Reach your community effectively with these community outreach strategies. Whether you are a nonprofit, advocacy or political campaign - we have the right solutions for you.

1. A List Of The Best
Community Outreach
Strategies
ForYou

2. “Whatever community organization, whether it’s a women’s organization
or fighting for racial justice … you will get satisfaction out of doing
something to give back to the community that you never get in any other
way.”
– Ruth Bader Ginsburg

3. What do you do when the only coffee shop in town shuts down?
Probably take Shark Tank investor Kevin O’Leary’s advice and start
making coffee at home, save $2.50 daily, and eventually become a
millionaire.
Faced with that situation, here’s how a community in Mount Hope,
Ontario did better. A coffee shop in the town shut down, depriving
the neighborhood of a place to have a quick cuppa and socialize.
Harmony of Hope, a local nonprofit, revived that special hangout
place and generated a revenue stream for itself.

4. The people of Harmony of Hope volunteer their time at this brand
new cafe, The Coal Bucket Coffee Shop, and provide the
community the same space to bond. Their small venture is picking
up and now also promotes art, music, and Appalachian culture, not
to mention sponsoring their local football team as an “ice-cream
partner!”

5. Whether it is boosting the local community, bringing in critical
legislative changes, or lobbying for a cause close to your heart,
community organizing is a robust enterprise. This article covers
community organizing strategies you can adopt to create the impact
a small coffee shop in an Ontario neighborhood did.

6. Reiterating your purpose to develop community
organizing strategies
While dealing with the daily nitty gritty of your job as a community
organizer, it is natural to forget the why of strategizing cleverly. With
additional stressors such as witnessing or hearing traumatic experiences,
compassion fatigue (37.4% of volunteers report high emotional
exhaustion on the job), physical exhaustion, and finances that are the
reality of working in the public sector, you may forget why you began.

7. Community organizing drives social change in a three-fold
manner –
1. Empowers the community
2. Gives a voice and sense of agency
3. Improves social and economic conditions

8. 1. Empowers the community:
Community organizing provides a clear path to take action. It brings people
together to identify common problems and interests, collaborate and
coalesce, and take collective action to address social, economic, and
political issues that affect them.

9. 2. Gives a voice and sense of agency:
Power found in unity allows marginalized and impoverished communities
to finally have a say in issues that matter most to them. It shifts their focus
from individual helplessness and grants a sense of agency through
collective action.

10. 3. Improves social and economic conditions:
People gain more access to decision-making processes and have improved
civic engagement and a sense of community and belonging. They can
confidently lobby to improve their social and economic conditions with
these processes.

11. Influential community organizing
strategies
1. Building relationships
2. Identifying allies
3. Developing a clear message
4. Mobilizing volunteers
5. Establishing local leadership
6. Engaging in direct action
7. Using digital tools
8. Building power
9. Listening to people

12. Building relationships
Bringing a community together requires expanding your network and building your
roots within it. People need to know you if they are to trust you to bring change and
follow the path you suggest.
You need to be an insider, get to know people, listen to them, and understand
their perspectives.

13. Here’s how you can build relationships within a community:
● Show up: Go to events and meetings that are important to the community, have a
large attendance, or add significant value to the community. The more you attend
these events, the more people get used to seeing you around as part of the
community. Important events include church gatherings, town hall meetings, and
election campaigns.
● Volunteer: Volunteering ensures you are in the right place with the right kind of
people – people who are also driven to work towards a good cause. Not only that,
you are also helping the community and making new connections.
● Utilize social media: Figure out the people in your community who are key
stakeholders and hold sway over the people. Connect with them through social
build friendships, and gain access to their circle of influence.

14. Identifying allies
Allies are the people who will be cheering from the stands when you are out there
running the race of your life. You get to decide how loud you want that stand to be
based on how many people you can persuade to support you.
Allies provide important resources, information, and expertise that can help your
community organizing efforts succeed. Resources could include time, finance, space,
or introductions to key supporters.

15. How do you identify allies in your community? You ask yourself these questions–
● Who is working on this issue already?
● Who is working on an issue closely related to mine?
● What are the steps they have taken until now? What are they currently doing?
● How is their journey going?
● How can you collaborate with them?
● Who else is influential and could support you, even if they do not work closely on
this issue yet?
● What do they gain or lose by supporting me?

