Fellowships

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The materials in each of these fellowship courses includes everything from organizing basics, issue advocacy, training, to management tools and techniques. Included in the course material are activities to help participants practice, discuss, and learn, as well as supporting documents. We’ve tried to maintain the arc of each of these fellowships so that you can see how we structured the overall learning experience. This means that there are some duplicative content within different fellowships, though each fellowship has a unique arc of learning.

 

2018 Community Engagement Fellowship — Advocacy in Your Community

Program documents

These documents include the outlines for all modules of the 2018 fellowship

Identifying root problems

In this introductory module, participants learn about and discuss what they value in their community, what root problems their communities face, and how they can begin to think of themselves as able to organize around that problem.

Strategies for local impact

This training focuses on developing an understanding for how to translate a root problem facing a community to an issue that organizers can then build a plan to address. Participants discuss strategies to begin addressing that issue and begin formulating organizing plans.

Leadership in action

Looking towards deeper self-awareness and knowledge about concepts of leadership, participants take part in a “leadership bias” activity and identify areas that they want to grow in as a leader—ultimately applying new ideas of leadership to their organizing and issue work.

Cultivating community

This session establishes a practical framework that participants can use to connect with others in multiple organizing settings—from canvassing to visiting their member of Congress. Participants will learn to tell their personal story through identifying their “critical incidents” and practice communicating that with others.

Building coalitions

This session focuses on tactics—such as one-on-one meetings—and tools needed to manage coalition partnerships effectively. In this session, participants learn everything from building coalition partnerships and managing them once they’re built.

Tying it all together

This is a review of the previous 5 modules.

 

2018 Community Engagement Fellowship: Applying Campaign Skills

Welcome to organizing

In this introductory module, participants learn about and discuss what they value in their community, what root problems their communities face, and how they can begin to think of themselves as able to organize around that problem.

Leading with your values

This session establishes a practical framework that participants can use to connect with others in multiple campaign settings. Participants will learn to tell their personal story through identifying their “critical incidents” and practice communicating that with others, then discuss how this applies to their work. Participants then learn briefly about the snowflake model.

Voter contact best practices

This session introduces organizers to different types of voter contact—specifically canvassing, phonebanking, and high traffic canvassing and why each method is used. It is designed for people just learning about how to get involved with campaigns for the first time.

Digital organizing

During this session, participants learn about the three key principles of digital organizing: authenticity, relevance, and impact. They then learn about how to apply those principles in creating digital content, as well as review how to take a good photo to accompany that content.

Event management

This session runs through what to do before, during, and after an event. It provides a framework for identifying the purpose of the event, tick tocks and checklists, and reviews preventative/adaptive solutions.

Tying it all together

This is a review of the previous 5 modules.

 

2017 Campus Organizing Academy

Building the proper framework

Specifically geared for students, this program harnesses their energy and provides a framework for their passion for issues they care about. In creating a flexible and adaptive schedule, participants learn the basics of setting up a strategic issue campaign by identifying a goal and building a strategy to reach it. Learners will discuss effective tactics from historic civil rights and marriage equality case studies to help plan a successful issue campaign of their own.

Achieving big goals

In this session, participants learn how setting attainable internal and external goals is necessary for success. They also learn how to identify and track meaningful benchmarks, and establish timelines that allow them to achieve ambitious goals.

Organizing strategy

Participants learn how to identify the right institutions, target key decision makers, and create effective messaging that persuades decision makers to support their issue campaign. Participants also learn how to balance limited time and resources in the course of achieving their goals.

Digital organizing

Participants learn how to reach online supporters with compelling digital content and mobilize them to take meaningful action. They also learn best practices for building an email list and a social media following that support and advance their issue campaign goals.

Personal story

Participants learn how to effectively construct and share their personal story so that it inspires people to join their cause, and how to pivot their personal story into a hard ask to recruit volunteers and additional support.

Tackling tactics

Participants learn how to combine their new organizing skills to build critical momentum, run campaign events, effectively deliver their message, and ultimately drive home their campaign goals.

 

2016-2017 Community Engagement Fellowship

Community engagement events

This session introduces different types of community engagement and mobilizing events for issue campaigns—film screenings, speaker series, community service, civic dinners, earned media events, signature drive, phonebanks, office visits, town halls, and community action meetings. During this session, participants can identify issues facing their community and identify tactics and events to help them make progress on those issues.

Action planning sessions

Participants will become familiar with the process by which to plan a successful community engagement event, going over best practices and key lessons to lead a group of volunteers to plan the event. The session covers the what, why, when, where, and who of planning an event.

Event management

This session runs through what to do before, during, and after an event. It provides a framework for identifying the purpose of the event, tick tocks and checklists, and reviews preventative/adaptive solutions.

