Guide to Organizing
By Commons Social Change Library, Leading Change Network
This curated guide is a compilation of the primary resources available on LCN's Resource Center about Organizing. It includes videos, articles, and other tools.
Introductions and Overviews
The LCN Resource Center is organized by three overarching topics: Organizing, Narrative, and Campaign and Movement Building. This is a curated a guide on Organizing. You can find hundreds of materials on Organizing outside this curated guide by browsing the whole topic where you will have options to refine the results by clicking on ‘Refine by Region’, ‘Refine by Format’ etc on the right hand-side.
Organizers identify, recruit and develop leadership; build community around leadership; and build power out of community. Organizers challenge people to act on behalf of shared values and interests. – Marshall Ganz
Guides and Manuals
- Organizing: People, Power and Change (Guide) (Available in English, Spanish & Turkish)
- Organizing for America OFA: Community Organizer Manual
- The Sierra Club Movement Organizing Manual
- Formerly Incarcerated Convicted People and Families Movement (FICPFM) Organizer Training Fellowship: Winning Campaigns to Transform the Criminal Justice System During Covid 19 and Beyond: Digital Manual
Mobilizing others to achieve purpose under conditions of uncertainty— what leaders do—challenges the hands, the head, and the heart. – Marshall Ganz
Tools and Graphics
- The Organizer’s Canvas: Mapping the critical elements for creating change
- Introduction to Organizing as taught by Marshall Ganz (Graphic)
- Visual and Explanatory Tools about Community Organizing by Ahel (Arabic & English)
Courses
- Marshall Ganz 2014 Organizing Couse: People, Power & Change graduate course at Harvard University (Videos)
- Resistance School
- Resistance Bootcamp and Organizer Training by Americans Take Action (Videos and slides)
- ChangeMakers Organizing School (Video Training Course)
- Developing new civic leadership in the Arab World
- Enrol in Leadership, Organizing and Action: Leading Change at Harvard University
Training resources
- Guide for Trainers: A collation of resources by Leading Change Network
- Orientation to Organizing by Leading Change Network (Presentation slides)
- Recovery Advocacy Project – Organizing Institute – Training (Slides and Workbooks)
- The Facilitator’s Resource Guide: Facilitating an Organizing Training
- Community Organizing Facilitators’ Notes
- Training Showcase: Enabling teams to take action with WiLD Academy (Video)
- Teaching on WhatsApp: Leadership and Storytelling for Grassroots Community Organizers
There’s a real sweet spot between challenge and hope – leaders make pathways that keep both firmly in view. -Marshall Ganz
Videos and Podcasts
- Faces of Change Podcast by Leading Change Network
- Community Organizing with Marshall Ganz: Get out the Vote: Voter Mobilization and Civic Education Series at Harvard’s Making Caring Commons: Episode 4 (Video)
- TED talk: The Power of Organizing: Betsy Hoover at TEDxDePaulU (Video)
- Organizing for Health: People, Power and change Marshall Ganz (Video)
- ChangeMakers Podcast: Episodes about Social Change Stories and People
Organizing Practices
Public Narrative
- See the comprehensive collection of resources under the Public Narrative topic, including the Curated Guide to Public Narrative.
Building Relationships
One and Ones
- The One on One 1:1 Meeting
- One on One Meetings to Find and Develop Leaders
- How to Build Relationships: One on One Conversations – Resistance School Course (Videos)
- How to have engaging conversations: Resistance School Course (Videos)
House Meetings
- House Meeting Handbook: Harnessing the power of personal networks and storytelling to build leadership and support for your campaign
- How to hold a House Meeting: Resistance School Course (Videos)
Team Building
- Building Leadership Teams, Resistance School (Online course by video)
- Jeremy Bird: Scaling Grassroots Movements with the Obama Campaign (Video)
- The Science and Art of Great Teams: Learn about the 6 Team Conditions
Structure
Creating Strategy
Action
- Building Power: Developing Leadership, Organizing People, and Mobilizing Collective Action To Win Campaigns: Digital Manual
- Developing Leadership Action Planning Worksheet: Planning a motivational action
Organizing resources in different languages
- أدوات تفاعلية ومواد مرئية حول التنظيم المجتمعي من إعداد أهل – Visual and Explanatory Tools about Community Organising by Ahel (Arabic) (Videos and graphics)
- The Organizer’s Canvas: Mapping the critical elements for creating change (available in Danish, English, Russian, Serbian, Spanish and Swedish)
- Danish 2½-day Organizing Workshop Guide – Lederskab ob Organisering (Danish)
- Organizando: Pueblo, Poder y Cambio – Organizing: People, Power and Change (Spanish) (E-book)
- Liderazgo, Organización, y Acción: Guía del Participante — Leadership, Organization, and Action: Participant Guides (Spanish)
- Community Organizing in France: A Collection of Resources from Organisez-Vous (in French)
- Les Voix pour la Santé (Guide de l’Atelier) – The Voice for Health Organizing (French) (Participant Manual)
- リーダーシップ・オーガナイジング・アクション – Leadership, Organizing and Action (Japanese)
Books
- Why David Sometimes Wins: Leadership, Organization, and Strategy in the California Farm Worker Movement by Marshall Ganz
- Community Organizing by David Walls
- Building Powerful Community Organizations: A Personal Guide to Creating Groups that Can Solve Problems and Change the World by Michael Jacoby Brown
- Groundbreakers: How Obama’s 2.2 Million Volunteers Transformed Campaigning in America by Hahrie Han and Elizabeth McKenna
Explore Further
