Working with Other Organizations and Allies in Service

Description

This training explores how to engage and partner with other organizations in a respectful, understanding and productive way - featuring examples from throughout the country of what CCL chapters are doing to build these essential connections as well as understanding how to best interface with local groups of national green organizations.

Breadcrumb

/topics/community-outreach

TOC and Guide Section

What Steps Should We Take?

For a great summary overview of these recommendations click the "Watch" tab above to view the video of CCL's Taylor Krause going over these considerations and guidelines.

CCL staff mainly help maintain relationships with national organizations and we encourage volunteers to help with outreach to local organizations/chapters.
Always search by keyword in the Grassroots Engagement Tracker to see if there is already ongoing outreach or previous outreach being done locally to these groups. If there isn’t, add your own outreach to the Grassroots Engagement Tracker to track your progress working with local leaders and organizations.

Who Should We Reach Out To?

Ideally, you should be focusing your outreach to groups that matter to your members of Congress or are a good partner in your community. Think of focusing your outreach strategy in the intersection of these three overlapping Venn diagram spheres below. Often the best local outreach allies are in the sweet spot of where these three factors intersect.
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Start local. Do your research before making contact - know the organization's profile as well as some background about its local leadership. Please be judicious in your collaborations with these groups to respect CCL’s nonpartisan nature.

CCL’s Grassroots Outreach focuses on the general public in our communities. Through this outreach we build support for climate action and carbon pricing, we make ourselves and our work known in our communities, we find new members and we build relationships in the places where we live. We invite and educate the public on climate solutions, citizen advocacy and how to participate with one’s government. We value service as a way to empower our volunteers and build important connections within our community.

Service is an important part of being an active community member and necessary to build relationships and strengthen democracy. CCL is singularly focused on climate change with a strong emphasis on pricing carbon as an essential tool towards a livable world. For many communities and organizations, immediately engaging on the issue of carbon pricing is not an effective way to win friends and allies. We always have to move at the speed of relationships and relationships require trust. One of the best ways to build trust is to show up for someone else’s cause without an expectation that they will show up for yours.

Here is an initial list of other non-profits with local chapters for your local CCL chapter to consider reaching out to and engaging in dialogue:

League of Women Voters
Audubon Society
Trout Unlimited
League of Conservation Voters
American Association of University Women
Sierra Club
Indivisible
350.org
Sunrise Movement
Students For Carbon Dividends
Climate Reality
Check out local environmental climate action organizations

What Should We Talk About?

Once you’ve set up the initial meeting you can start thinking about your goals of the meeting.

Remember:

Relationships matter. Think of any conversation as opening a door rather than winning a debate
Focus on your shared vision for emissions-free future
Don’t assume other organizations find the Energy Innovation Act to be the best or most effective solution
Humility, authenticity, and demonstrating long-term commitments goes a long way
Your ultimate goal is to build trust. Relationships with other groups and allies are different from those with members of Congress. Members of Congress are your elected representatives and should be meeting with you and reflect their constituents. Whereas other groups and allies can have their own agendas and priorities and may take longer to form relationships and trust.
Be patient. Some initial meetings can kick off well and the group or ally you are meeting with could ask if there is anything they can do to help you and there are other meetings you can tell that climate change isn’t a topic they are entirely comfortable with yet and are starting to dip their toe into the climate space. You should all be using your lobbying skills to do some motivational listening and offer to be a friendly resource for climate solutions just like we would do with a member of Congress.

Here's a selection of "asks" to consider including in your conversation once you've developed a relationship:

Meet with their steering committee or leadership team to discuss collaboration
Give a presentation that would be of interest to their groups - local climate impacts or grassroots organizing
Plan a joint outreach or educational event
Bring your chapter members together for a social event
Draw a member of Congress's attention to local climate impacts - joint lobby meeting, joint Op-Ed, or some other joint letter to a congressional office
You can ask a local chapter of a national organization for an endorsement, but note that many local chapters follow the lead of their national office and may not be willing to endorse. (A note on the endorsement process - we've gone paperless. All bill endorsements are submitted online at energyinnovationact.org. Also, we're no longer collecting endorsements for climate action or carbon fee & dividend. All endorsements are for the bill.)

Remember, you're not alone, be clear about your part, practice courage, keep learning, claim your vision. For more inspiring stories across the country and a great summary overview of these recommendations click the "Watch" tab above to view the video of CCL's Taylor Krause going over these considerations and guidelines. Focusing on relationships is just as important as endorsements so do not get discouraged, get creative on ways to work together!

Why Does Working Together Matter?

Climate change is going to affect all sectors of our economy and therefore people and cannot take on this feat alone.
The climate movement is stronger in numbers and we will need a broad coalition to pass any bill through Congress
We don’t need every group working for carbon fee and dividend policies- there is value in pressure from multiple sides and angles
Helping other groups helps us, forming those relationships is the most important part for a strong climate coalition.

How CCL Chapters Can Work With Other Groups

General Climate Education

Partner with another organization to educate the greater public about climate change, what it is, what the impacts are, what the local effects are. You can both present solutions!

This can be joint presentations, joint tabling, town halls, movie screenings, etc. Get creative!

Voter Registration

We like to say that democracy is our solution to climate change, so promoting participation in our democracy fits our mission. Voter Registration drives are a perfect opportunity to partner with an org we might not otherwise have much in common with, or want to get to know better. You can do this work while remaining bipartisan, and make new friends while doing it! As a result, we encourage you to add voter registration information to your CCL tabling and grassroots outreach and are developing resources to help you do that. Feel free to use this helpful Voter Registration Handout in your outreach.

For one example of how other CCL groups have been approaching voter engagement with the Environmental Voter Project see the CCL Blog: CCL Volunteers motivate environmentalist to get to the polls

Be aware that registration requirements vary from state to state, and this is not an area where CCL has expertise. We strongly recommend partnering with a local or national nonpartisan voter registration group if you are interested in adding voter registration to your grassroots outreach. It’s important not to accidentally break any local election laws!

State Level Policy Work

CCL groups can follow the CCL's training on Local and State Level Policy Engagement for more information and recommendations to get the help and support your group needs.

Helping other groups

As climate change impacts become more and more pronounced there are going to be more people concerned and more groups that are going to want to start outlining how their groups intend to address climate change. So you can help other groups who aren’t climate leaders become climate champions in their own way! CCL has tons of resources and people who are experts in every field.

Length

Press play to start the video (36:55)

https://vimeo.com/showcase/5497563

Video Outline

To skip ahead to a specific section go to the time indicated in parenthesis.

Intro & Agenda
(from beginning)

What Steps Should We Take?
(2:36)

How Should We Reach Out To?
(4:49)

What Should We Talk About?
(9:11)

Why Does Working Together Matter?
(15:00)

How To Work With Other Groups
(22:08)

Local Stories & Examples
(27:50)

Instructor(s)

Taylor Krause
Bill Blancato
Bill Barron

Downloads

Download Google Slides presentation.

Download the video.

Audio length

Press play to start the audio (36m 55s)

Audio embed code

Audio Outline

To skip ahead to a specific section go to the time indicated in parenthesis.

Instructor(s)

Taylor Krause
Bill Blancato
Bill Barron

Downloads

Click to download here

Have you completed this training?

Let us know if you've completed this training! Your progress will be logged in the Action Tracker so you can reference a list of trainings that you've completed.

Log your training

Go Deeper

See the CCL Blogs on local chapters working with Audubon and Trout Unlimited

Discussion Topic

Share your experience or ask questions related to this training in the forums.

What questions do you have about working with other climate and environmental groups?