Open Call for New Organizing Projects

Have a big idea to organize more working-class people? This is your chance to make that happen.

I work for an organization called Addition that is launching new working-class organizing projects across the country. As those at the top consolidate money and power and the ranks of those struggling to get by keep growing, we need a new wave of working-class organizing that reaches well beyond what already exists.

If you have an idea to bring the power of organizing to more working-class people, an idea that’s been nagging at you and you just can’t let it go, this is your chance to scratch that itch. Today we are launching a search for great organizers with big ideas. You can throw your hat into the mix by completing this form.

To date, we have launched projects to organize working class moms, smalltown seniors, working-class visionaries, video gamers, Catholic women, and most recently a project to train working-class volunteers to become organizers in the fight to defend democracy.

Yours could be an idea to reach a specific group of people or a kind of place, or it could be a new way of reaching people that you've been thinking on. We want organizers who have ideas, a track record, and are ready to do the work of organizing.

These projects can be online, offline, and everything in between, as long as they reach and move new working-class people into the fight. We’ve got mad respect for the fundamentals of organizing and believe there are many ways to apply them.

The people we hire to lead new projects come onto a team of organizers who have run big campaigns and built new working-class organizations from scratch. You would get support, mentoring, and insight from these fellow organizers.

Here's what a project lead gets:

-Full-time salary and benefits.

-A modest start-up budget to cover travel, digital ads, meeting costs, etc.

-Support from seasoned organizers.

-Some built-in storytelling and operations capacity.

If your organizing takes off, and we think it’s a good use of funds, we then budget additional dollars to cover the costs needed to reach more people.

If the idea doesn't take, that’s ok, we’re here to try new things.

If you are interested in taking the first step, fill out this form.

Here are a few tips on the kinds of projects most likely to be chosen.

First, the project must reach working-class people. Next up, the project needs to have the potential to expand to reach significant numbers of people. One way people have done this is by focusing on an identity or interest: Moms, rural seniors, video gamers. Another has been through a type of geography, like unorganized rural areas or working-class suburbs. It could be focusing on a specific type of consumer, a sector of the economy, or the workforce.

If proposing a very local project, we’d want to know how that project could be recreated in lots of places or another reason it could have an outsized impact in the lives of working-class people.

It’s high time for a new wave of organizing. If you have a gut feeling about an idea, throw your hat in the ring. If you know someone who has been hankering to build something new, please share this with them. Chances like this only come around every so often.