Build the Base, Grow the Movement supports learning, implementation and experimentation around a distributed organizing approach in the economic justice movement.

What is the Build the Base Model?

Build the Base provides frameworks and tools that support organizations to recruit and involve their core constituencies to build the capacity to act for themselves.

We focus on what it takes to recruit and meaningfully involve organizations’ members in ways that facilitate meaningful participation and sustained involvement over time, through building out clear pathways of participation embedded in structures with capacity to grow through well-designed teams and coaching systems.

The training includes activities all along the way that set organizations on a path to develop a comprehensive plan. 

Why are We Committed to Distributed Organizing? 

To grow our organizations, we must move beyond individual organizers holding all the relationships to one in which their principal role is to support teams led by volunteer leaders.

In our view, most social justice organizations’ strategy and communications far outstrip the base they have to accomplish their goals. Our leadership and membership bases are simply too small to win at the scale required to achieve urgent economic, racial, gender, immigration and climate justice goals and resist the existential threat to voting rights. Too often when “movement moments” occur, organizations are not prepared to absorb and involve newcomers. As a consequence, most people cycle out quickly.

Our mission is to help more organizations develop the capacity to scale beyond where most economic justice organizations currently find themselves. The fundamental goal of the model is to develop systems of support so that grassroots leaders are equipped to participate, recruit others and lead teams.

Who Should Participate?

Executive Directors, Organizing Directors, Lead Organizers, Organizers and Digital Organizers should come as a group. We do not recommend organizers enroll in the training alone. It is not possible to implement the model without full organizational understanding and commitment.

Build the Base, Grow the Movement Webinar

Digital Tools and Tactics 
for Immigrant Worker Organizing

February 15, 2023 from 2:00 – 3:00 pm EST

Presentation Slides
Webinar Recording

Social media and digital technologies are important tools for any organizer but the playbook may look different depending on your audience. In this webinar, grassroots communication strategist Christine Miranda shares experiences from Movimiento Cosecha's digital organizing program, which mobilizes Spanish-speaking immigrant workers and families through local and national campaign work. She reviews guiding principles and specific case studies of how to reach, engage, and organize immigrant communities with digital tools like WhatsApp and Facebook Live.  

Christine Miranda is a Just Tech Fellow at the Social Science Research Council and an organizer with Movimiento Cosecha, a national decentralized movement fighting for permanent protection, dignity, and respect for all undocumented immigrants. Her work has supported leaders across the country to use digital tools to power and grow their grassroots campaigns.

Presented by wjl@RU's Build the Base, Grow the Movement program with support from the Ford Foundation, this webinar is aimed at worker and immigrant organizers as well as unions, community-based organizations, and legal nonprofits that organize in immigrant communities. 

Office Hours with Christine Miranda - March 7

We followed up on Christine Miranda's popular webinar with an open session where people dropped in to get additional guidance from Christine and learn from one another.  It was an excellent opportunity for the group to ask questions,  pick up new tips, and talk through the challenges and opportunities they're experiencing using digital tools and tactics in their own immigrant worker organizing campaigns.

Christine is looking to connect with more organizers and groups to learn more about their experiences with different digital tools and ultimately create more resources for digital organizing with immigrant workers. To get in touch with Christine, follow her work, ask her questions, get involved in her project, or join her mailing list, you can sign up with her directly at https://bit.ly/digital-training-form.

Quote from Alexis Perez-Nava, Senior Organizer, KIWA
Quote from Alexis Perez-Nava, Senior Organizer, KIWA
Quote from Alexandra Early, Training and Field Organizer, Organizadora del Campo y Capacitación
Quote from Alexandra Early, Training and Field Organizer, Organizadora del Campo y Capacitación
Quote from Yesenia De Casaus,  AFSCME UDW organizer
Quote from Yesenia De Casaus,  AFSCME UDW organizer