Grassroots Campaign

How to develop a powerful grassroots campaign on a shoestring budget.

• Identify & invite the people that share your ideals.

• Develop your goals.

• Form action committees.

Essential Components For Success

• Leadership qualities

• Meetings

• Work

• Odds 'n' Ends

Our Complete Community Action Guide

For more ideas, check out our Community Action Guide for ideas on planning a campaign in your community.  [Community:   A group of people living, working, or learning together. ]  The entire guide can be viewed or downloaded for free in Adobe Acrobat format.  You will need Adobe Acrobat Reader, (free download from Adobe Web site).

Finding People That Share Your Ideals

The first step in planning a grassroots project or campaign is to identify the people or organizations that share your ideals. If your project goes beyond your own organization, you may be surprised at the diversity of the organizations that can be drawn together to add their talents, time and resources to your own. Some organizations that have participated in Turn Off the Violence campaigns include:

• Elementary, middle and high school teachers, counselors and/or principals

• Law enforcement (sheriffs, police, judges, county attorneys, public defenders)

• Battered women's shelters, sexual assault programs

• Hospitals, clinics, medical associations

• Child abuse prevention councils

• City health departments

• Local theater groups

• Human rights organizations or commissions

• Departments of human services

• Crime Prevention Councils/Neighborhood Watch Groups

• Mental health centers

• Community action programs (CAP)

• Community education

• Early childhood family education programs

• Childcare centers

• Ministerial associations

• Youth workers

• After school programs

• Local colleges or universities

• Senior centers

• Extension Service (4-H)

• League of Women Voters (education fund grants may be available for the project)

• Women of Today, Lions, Rotary, Optimists, and other service organizations

• Downtown development associations or Chambers of Commerce

• Local businesses (may contribute funds or in-kind donations)

• The Governor’s Office and Attorney General’s Office

Recruit individuals with a "can do" attitude who will help to motivate others to participate in the project or campaign. Because of staffing, funding, location, or personal time, not everyone will be able to participate in the same way. "Participation"' can take the form of providing in-kind donations of services, promoting the campaign through the organization's mailing list or newsletter, or actively becoming involved in the planning process. Consider ways to involve as many people as possible in your campaign.

Develop Your Goals

• Who do you want to reach with "the message"? 

• How and where can you best reach them? 

• How are they accustomed to learning?

• What will make the message easier to hear and understand? A theatrical presentation, music, display materials, reading materials, a videotape, a community event? 

• What already-existing resources and tools are available to put to use? 

Form Action Committees

The following are suggestions for committee types and their responsibilities.

Project or Event Committee

• Determine a timeline for the project.

• Recruit volunteers for your other committees.

• Develop a project budget.

• Coordinate with, and between, the other committees.

• Find a site.

• Develop a program list.

• Contact & schedule speakers, storytellers, performers

• Provide display space at the event for each organization participating in your campaign.

Funding Committee

• Find volunteers or an organization to serve food.

• On the day of the event:

• Pick up or arrange for delivery of the food.

• Set up the necessary equipment.

• Arrange the layout for serving.

• Thank your volunteers.

Outreach Committee

• Print posters & brochures.

• Prepare a display booth.

• Send letters to clergy, educators, police & sheriffs departments, neighborhood watch members and others in the community soliciting their support of the project.

• Offer to write an article for any business or non-profit organization's newsletter.

• Produce yard signs promoting your project. Ask neighborhood watch members, city council members, and PTA members to post them conspicuously in their front yards.

• Promote your message on electronic marquees and billboards throughout the community.

• Recruit a Media Subcommittee.

• Recruit a Speakers Bureau Subcommittee.

• Send reproducible posters and brochures to all schools, daycares, businesses, libraries, social service agencies, and civic groups.

• Obtain permission to put posters and brochures in local stores, community centers, and waiting rooms of doctors' offices, dental offices, hospitals, social service agencies, etc.

• Have school children create posters to hang in their schools and around the community.

• Ask businesses to include brochures or information about your campaign in their employee pay envelopes.

Media Subcommittee

• Send letters to local newspapers, radio and TV stations asking for their support of the project. Follow up with personal calls.

• Prepare and send press releases and public service announcements.

• Arrange media interviews. Include cable TV.

• Submit opinion/editorial columns to all local newspapers. Have concerned community members co-author a letter to the editor.

• Encourage local newspapers to publish their own editorials supporting your project.

Display Booths

• Recruit creative volunteers to design a display.

• A display for kids will probably be different than a display for a law enforcement conference or a business seminar on workplace violence.

• Can the display be modified for each audience?

• Use posters, newspaper clippings, photographs, kids drawings, and bold graphics to add visual appeal.

• Use community and school calendars to find events at which you could set up display booths.

• Contact the event sponsors early to request permission to set up a booth.

• Include kids as information booth volunteers

More ideas

• Encourage your community Park & Recreation department and its affiliated sports coaches to use games to teach cooperation and sportsmanship.

• Ask your local clergy to present sermons on non-violent conflict resolution or the effects of unhealthy media entertainment during the week of Turn Off the Violence.