16. The community toolbox has a helpful ally power grid to help you determine how
much a potential ally can help your community organizing strategies:
Type of Power Rationale Example
Members: How many
members does the
group have?
The more members a group has, the
less likely it is to be ignored.
A group with 500
members shows up at a
school board meeting.
Money: Will they
donate money to your
issue?
Donated money and other resources
are always welcome in achieving
your group’s goals
The local teachers’ union
donated money to your
group.
Credibility: Do they
bring exceptional
credibility?
A group with strong positive
recognition in your community will
help bring credibility to your group.
A respected clergyman
from a local church
speaks on your behalf.

17. Appeal: Do they
have a unique
appeal?
Some groups of people have universal
appeal. If your group connects with
them, it will also help your image.
A poster child is used to
promote an emotional
response.
Network: Are they
part of an extensive,
organized network?
A group with many other groups in its
network will have financial resources,
credibility, and some political power.
The local chapter of the
United Way offers staff
support to your group.
Reputation: Do they
have a reputation for
toughness?
Groups with a tough reputation may
discourage opponents.
The local law
enforcement officers’
union says they’ll
support policy changes
for improved safety.

18. Skills: Do they have
special abilities?
An ally may bring technical, business, or
legal skills to your group.
Smith, Jones, &
Brown’s law firm
donates free legal
support.
Newsworthy: Are
they particularly
newsworthy?
Some groups may have a reputation or
connections in the media that make
them newsworthy. If they align with you,
that might give positive media attention
to your cause.
An activist group for
children’s rights that
recently won a
significant victory offers
to provide your group
with technical support.

19. Developing a clear message
For a community organizing effort to gain potential results, it needs to communicate
its goal easily. You need to develop a message that is–
● Clear,
● Consistent,
● Noteworthy,
● Inspiring,
● Relatable
● Goal-oriented
● Memorable.

20. How do you craft such a message?
● Identify the exact problem you are trying to solve. Why is it important?
● Answer how the community is affected by the same.
● Highlight what can be achieved together.
● Try the message to your friends and family and get their feedback.

21. Mobilizing volunteers
There is no community organizing without the community. Volunteers lend their time
and efforts to make a difference and showcase the power of many.
However, for volunteers to be attracted to an initiative, they must have solid reasons
and a high emotional connection. As a community organizer, it is your job to give
them that reason.

22. Here’s how you can mobilize volunteers:
● Map out what personal incentives volunteers might have to join your cause.
Advertise these causes on social media platforms, posters, or other
communications asking volunteers to join.
● Offer support and training. Frequently, people might shy away from
volunteering opportunities because they do not know what to expect.
● Send out a text blast in the community asking for volunteers for your cause. You
can also leverage the power of MMS texting to share additional information,
posters, or HD videos explaining your movement.
● Recruit through current volunteers. Ask volunteers to spread the word. An
excellent way to do this is through using relational organizing tools. Through
these tools, you can tap into the personal networks of your volunteers and spread
the word about volunteering opportunities.

23. Establishing local leadership
As your movement grows, you need to know that one set of leaders cannot handle
enormous organizing independently.
From Kennedy to Obama, successful leaders have always encouraged the
recruitment of local leaders. However, developing leadership is not easy. You must
find people with the same values, approaches, and intentions as the primary
leadership for harmonious coordination.

24. How do you identify allies in your community? You ask yourself these questions–
● Develop a personal leadership motto and communicate it.
● Indicate how you want leaders to take responsibility.
● Share the philosophy behind being a leader in your organization.
● Understand how potential leaders set goals, share their vision, and inspire others.
● Identify what leadership roles you require and the skills required for them.
● Understand what type of people are necessary for the leadership team to have a
fair representation.

25. Engaging in direct action
One of the most critical community organizing strategies is engaging in direct action.
Actions such as protests and demonstrations raise awareness and add pressure on
decision-makers to make the right choice
.
Direct action involves three essential outcomes:
● Winning significant results for people.
● Making people realize their own power through their victory.
● Bringing substantial changes in the power relations between the people,
government, corporations, and other key stakeholders.