Recruitment: Grassroots tactics

This session provides best practices for reaching out to members of a participant’s community to get them to commit to attending an event. Notable in this session is a training on the hard ask.

Recruitment: Digital tactics

This training helps familiarize participants with online recruitment strategies, the importance of having a digital presence, and how to effectively tell the story of their actions online.

Tying it all together

This is a review of the previous 5 modules.

Support documents

This welcome packet is supplemental to this learning journey.

 

2015 Professional Field Management Fellowship

Field Management 101

As a field organizer, you are responsible for executing a field plan under the guidance of your regional field director or organizing director. As a field manager, you’ll be responsible for writing the field plan that your team will execute. In this session, you will learn with the role of a field manager is and understand the basic framework.

Voter universe basics

A field plan revolves around a “win” number, which is the total number of votes you need in order to win—whether on an issue campaign, ballot initiative, or candidate campaign. However, resources, staff, and time are always limited, and you are not likely to talk to every single expected voter. As a field manager you will likely learn from a data team which voters you need to talk to in order to get 50%+ 1. In this session, participants will learn what criteria is considered by the data team when creating a voter universe.

Getting to your target universe

Once you lock your voter universe, you must determine how you will invest resources, allocate staff, and work with volunteers to talk to all your targets at least once by Election Day. In this session, participants will learn what to consider when writing their strategy—who they should target, how they should target them, and at what point in the cycle.

Creating capacity

Any campaign is like a ramp—the closer you get to Election Day, the more resources, capacity and voter attention you have. Your field plan must follow this ramp accordingly. In this session, participants will learn how to create a timeline that uses resources, builds capacity, and talks to voters incrementally from day one through Election Day.

Hiring rockstars

Hiring a team of rockstars is one of the most important aspects of your field plan. In this session, you will learn what qualities to consider when hiring a team of organizers, as well as how to structure a job interview that helps you identify the must-haves over the nice-to-haves.

Managing your team

While team members come together under the leadership of a manager, not all team members bring the same experiences, skills, and personalities to the team. In this session, you will learn how to manage each member of your team effectively by considering their various skills and personalities, while helping them achieve their maximum potential. Powerpoint slides

Support documents

These documents are supplemental to the arc of this learning journey.

 

2015 Professional Training Fellowship

Your role as a training manager

A Training Manager guides the learning and development of an organization’s staff, volunteers, and supporters. In this webinar, you will learn the mission and goals of Training Managers and understand how this role supports the success of an organization’s mission.

Adult learning theory

Adults bring years of knowledge and experience to everything they do—including participating in a training. In this webinar, learn how to create trainings grounded in Adult Learning Theory so that your learners interact with your training material in an engaging learner-focused way.

Designing experiential activities

Having a speaker dump a bunch of information on a group of people is not actually a training—it’s a lecture and “training ain’t telling.” Adult learners actually retain the information they are trained on when they have a chance to dig in and experience it. Experiential activities are where learning happens. In this session, you’ll learn how to design experiential activities that set up adult learners for success—and ensure they leave your training with the skills you need them to put to use.

Creating upfronts and debriefs

If we think of experiential activities being the meat of a training module, Training Content Design is the bread. In this session, you will learn how to create content that provides the right amount of upfront information for learners to complete the experiential activity, and structure a debrief to solidify what they learned throughout the training.

Packaging training materials

The journey from an idea for a training module to a finished product is filled with twists and turns. But, like any trip, a trusty map will get you where you want to go. In this webinar, we will look at the step-by-step process for creating a training module grounded in adult learning theory that accomplished the learning objectives you need.

Designing a learning journey

A training module is a stand-alone lesson designed to teach a new concept or skill. But training modules only last 60 to 75 minutes. Often you will need more time to take your learners from point A to B. In this class you will learn how to create a memorable and meaningful learning experience by designing training modules that build on one another to form a full learning circle.

Managing training logistics

We have a saying around here—the recipe for a great training is one half solid curriculum and the other half seamless logistics. In this class, learn how to make your training run without a hitch by learning the tricks, tips, and tools Training Managers use to achieve their logistics goal—that no one even notices them.

Support documents

These documents are supplemental to the arc of this learning journey.

 

2015 Organizing Fellows

Access the entire folder of curriculum for the 2015 Organizing Fellows by clicking the link below. Notable sessions for the 2015 Organizing Fellowship are Organizing a Training, Reporting and Analysis, and Bilingual Organizing.

 

2013-2014 Organizing Fellowship

This is the entire folder of curriculum for the 2013-2014 Organizing Fellowship—click the link below. Notable sessions for the 2013-2014 Organizing Fellowship are a Job Search Training, a Resume Writing Workshop, Personal Professional Development, Interviewing for Success, and a training on Grassroots Fundraising.

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