• Urge schools and youth groups to teach media literacy.

• Create a float for community parades.

• Write thank you notes to volunteers, media, speakers and contributors.

• Put a letter of thanks in your local newspaper.

• Hold a debriefing session with your planning committee. Take notes to help plan for next year's event and to identify possible followup activities.

Essential Components For Success

Have a clear VISION of the mission and goals of the project.

Be PASSIONATE and ARTICULATE about the mission. Only if it’s clear to people that you’re committed and excited about your work will you be able to inspire them to become committed to work with you. You must have the ability to communicate your passion and vision and goals and you must be able to clearly direct the work of volunteers or committees. Some of us find ourselves “passion challenged.” We have a vision but find it difficult to communicate it to others and to inspire them. If you’re passion-challenged, recruit someone else who has the passion and communications skills to be the “out-front” leader.

WALK THE WALK. Don’t set out to change the world until you look deep into your own soul to see if you’re living up to the ideals you’re setting for everyone else. Participants quickly see through inconsistencies between what leadership says and what it does and that obviously undermines the work.

Have PURE MOTIVES. An organization that has jumped on the ___ [fill in the cause] bandwagon for what looks like profit-seeking or marketing purposes may be able to participate in a public awareness campaign, but it may be exceedingly difficult for that organization to lead the work of volunteers. Volunteers or other coalition organizations that question the motives of the campaign leadership will certainly be less likely to be passionately committed to the work.

Have good ORGANIZATIONAL SKILLS. An inspiring project will attract participants but participants quickly lose interest in a project that is poorly organized.

Recognize the valuable contributions of participants, especially volunteers. Every participant has a name and a reason for being there to help you. Participants should never be treated as a commodity. You inspire their loyalty by getting to know them, learning what motivates them, learning their talents, their time constraints, and implementing their talents in the work that provides them the most personal rewards.

FUN. Lively speakers, good eats, and/or participants with good senses of humor are always welcome additions to a meeting.

RESPECTFUL OF PARTICIPANTS’ TIME. Everyone’s busy, busy, busy these days. Make sure your meetings are well organized with a worthwhile agenda, a sense of project momentum, and a sense of accomplishment at the end of the meeting. Start each meeting with a report on what’s been accomplished since the last meeting. End each meeting with a summary of what participants have committed to work on and what’s been accomplished during the meeting.

Provide participants with the sense that their work is valuable and meaningful. Even the most ambitious project cannot succeed without the work of envelope-stuffers or others who do similarly mundane tasks. Make sure everyone understands the value of their work, no matter what their role in your project.

PROVIDE DIVERSE OPPORTUNITIES FOR PARTICIPATION. Everyone has different skills, abilities, time constraints, and levels of willingness to participate. Some people are outgoing and willing to be spokespeople or trainers for your work. Others are more timid and may want to work behind the scenes. Medical professionals may want to promote media literacy to get people off the couch into more active lifestyles. Law enforcement participants may want to focus on the violence prevention aspects of media literacy. Teachers may want to participate because of the educational benefits for their students. Students are full of creativity, energy, and fresh perspectives that can benefit your project. Artists may help design your printed materials. Professional marketers may help you merchandise items with your message. Accountants may provide financial management expertise for your organization. Some people may only want to use the information you give them to make better, more informed choices in their own lives.

Rather than providing a “canned” program for people, create a framework to which they can apply their own imagination and talents, (like our Turn Off the Violence Guiding Principles and Community Action Guides). You’ll be surprised at the innovation, commitment, and productivity that result from this approach.

With the tasks that must be done, CAREFULLY MATCH PARTICIPANTS WITH THE WORK, taking into account the participants skills and time constraints. Occasionally participants will rise to the challenge of a task that seems beyond their time or abilities, but oftentimes they become overwhelmed and discouraged.

In spite of the seeming success of negative political campaigns, we believe you’ll attract more participation if your campaign is positive and upbeat. A positive message is also more consistent with the message of media literacy since one of the things we are generally advocating for in the media is more positive images, less disrespect. Finger-pointing, bashing, blaming campaigns aren’t consistent.

Blaming campaigns are counterproductive for another reason. Since it’s clear that there isn’t just one reason for violence, consumerism, and other negative aspects of our culture, finger-pointing campaigns give critics a valid reason to discredit your campaign for being overly-simplistic. Media - however powerful - is just one influence on our culture and our personal behavior.

Don’t just encourage people to quit doing something (like watching television) without giving them something positive to fill their time with. For example, with Turn Off the Violence, one of our goals is to encourage people to turn off violent entertainment. A common response is that their most frequent leisure-time activity is watching television and since much of television is violent, how are people supposed to fill their time? (!) We responded by forming an “Imagination Committee” to come up with healthy alternative leisure-time activities. One of the most popular pieces produced by this committee is an ABC list in which each letter corresponds with an activity. Schools often have students brainstorm for ideas to fill in their ABC lists. (Example: A is for aerobics, B is for bicycling, C is for camping.)

Best Wishes on Your Campaign!