How to Get Involved in Activism in 2020

Episode 253 | Author: Emilie Aires

In years past, and in case it's not obvious, I have a long history of working in Democratic politics before starting Bossed Up. So I will be sharing lots of examples from my experience. This is a nonpartisan community and this is a company that is not a partisan endeavor, but I am pretty unapologetically progressive here.

If you have historically leaned back, leaned out of the election process and perhaps felt some regret and don't know how to lean in or what it even looks like to get started dipping your toe into the proverbial pool of political activism, that is what today's blog is all about. 

Getting involved in activism can not only be good for you, good for the world, good for democracy, it can also be really good for your career. I always like to find that intersection of good for the world and good for you, so you can do well and do good. This is a perfect example of that. 

Today, I’m going to share three quick tips for how to get off the sidelines and how to start thinking about it. Let’s not pretend like we are reduced to our political parties because we all know that's not true.

Assess what you have to give

Tip number one first and foremost, the best way to start so that your activism is sustainable, which is what I'm all about here is assessing what you have to give. If you have no time right now, you might have some money to kick in. If you have no real surplus of money right now, you might have some time to volunteer. Perhaps you have neither of those in which case you don't have time or money to volunteer. That’s okay! Acknowledge what you have to give because as Oprah would say, “You can't pour from an empty cup.” So don't over-promise and under-deliver and please don't set yourself up to feel like the guilty volunteer who said they were going to do so much and then didn't. 

The final thing to consider in terms of precious resources that you have to contribute besides money and time is also your voice. How can you make your voice heard on social media? Around the family dinner table? Within your community - at community meetings, at your neighbors place, at your daycare center? How can you have conversations one-by-one to help the cause? Whatever your cause is that you are championing, you’d be surprised at how many minds and hearts are changed one conversation at a time. In fact, I would argue that's the only way that things have ever changed. Now, if you do find yourself with some extra cash and you want to take action, try to find a way to create recurring contributions.

We talked about this in my episode on our racial justice plan here. We’re making quarterly profit-based contributions to give back to communities of color in particular. Figure out where your issue areas are that you want to contribute to or where your campaigns are if you're backing a specific candidate, and try to see if you can set up a monthly contribution that pulls directly from your household budget in a way that sets it and you forget it. You will have a much more sustainable impact. 

I had a lot of luck on ActBlue.com where I recently found a combination fund, a way to donate on a recurring monthly basis to an all-inclusive fund focused on, in this case, 15 different charities that were related to advocating for communities of color. If you can find a way to fit a recurring contribution into your monthly budget and especially through ActBlue.com, which I found really helpful in finding the right causes that I wanted to put my personal budget behind these days. It’s election season so lots of candidates and campaigns are going to be asking for your support, too.

Definitely make sure you're looking at the local down-ballot races in addition to the big ones that get all the press and all the money because your dollar can, in some ways, go further for smaller, local campaigns than they necessarily will on the federal level. 

Similarly, if it's time that you have to contribute, think about what organizations and campaigns could use your volunteer efforts and could use your specific talents. I love the example that David Moriya gave on episode 252 about pulling up for communities of color in that he used his photography talent to create stock image bank and really connect with other photographers in the activist space, specifically around creating content and photography around protest movements and marches, in this case, specifically around the recent marches for Black lives. So think about what talents you have to volunteer. Not all of us are super talented photographers, but that's okay. Start with the cause. Start with the orgnization and that brings me to point number two.

Find organizations and campaigns you believe in

Every campaign and every advocacy organization manages volunteers differently. Some do it better than others. I will be very candid with you. If you show up to volunteer and you're not greeted, trained, supported and made to feel welcome, you should not reward that organization with your continued volunteer efforts.

You've got to be sure that you're volunteering your precious and most finite resource of time to an organization that has their act together. So think global, but start local. I care about big issues related to social enterprises and businesses that can do well and do good and B-corporations and capitalism that's not evil.

