General Activism Resource Sites
- Local Organizing Toolkit
- Community Tool Box (start at their Table of Contents)
- Activist Toolbox
- Database for Successful Nonviolent Grassroots Strategies and Actions
- Direct Action / Civil Disobedience Tools
- Organizers’ Collaborative (provides free non-profit database software, Technical Tips for Small Nonprofits and Social Change Groups and more)
Student / Campus Activism (includes a lot of advice and materials that aren’t limited to campus organizing)
- Campus Activism and their Online Organizing Resources
- Student/youth environmental organizing materials from the Student Environmental Action Coalition
- Leadership and Organizing 101
- Chapter Building and Student Organizing Basics
- Energy Justice Network’s Campus Organizing materials
- Campus/Community Organizing Guide (how students can help community groups fight dirty energy and waste facilities)
Campaign and Strategy Development
- Campaign Selection Criteria
- Developing a Campaign Plan
- Strategy Development Charts
- Midwest Academy’s Strategy Chart (and in PDF) and some ideas on creating a strategy chart here and from the Midwest Academy themselves.
- Spitfire Strategies Smart Chart 3.0 (a step-by-step guide to building a successful communications campaign)
- Midwest Academy’s Organizing for Social Change book – widely used, highly-regarded manual for activists
Holding the Government Accountable
- The Control Game — Public involvement or public relations: what does it mean? (A reference guide for recognizing political/social control tactics by power brokers, large corporations, public relations firms, and government entities.)
- Holding Accountability Sessions (follow the tiny “next” links to get to the rest of the document)
- Know your rights: National Lawyers Guild and American Civil Liberties Union
Organizational Matters
- Getting People to Help
- Getting People to Help II
- Developing a Local Group
- Local Fundraising and Special Events
- Troubleshooting Guide: Help with Common Problems in Working for Community Change
- Presentations to Social Clubs
- Meeting Facilitation and Consensus Process
- Conducting Effective Meetings
- Facilitation Guide: The Secret to Smooth, Synchronized Meetings
- Consensus Decision-Making
- Notes on Consensus Decision-Making
- Consensus & Facilitation
- Consensus Is Not Unanimity: Making Decisions Cooperatively
- On Conflict and Consensus (entire book online)
- Meeting Process Manual (used by Maryland Green Party)
Freedom of Speech
- Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation (SLAPP): SLAPP suits are harassment lawsuits used by corporations against concerned citizens who dare to speak up
- California Anti-SLAPP Project (good national resource on SLAPP suits)
- SLAPP and Anti-SLAPP
- SLAPPs: Getting Sued for Speaking Out (book about SLAPP suits)
- Petitioning Rights in Public Places (relating to petitions for ballot access)
- Rights to Petition in Private Malls and Quasi-Public Places: In 1980, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled on a California case (Pruneyard Shopping Center v. Robins) involving tabling in a private mall, and ruled that in California, First Amendment rights can be exercised in privately owned shopping centers. The ruling left the matter up to State Supreme Courts to decide this state-by-state.
- Scorecard of Pruneyard Litigation (updated Feb 2004, by International Council of Shopping Centers) States (and territories) they list with some court decisions in favor of free speech are: CA, CO, FL, MA, NJ, ND, OR, PA (relating to universities), WA and Puerto Rico
- Access to Private Property (1997 document by Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press with more details on some of the cases)
- New York Civil Liberties Union working to pass a law making free speech legal in big malls in New York State
- Other webpages on the 1980 U.S. Supreme Court ruling on the California Pruneyard case are:
Professional Organizing Training Resources
- Training for Change – provides non-violence & direct action training
- Midwest Academy
- Spitfire Strategies
- Ruckus Society
Media, Communications and Lobbying
- Getting Media Coverage
- Breaking Through to Great — Smart Strategies for Developing Winning Communications Campaigns
- How to Write Letters to the Editor
- The Community Tool Box includes Organizing for Effective Advocacy with a section on Media Advocacy.
- 20/20 Vision’s Tools for Activists
- Media Reform Links
Freedom of Information Act (FOIA):
- U.S. Government’s Official FOIA website
- Freedom of Information Clearinghouse and their Freedom of Information Act User’s Guide
- FOIA / Open Government Resources
- ACLU’s Step-by-Step Guide to Using the Freedom of Information Act
- FOIA Resources
- FOIA Case Logs (see what other FOIA requests have been made to certain agencies, so you can do a “me too” FOIA)
- Open Government Guide (state open records / open meetings laws)