importantly, the volunteer will feel less like a turnout machine and more like a community organizer.
  2. Plan some one-on-ones between organizers or campaign leaders and top volunteers. These convos can be recognition for super volunteers. More importantly, they can also help organizers identify new leaders. When a super volunteer starts bringing other people to shifts, you’ve found a new leader.
  3. A campaign debrief that brings everyone together to process the results of the election, their role and the implications. Win or lose, the more people can share their experiences, the closer they become. More importantly, they are more likely to remain involved if they develop relationships with other activists, organizers or leaders.

We want to transform our communities and win after election day too.