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Grassroots Organizing Institute

Proposals are by invitation only

Groundswell Fund's Grassroots Organizing Institute, part of our capacity building efforts, equips reproductive and social justice organizations with the skills and support needed to build power for policy and systems change, ensuring their sustainability and effectiveness in the long term.organization of our grantees.

Aligned with Groundswell’s Blueprint, our Capacity Building Program, which includes our Integrated Voter Engagement Program and Grassroots Organizing Institute, sharpens our shared vision, strategies, and tactics to build a multiracial, feminist democracy.

Our Capacity Building Program is oriented around three key areas:

  • Political Education: Groundswell Fund activates our theory-to-action continuum in practice with our grantee partners. By supporting access to the theories, texts, and leaders that help bridge issue-specific causes with shared understanding.
  • Infrastructure & Internal Systems: We plan to work with a movement-trusted organizational development provider in order to build out the infrastructure of their internal systems.
  • Whole-Person, Whole-Organization: We believe in whole-person, whole-organization leadership and power-building. In addition to supporting access to safer strategy workshop space for RJ executive-level staff, we’re also connecting skill-building opportunities for mid-level management staff. By making space for healing justice in this work, like the Windcall Institute, we can increase the capacity of movement leadership.

Read more about our current Blueprint based on grantee feedback and the input of national, local, and global leaders in social and reproductive justice.

 

Asked and Answered. Capacity Building Creates a New Set Point.

Groundswell Fund moves from the underlying principle grassroots power is built and maintained through strong organizations with the infrastructure and the agility to deliver real change in the lives of people in their communities.

When we asked our grantee partners how we could support them in leaning into an opportunity to skill and scale their grassroots power…they responded.

Groundswell Fund answered with the Grassroots Organizing Institute (GOI) and an Integrated Voter Engagement (IVE) program.

Our programs are opt-in, and participation is not required to receive grant funding. Some examples of our capacity-building offers include:

  • Tools and technology to assess and scale impact
  • Coaching to foster peer learning and support among grantee organizations. Our coaches are some of the most seasoned people of color, women of color, transgender and gender-expansive grassroots and electoral organizing expert practitioners from across the country
  • Training on cutting-edge techniques for voter engagement and grassroots power-building
  • Funding to support the staffing and infrastructure needed for organizations to increase their impact
  • Political education to deepen the race, class, gender, and decolonization analysis of organizations

Mind-body modalities to support the health and sustainability of leaders and organizations.

Sista Fire

Meet Grassroots Organizing Institute Grantee Sista Fire

SISTA Fire was a key organization in the passing of the Rhode Island Doula Reimbursement Act. Through the Act, doula services are reimbursable by every Rhode Island insurance and Medicaid plan, increasing access for families and creating a pathway toward a living wage for working doulas. The Act also raised the Medicaid reimbursement for doula services from $800 to $1,500, which is the highest reimbursement rate in the country.

What does participating in the GOI look like?

The GOI aims to provide organizing fundamentals along with tailored coaching support for each participating organization. The GOI program equips participating organizations with the skills and abilities to explore Integrated Voter Engagement (IVE) work should they choose to after graduating from the program.

Each participating organization will receive the following:

  1. Grant support:
    • A $75,000 general support grant to cover a portion of the staff time needed to participate in the GOI and meet the programmatic benchmarks and goals.
    • A $20,000 grant to cover costs of base-building and direct outreach field programs.
  2. Political education: Ongoing education rooted in race, gender, class, and decolonization lens to create a shared understanding of the theories, strategies, and foundational texts that unify “organizers” across sectors. The education will be integrated so that the skills-building trainings and workshops are a part of the theory-to-action continuum.
  3. Convenings: Intensive, in-person gatherings with other cohort members for co-learning, skills-building, and relationship building. Skills-building workshops include trainings on how to:
    • Recruit and retain members/volunteers;
    • Utilize a Leadership Ladder of Engagement;
    • Identify community-informed issue priorities;
    • Develop campaign power maps and escalation tactics;
    • Manage alliance and coalition dynamics to advance your organization’s campaign;
    • Execute strategic communications that build the base and shape the narrative;
    • Have an effective one-on-one (and track it!).
  4. Direct coaching and mentorship: This includes up to 80 hours annually with a seasoned organizer who will coach key staff within the organization to develop internal systems to support effective organizing, design a campaign(s), create an achievable work plan(s), and implement that plan effectively.
  5. Database access and training: All participating organizations will use a functioning database to capture and use organizing data. In cases where organizations do not already have a database, the GOI program will provide contracts with an external provider.
  6. Mind-body practices: Access to self-care and mind-body self-awareness modalities — such as Somatics, Forward Stance, mindfulness meditation, and yoga — which accelerate culture change, build group cohesion, and foster sustainability in movement-building work.