Faiz Shakir joins the Grasstops' podcast show—published by Grassroots Campaigns (GCI)—one year after he addressed a forum in Washington DC of dozens of GCI Canvass Directors during their small donor fundraising canvass training.

As Faiz addressed the canvassers from dozens of cities across the US, ACLU was also in the midst of launching its new platform for grassroots action—more formally known as People Power.

Faiz Shakir, the man who brought the idea of grassroots people power to ACLU’s Executive Director, Anthony Romero, highlighted the pivotal role GCI plays in helping ACLU become a grassroots institution with a "grassroots culture"—as GCI’s canvassers greet citizen pedestrians face-to-face on street corners across America wearing ACLU’s logo, speaking truth to power, and raising millions of members and small dollar donations.

One year later, on the first anniversary of ACLU’s People Power (and Faiz’s address to the Canvass Director Training Forum in Washington DC) John R. Gagain Jr.—the host of Grasstops by GCI and GCI’s Communications Director—asked Faiz, "how’s everything going with ACLU's transition towards a 'grassroots culture?'"

VIEW https://Medium.com/Grassroots-Campaigns

APPLE PODCASTS http://bit.ly/Grasstops-GCI-on-Apple-Podcasts

LEARN http://GrassrootsCampaigns.com

JOIN http://bit.ly/Subscribe-Grassroots

March 2018

There's no better way to campaign for social change than by doing it face to face, person to person—even in the age of digital media. [Research is proving this. Check out Grasstops’ interview with Vanessa Bohns (http://bit.ly/Bohns-Face-to-Face-Fundraising) The Cornell University professor's research on Face-To-Face versus Digital was published recently in Harvard Business Review (HBR)]. For this reason, Grassroots Campaigns (GCI) has spent more than a decade recruiting, training, and hiring some of the most talented college graduates to serve as canvassers for progressive causes and socially minded candidates to elected office. But, after campaigning on street corners and front doorsteps across the US, canvassers transition and utilize their skills acquired—in other venues—along their career path.

Where do canvassers go after canvassing? How do canvassers uniquely apply the important skills acquired as a canvasser to more advanced positions in advocacy, campaigns, policy, and social change?

To find out, Grasstops by Grassroots Campaigns (GCI), spoke with a long-time friend of GCI and current Policy Specialist at the National Resources Defense Council (NRDC), Sujatha Bergen Jahagirdar, at her office in Washington DC.

VIEW http://bit.ly/Grasstops-by-Grassroots-Campaigns-GCI

LISTEN http://bit.ly/NRDC-Sujatha

APPLE PODCASTS http://bit.ly/Grasstops-GCI-on-Apple-Podcasts

LEARN http://GrassrootsCampaigns.com

JOIN http://bit.ly/Subscribe-Grassroots

November 2017

There are over 500,000 elected officials in the United States and more than 240,000 races for these positions each year. Meet the woman who believes—that no matter how small the race—every candidate for elected office deserves to have an expert campaign consultant within arms reach. Kathryn Poindexter, known more commonly known as “KP,” wants to recruit candidates for all these races and coach them all the way to Election Day. And KP believes it’s easier than ever before thanks to new technologies, simple tools, and a vast network of campaign veterans. In 2004, at Grassroots Campaigns (GCI), KP was charged with recruiting over 600 organizers for the presidential election. She’s using those same skills to recruit thousands of candidates for down ballot races across the United States. In this podcast episode of Grasstops by GCI, we go in depth with KP about her story, her career, and everything she learned working campaigns since her days at GCI; and how she and her team are applying them today as political entrepreneurs at the new start-up called Campaign Greenhouse.

To learn more visit

http://bit.ly/Grasstops-by-Grassroots-Campaigns-GCI

http://grassrootscampaigns.com

http://www.campaigngreenhouse.com

September 2017