Organizing resources to help build your nation

NationBuilder is powerful online organizing tool, and like any other tool it's all about how you use it. On this page we want to share with you some resources that will help you understand the fundamental concepts and techniques of community and online organizing. NationBuilder will allow you to implement these practices in a way that is comprehensive and effective.

This page is an open forum, so we hope that you'll share some of your favorite organizing resources with us and let us know which ones were helpful.

#occupyWINNING

#occupyWINNING is a blog highlighting the innovative community organizing techniques of the Occupy Wall Street movement. 

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Community Tool Box

The Community Tool Box has a stated goal of "promoting community health and development by connecting people, ideas, and resources." Their troubleshooting guide for solving problems is thorough and in-depth. It's particularly helpful if you have an ongoing project and have hit some speed bumps. These problems are common to all organizers, and their insight and analysis into how to tackle them is extremely useful.

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Online Organizing Wiki

Fired Up Media has launched an Online Organizing Wiki. It's a great concept. I found that not all of the content in it is exceptional, so you might have to sift around to find what you're looking for. They are up front about letting us know that this project is a work in progress and that it's participatory, so help them out if you can!

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Marshall Ganz on organizing

The critically acclaimed PHD from the Harvard Kennedy School of Government, Marshall Ganz, has his lecture series on organizing available for the public to view. Professor Ganz organized with Ceasar Chavez and the United Farm Workers in the late 1960's. His lessons have been the basis for organizing programs everywhere, including the New Organizing Institute's organizer toolbox.

In order to view the lecture videos you'll need real player.

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Learning from Obama

Learning from Obama: Lessons for Online Communicators in 2009 and Beyond is based on a series of articles written by Colin Delaney of epolitcs.com shortly after the 2008 campaign.

It's an excellent overview of how and why Obama won and how you can harness many of the same strategies to replicate what was done for his campaign. NationBuilder allows you to implement practically all of the methods discussed here, so it's definitely worth a read. 

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Wellstone Action!

Wellstone Action is a well renowned learning center, known for their excellent organizer training program. 

Their Organizing Tools section is a fantastic resource and goes in-depth, providing you with everything you need to know to be a successful organizer. With this resource there is definitely a heavy focus on political organizing, but many of the key lessons can be applied to all different kinds of organizing, so if you're not a campaign do be turned off by all the talk of getting votes.

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NOI: Organizing Toolbox

The New Organizing Institute (NOI) has put out a great resource they're calling the Organizing Toolbox.  It's a lesson series based on the fundamental principals of organizing. Each lesson incorporates video (some are coming soon) from some of their live trainings that they do. The lesson plan follows the path of a traditional organizing program which includes: telling a story, creating a structure, mapping out a strategy, and taking action.

This is the introductory video to the series:

These lessons are a must for any aspiring organizer. 

Overall, NOI is a first-rate resource for organizers at all levels. They're always publishing new articles, many of which are useful organizing tips, and their resource center covers a wide range of topics and is very practical. 

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