Letting Members Lead: The Mess and Magic of Distributed Organizing
Session Type(s): Panel
Starts: Friday, Jul. 15 10:00 AM (Eastern)
Ends: Friday, Jul. 15 11:15 AM (Eastern)
Room: 228
Distributed organizing has proliferated across the advocacy space. Far from the early create-your-own-petition sites, many organizations are running programs that give members a larger role in campaigning strategy and execution, putting their trust in members’ abilities. The benefits are huge, including list growth from people engaged in heartfelt causes and a powerful leadership pipeline. There are also challenges: balancing the needs of growth and impact, wrangling campaign support resources, avoiding brand damage and finding the right technology. Join us for a conversation with Color of Change, MoveOn, 350.org and Fission Strategy about what’s working, what’s not and what’s next as we move toward more participatory campaigning.
Moderator
Josh Nelson
Josh Nelson (he/him) has been managing progressive email programs for more than 15 years. He has written thousands of advocacy emails and added millions of opt-in members to the email communities of dozens of organizations and campaigns. He has moderated similar panels at Netroots Nation, Organizing 2.0, RootsCamp and Digital Strategy Summit, and was a featured speaker at an April 2021 Federal Trade Commission workshop on manipulative user interface designs on websites and mobile apps.
Panelists
Emily Figdor
Emily Figdor is a campaign director at MoveOn.org. She has 20 years of experience as an organizer and campaigner, working at the local, state, and national levels. Before joining MoveOn, Emily ran a statewide activist organization in Maine that stopped a tar sands pipeline through New England. Before moving to Maine, Emily led national campaigns on climate change and lobbied on reproductive rights and health in Washington, D.C. She got her start as an activist after volunteering as a clinic escort.
When not working on MoveOn campaigns, Emily is the chair of the Portland Democrats and runs a local organization working to pass a municipal bond to rebuild the city’s crumbling elementary schools.
Emily lives in Portland, Maine, with her partner and two girls, who are eight and five.
Other sessions: Flint and Detroit Public Schools: Disasters for Democracy and Public Health, Film, Storytelling and the Fight for Abortion Rights, A Pink Case Study: Why the Progressive Movement Is Stronger Together
Allyse Heartwell
Allyse is the Digital Director at 350.org, where she leads a team of online organizers, campaigners, designers, and storytellers who are helping to build a global grassroots movement to tackle the climate crisis. In addition to climate justice & the internet, she is passionate about sustainable food and farming. She spends a lot of time keeping her dog, chickens, and fruit trees happy. Allyse hails from Honolulu and lives in Oakland.
Yeshimabeit Milner
Yeshimabeit “Yeshi” Milner joined ColorofChange in 2015 as a Movement Building Campaign Manager. Raised in Miami, FL, Yeshimabeit began organizing to end the school to prison pipeline at Power U Center for Social Change as a high school senior. There she developed a lifelong commitment to movement building as a vehicle for creating & sustaining large-scale social change.
Yeshimabeit returned to Power U in 2013 to lead a victorious campaign to improve breastfeeding policies & address Black Infant Mortality at the largest public hospital in the country. Yeshimabeit is a graduate of Brown University and currently serves as Chair of the Education Committee on the Board of Directors at the Highlander Research & Education Center. She resides in Brooklyn, NY where she enjoys used bookstores and writing music for her hardcore punk band.
Hemly Ordonez
Hemly specializes in working with non-profits across the US and around the world to bridge emerging technologies to challenge inequality and positively impact local communities. She has led engagement strategies that center communities of color and low income communities to meet them at the intersections of their lives both online and offline for over 10 years.
Prior to joining Fission, Hemly was the State Strategies Manager at Advocates for Youth. She worked with local, state-based, and national organizations mobilizing the rising American electorate across digital platforms to advocate for cultural and policy changes that improve and value young people’s sexual and reproductive health and rights.
Hemly is originally from Carson, California and proudly represents South Los Angeles in the fight for health, dignity, and justice.
Other sessions: Wise Latinxs: How to Build Power for 2016 and Beyond, Rejecting the Pale, Male and Stale Leadership Pipeline: A Roadmap to Building Inclusive Organizations, Chewbacca Mom Takeover: The Future of Online Organizing