Last November, NYCLASS had a monumental victory. During the fall municipal election, organizers of NYCLASS persuaded over 40 candidates for city council and all but one candidates for NYC mayor to support animal rights issues within their campaign platforms. Their movement elevated animal rights in political discourse, making them a deciding factor in the outcomes of key races.
NYCLASS entered into the 2013 New York City mayoral and city council races with a strong ground game and a plan to coordinate. During the mayors race, they worked with Local 1180 on the Anybody But Quinn campaign to push an animal rights and progressive agenda forward. It was the first time a union and an animal rights group built a coalition in an organizing strategy.
"It was amazing to witness the marriage of two completely different ground organizations - a labor union and an animal rights organization," Allie Feldman, Executive Director of NYCLASS, said during our phone call.
Prior to their ground game success with NYCLASS, animal rights groups have had very little political support in electoral politics. An important component to their organizing was asking politicians to publicly endorse animal rights initiatives. They had to run an extremely tight and efficient ground game, using their nation's petition and endorsement pages. Organizers spent countless hours asking candidates for support on animal protection issues, including banning puppy mills and horse carriages around Central Park.
NYCLASS also needed to reach every voter possible in New York. After years of organizing, they entered into the 2013 election cycle with a huge internal list of supporters. Using NationBuilder Match, they were able to match their massive list to NationBuilder's built-in voterfile.
Since NYCLASS’ electoral victories, Mayor Bill de Blasio has come out swinging with animal rights support. In December, he declared “We are going to get rid of the horse carriages. Period. It’s over!” With the help of Powerthru Consulting, NYCLASS created an aggressive social media campaign, reaching nearly 200k people. With their nation, social media touches were automatically aggregated into the NYCLASS dashboard.
"With the combination of our ground game and the tools that NationBuilder offered us, we've woken the sleeping giant of humane voters," Allie proudly stated.