26. Here’s how to devise a direct-action community organizing strategy:
● Brainstorm ideas about what you can do, the project you want to pick up, and
how you want to take action.
● Establish the goals that you want to achieve through this action.
● Mobilize and recruit volunteers that will help you.
● Consult a legal team about the actions you will take, their repercussions, and how
to safeguard yourself.
● Maintain a security culture and share sensitive information only with people you
trust.
● Be aware of your circumstances during the event. Keep an eye out for unusual
activity, such as the arrival of the police or some misbehaving members.
● Plan your communications well. Always be in sync with your team members to
stay abreast of the situation.
● Have an exit strategy so things do not get out of control.

27. Using digital tools
Community organizing is made extremely easy through digital tools. These tools
could include:
1. Outreach software tools for donor, volunteer, and community outreach. You
can use calling and texting tools such as autodialers, peer-to-peer texting, voice
broadcast, and more to reach out to people for volunteering, fundraising, and
mobilizing.
2. Social media: 80% of Americans believe social media is a great platform to
raise awareness about issues and build a movement. You can run
advertisements on social platforms to educate the public about your
community organization. Direct interactions with supporters also help build
loyalty and support.

28. continued…
However, with social media, the fear is not to promote ‘slacktivism’ – a term used to
describe people active on social platforms but not in real life. To avoid this issue, you
can read our article ‘Most common reasons for slacktivism and how to motivate
people to take action offline.’
3. Email: According to MailChimp, an email campaign platform, the average email
open rates are 27.74% – a solid number for nurturing supporters. With emails,
you can set up drip campaigns for interested community members, donors, and
allies to ensure they continue supporting you.

29. continued…
4.
5.
A database software: A Customer Relationship Management software ensures
all your activity is centralized. From outreach to financial statements – you can
keep a record of everything on one platform. From a compliance and legal point
of view, it helps you avoid any issues that may crop up, such as a data leak or
security breach. From an administrative viewpoint, it helps you eliminate
inconsistencies in data and processes.
Website: Creating a website for your community is essential; in addition to
posting images and videos of previous rallies and demonstrations, you can also
post details of upcoming tasks along with their venues and timelines.

30. Building power
To build a thriving community organizing strategy, you must build power. Building
power involves using your resources and mobilizing people to achieve goals. To do
this, you need a strong base of supporters, coalitions, allies, and the backing of
decision-makers.

31. Here’s how you build power:
1. Find friends within power ecosystems: These ecosystems include politicians, lobbyists, media
persons, and influencers. Usually people who can make many changes or compel people to bring
change just through their participation.
2. Understand the risks and benefits of collaboration: What do power groups gain or lose by being
associated with you? They are not just monetary gains or losses but can extend to power, prestige,
support, loyalty, etc.
3. Add to your supporter base: Absolute numbers have no parallel. You need to raise awareness and
bring more people into the fold constantly.
4. Sort your finances: No power will crumble your organization as quickly as a lack of money. Money
gives you access to essential resources to run your organization. Ensure you are well-funded. Run
fundraisers through text messages, social media, or your website. Get in touch with people who do
not mind funding your cause.
5. Create exciting events that benefit your community: This step involves gathering people and
taking collective action to achieve your mission. It could be staging a rally, going door to door
canvassing, holding an event, or calling lawmakers to approve a bill.

32. Listen to people.
First, you should have an issue in mind that affects a community that you want to help it
resolve. This involves talking to people and finding out their concerns and pain points
they’re facing and would like to fight for (or against). Face-to-face meetings are the most
effective as they show people that you genuinely care and act (by achieving the collective
end goal).
By listening and talking in person, you gain a fair understanding of the people who want
to work towards bettering a situation instead of those who merely want to vent but not
work (slacktivism).
Depending on the size of your outreach, use different ways to contact people: go
door-knocking if you’re targeting a neighborhood or if your community is
scattered, use social media to attract people’s attention, and set up meeting spots.

33. Community organizing strategies - Theories and Models
through the Ages.
There is no one way to look at community organizing strategies. Over the
years, different approaches and methods have gained prominence. Think
tanks worldwide have pioneered and led movements that have brought
about tremendous change.
This section covers three such approaches to community organizing and
the campaigns that spun out of them. Let’s dive in.

