Times Like These: Why You Should Build A Real, Committed Grassroots Army

By Jennifer Wagner

Buying a domain name, launching a website and making a public announcement are the first steps toward building a grassroots network of supporters.

They also happen to be the easiest steps.

This one is designed for an online community, but the same basic principles apply to grassroots organizing: You have to get people interested and invested before you can ask them to do things.

Far too often, we assume we can change behavior with a few tweets or paid ads or emails. Maybe you’ve got the next “Ice Bucket Challenge” viral video up your sleeve. Heck, if I had a dollar for every time a political candidate told me he or she could win using the Obama 2008 organizing playbook, I’d be retired on a beach somewhere. (FWIW, many books have been written about the incredible data infrastructure that supported Obama’s 2008 victory — and how other political campaigns had to play catchup in the years afterward.)

Truth is, it takes a whole lot of time and effort to substantively change the way people view an issue. You have to have the right message, messengers, funding, coalition partners, political landscape and myriad more factors — and it still might not all come together perfectly.

Which is why you have to build a solid foundation to try, try again.

Jennifer Wagner is a mom, a recovering political hack and the Vice President of Communications for EdChoice, a national nonprofit that supports and promotes universal school choice.

Times Like These: Why You Should Build A Real, Committed Grassroots Army was originally published in EdChoice on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.