And it's hard to work on social justice economics in some abstract amorphous, philosophical way. I ended up volunteering locally with my city's chapter of a group called Small Business Majority, which takes action to represent small business owners in state capitals and in government in lots of different ways. Similarly, I volunteer with Good Business Colorado, which is an awesome coalition of progressive business owners as well. So through finding these organizations and beginning to volunteer and show up, I was able to vet them for how well they would be able to even make use of my effort and time. And they did very well, I have to be honest.

Now, my time is much more limited now that I'm pivoting mid-pandemic with a small business payroll to make but as soon as I have more time, I'm going to be heading back to those organizations because they really had their act together. So meet with them, reach out to those folks who are organizing, respond to their emails, sign up for their email blast, try to find out what's happening because finding organizations and campaigns that are acting locally on behalf of issues that you care about is the single best way to get involved. You might make some mistakes along the way, you might start volunteering for an organization and then realize that even though you believe in their mission, you don't have a lot of faith in their leadership or their staff or their ability to manage volunteers effectively and that's okay. Don't keep showing up. There are other organizations that can make better use of your time. So be picky and then when you do find great organizers who are doing their jobs well and you have the resources to do their jobs, keep showing up because they need you and they can make really good use of you. So don't take your own labor for granted.

Show up

Tip number 3 - I've already said it, but start showing up.

Once you've identified and vetted organizations, the goal is to show up as a volunteer and this is important as someone who's worked on both sides of this relationship as both a campaign volunteer and a campaign organizer. You will hear from the organizers where your labor can be most utilized right then and there. 

Do they need you to collect ballot signatures? Do they need you to register voters, to make phone calls, to write letters, to knock on doors, to go to the halls of power and lobby by testifying the state house and making your voice heard. There's a lot of different ways to have an impact. Please don’t waste an organizer's time by debating with them about where you can be the most useful. If they need to fill a phone bank, they don't have time to hear about your prolific writing skills and how you should actually be writing an op-ed. If you believe that, go write your op-ed.  Please don't argue with the organizers about the strategic direction.

If you disagree with the strategic direction, leave. They probably don't have control over the strategic direction that their campaign is taking and you are not in some DC war room deciding where to put resources to be most effective. Respect their strategy or go elsewhere. Good campaigns and good volunteer organizations are very clear about where to focus resources and can direct you in that way. Start having conversations with organizers.

Start finding out where the needs are and why they're eminent. And if you disagree with what they need, kindly move on and please stop wasting their time. There is a lot of grunt work that goes into organizing. It's a humbling endeavor. Don't think you’re too advanced or too talented to knock on your neighbors’ door and have a conversation with them about a local candidate they know nothing about. That is democracy in action and that is important work as someone who started off in the department that in politics is called field, meaning door-knocking and phone bank operating and let me tell you, I am a persuasive powerful speaker today because of all the doors that got shut in my face and all the phones that got hung up on over the course of my political career and even today as a volunteer. It sounds painful, but it's very educational work, and frankly, it's more inspiring than discouraging.

It’s not all scary. It’s not all bad.

Even if you are the most introverted person ever, there’s lots of jobs that you as a volunteer can do on a campaign that has nothing to do with phone calls and door knocking so don't let me scare you off because there's still lots of other things that people need you to do.

Most important:  START! There's too much at stake to stay silent and stay paralyzed.

The most important thing is to get started.

Don't get intimidated by the process. Just start gravitating towards the local campaign offices or local causes or nonprofits that really speak to you. Let's use that power wisely to not only do what’s in our own best interest personally but to do it's in our best interest collectively. Our democracy doesn't work unless we keep it alive.

The price of freedom is eternal vigilance.

We don't have the luxury of being silent. There are too many people hurting right now. There's too much help that's needed. There's too much change that's needed for us to just sit idly by and let this election cycle and let this year pass us by. I hope this was helpful for those of you who want to get more involved in activism, but aren’t quite sure how. You're needed. You're important. You can add value. So get out there, make your voice heard and let's get off the sidelines in 2020.