34. The Saul Alinsky theory
Saul Alinsky (1909-1972), an American activist and writer, was influential in the
community organizing movement. He proposed a ground-up approach to community
organizing. He suggested empowering people to take collective action to serve their
interests and concerns.
Alinsky’s theory emphasizes:
1. The importance of building relationships,
2. Developing leadership, and
3. Mobilizing people to take action.
He stressed on targeting governing bodies, corporate leaders, and decision-makers to
bring change using non-violent confrontation and direct action.Below are popular
movements that emerged from Alinsky’s theory:

35. Below are popular movements that emerged from Alinsky’s theory:
1. Black Lives Matter
2. The United Farm Workers
3. Industrial Areas Foundation (IAF)
4. ACORN

36. Black Lives Matter
The Black Lives Matter movement stemmed from high racial tension and unjust killings of Black
people in America. It was inspiredby various activists and theories, along with Saul Alinsky’s
community organizing theory.
The movement used Direct Action and Grassroots Mobilization, suggested by Alinsky, to fight their
discrimination.

37. The United Farm Workers
The Founder of the United Farm Workers (UFW) movement, Cesar Chavez was a follower of Saul
Alinsky. Chavez used tactics he learned from Alinsky such as boycotts, and direct action to
improve the wages and working conditions of farm workers in the United States.

38. Industrial Areas Foundation (IAF)
This movement was founded by Saul Alinsky himself in 1940. It is a network of community
organizations and organizers, built to serve movements based on Alinsky’s theories.

39. ACORN
The Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN) was active between 1970
to 2010. It was a national network of community organizers that used Alinsky’s tactics of
door-to-door organizing and direct action to fight for social and economic justice.

40. Community readiness model
Developed by researchers at Colorado State University, The
Community Readiness Model (CRM) helps communities assess
their preparedness to confront specific issues and problems.
This theory proposes that for large scale change to occur, a
community must be prepared for it. They have divided
readiness into 9 stages ranging from ‘no awareness’ to
‘community ownership’ and ‘action’.
By knowing the stage at which a community is, organizers can
develop strategies which align with their current level of
engagement.
Popular grassroots movements inspired by the
community readiness model

41. Communities That Care (CTC)
Communities That Care (CTC) was established to tackle youth problems, including substance
abuse and delinquency, in the 1980s. This period was when crimes peaked in the US and
Canada. CTC emphasized community readiness to tackle these issues through collaboration with
the community.

42. Healthy Communities Initiative (HCI)
Founded by the Kettering Foundation in the 1990s, the HCI is a community development
program. Taking from the ideals of the CRM, it aims to build community readiness by facilitating
community conversations, fostering community leadership, and promoting collaboration among
community stakeholders.

43. Obesity Prevention and Control Program (OPCP)
Over 70 million people in the US are classified as obese. This is why the New York State
Department of Health developed the OPCP movement to tackle this grave issue. Based on the
CRM model, the OPCP movement builds community readiness through policy change,
environmental interventions, and community mobilization.

44. Marshall Ganz’s theory of community organizing
A popular community organizer and social activist, Marshall Ganz developed a distinctive
community organizing theory. He uses storytelling as a tool to bring people together and
mobilize them for change.
He believes people can create positive social change when given the right tools and resources.
The primary concept in his theory is the concept of a ‘public narrative.’ It focuses on creating a
personal and collective narrative that addresses the core needs and concerns that uncover why
an individual and community would organize.

45. Popular grassroots movements inspired by the Marshall Ganz theory:
1. The Obama Presidential Campaign
2. The Dream Act Movement
3. The Marriage Equality Movement

46. The Obama Presidential Campaign
Yes, the Presidential campaign was based on Marshall Ganz’s community organizing strategies.
Ganz was even called the architect of the Obama campaign. Obama used the power of personal
narrative to mobilize millions of people to vote for him during the 2008 and 2012 elections.

47. The Dream Act Movement
The Dream Act Movement aids undocumented students and youth in the United States. It
embraces the power of building a public narrative and uses relationship-building and
storytelling to change the mindset of people in favor of the youth.

48. The Marriage Equality Movement
The marriage equality movement strived to gain equal rights for LGBTQIA+ folks, same as
heterosexual couples. It used Ganz’s idea of shared vision and built on storytelling to mobilize
support.

49. Plan your community organizing
Community organizing strategies are essential to ensure safety, legal compliance, financial
stability, and effective community change. As organizers, a lot is happening in the background
when mobilizing a people.
To help you, we’ve created a planning template for your community organizing. It covers
everything you need to organize your community successfully – from defining your objectives,
dividing responsibilities to planning your strategy.