Grass Roots Organization
To be fully able to affect change in any endeavor, an organization must show that it has the support of many different organizations and people. We can accomplish this through our ability to form grass roots coalitions.
The ability to organize a grass roots coalition or constituency is a tricky endeavor. You must be concerned with reaching out to any and all potential supporters, but yet not make opponents of your issue aware of your actions.
Also, you should not attract organizations or individuals that can bring a negative focus to your efforts. Because of our political campaign experience, as well as, its work with private sector clients, can form coalitions that allow the focus to be the issue and not the members of the coalition.
These coalitions should:
- Be broad-based to show a wide level of support for an issue;
- include organizations and individuals from all sectors of the public;
- allow the client to utilize the resources of additional supporters;
- focus the attention on the issue; and
- facilitate the needs of all the members, but yet remain focused on the overall goal.
To do this, We do extensive research on:
- The issue area of concern;
- potential supporters of the issue and any negative public profile they may possess;
- the key decision makers concerned with the issue area of concern;
- the relationships between organizations in the marketplace;
- which additional marketplaces will be effected by the issue; and
- which organizations will be most effective in assisting the client with meeting their goals.
Even after the coalition is formed, we work to ensure its smooth operation, and that the needs and expectations of all its members are met. Too often, coalitions disband because of internal strife and friction between its member organizations. With our long history of forming coalitions, we can help to guard against this possibility by:
- Keeping all members updated as to the progress of the coalition;
- establishing realistic expectations for the coalition and its members from the
- beginning of the process;
- facilitating the acceptance of new members into the coalition;
- being cognizant of differences between member organizations; and
- ensuring that the issue is of paramount concern, not any individual member.