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Grassroots Campaigns Inc.
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| Grassroots Campaigns Inc. | |
 | |
| Basic facts | |
| Location: | Boston, Mass. |
| Type: | For-profit |
| Affiliation: | Democratic |
| Top official: | Douglas H. Phelps, President |
| Year founded: | 2003 |
| Website: | Official website |
Grassroots Campaigns Inc. is a for-profit, self-described progressive political consulting firm that aims to organize small-donor campaigns for political candidates, political organizations, and advocacy groups in a manner that engages citizens and communities at the grassroots level. The group is headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts, and operates field offices in targeted electoral locations across the country.[1][2]
Mission
According to the organization's Facebook page, Grassroots Campaigns has the following mission statement:
| “ | Grassroots Campaigns is a progressive organization that specializes in running face-to-face citizen mobilization campaigns for political parties, candidates, and advocacy groups.[3][4] | ” |
History
Grassroots Campaigns was established in Colorado in December 2003 as a for-profit political consulting firm with the goal of generating what it describes as "support for progressive candidates, parties and causes through engaging everyday people in political action." The group has organized field campaigns in support of progressive candidates for national or statewide elected offices in every election cycle since 2004. Grassroots Campaigns has also managed short-term and year-round campaigns for advocacy organizations in order to assist these groups with issue-based outreach, fundraising, and membership growth.[5][6]
Work
Campaigns
Grassroots Campaigns seeks to implement field campaigns based on in-person interaction between citizens and communities. The organization's campaign model centers around canvassing, which the group describes on its website as "systematically talking with people face-to-face and asking for their support." Canvassers interact with citizens on the street, door-to-door, or through phone banks. Depending on the campaign, the group also recruits and trains volunteers.[5][7][8][9]
Grassroots Campaigns' efforts focus on small-donor fundraising, building donor networks made up of individuals who generally contribute $200 or less. According to the organization's website, Grassroots Campaigns claims that its small-donor fundraising approach allows "everyday people to see they could impact the political process."[5][10]
As of May 2017, Grassroots Campaigns operated field offices in 18 cities across Massachusetts, California, Colorado, Florida, Louisiana, New York, Pennsylvania, Washington, Iowa, North Carolina, and Washington, D.C.[3]
Partners
The following is a partial list of political organizations and advocacy groups that have campaigned through a partnership with Grassroots Campaigns:[5][11][12]
- American Civil Liberties Union
- Environmental Action
- Save the Children
- Democratic National Committee
- League of Conservation Voters
- MoveOn.org
- For Our Future
- Planned Parenthood
- VoteVets
- Working America
- Greenpeace
- Amnesty International
- American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals
- Sierra Club
Impact
In 2004, Grassroots Campaigns' canvassing campaign on behalf of the Democratic National Committee (DNC) mobilized nearly 50,000 volunteers. The campaign contributed to an increase in the DNC's membership base of roughly 375,000 individuals. Similarly, the group's continuing partnership with the ACLU since 2007 played a role in more than doubling the ACLU's membership roster, according to the Grassroots Campaigns website in May 2017.[5][13]
Grassroots Campaigns organized campaigns in support of progressive candidates in the 2004 election cycle, which culminated in Democrats taking control of Congress. The group also campaigned in support of former President Barack Obama's successful election in 2008 and re-election in 2012.[5]
Petition drives conducted by Grassroots Campaigns
2016
| Petition Companies |
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In 2016, 76 statewide ballot measures were put before voters through signature petitions across 17 states; this was more citizen-initiated measures than voters had seen since 2006. A total of $6.6 million was spent on these successful petition drives, which were run by 33 different petition management companies.
Grassroots Campaigns was involved in a petition drive for the following initiative: Colorado Proposition 106, Physician-Assisted Death Initiative (2016)
Cost of signature collection:
Sponsors of the measure hired Grassroots Campaigns Inc. to collect signatures for the petition to qualify this measure for the ballot. A total of $689,186 was spent to collect the 98,492 valid signatures required to put this measure before voters, resulting in a total cost per required signature (CPRS) of $7.00.
Finances
As a private company, Grassroots Campaigns is not required to disclose financial information to the public. No financial information was publicly available as of May 2017.
Leadership
As of the organization's 2015 annual report filed with the Massachusetts Secretary of the Commonwealth, the following individuals served as officers or directors of Grassroots Campaigns:[6]
- Douglas H. Phelps, President and director
- Susan Moran, Treasurer and director
- Susan E. Rakov, Secretary and director
- William C. Sprong, Controller
As of May 2017, the following individuals held national leadership positions with Grassroots Campaigns:[14]
- Sue Moran, Vice president and managing director
- Wes Jones, Vice president and national canvass director
- Jon Scarlett, Vice president and national field director
- Jeff Grady, Chief financial officer
- Steve King, Assistant national canvass director
- Bridget Klene, Field director
- David Katz-Hackman, Clients operation director
- Laurie Owen, General counsel
- John Gagain, Outreach and communications director
- Sam Varmer, Project manager
- Bill Baker, National recruitment director
Noteworthy events
Lawsuits
In 2007, A group of five former California Grassroots Campaigns employees filed a class-action lawsuit against the organization in the United States District Court for the Northern District of California. The lawsuit, Angela Badami, et al. v. Grassroots Campaigns, Inc., alleged that Grassroots Campaigns failed to compensate its California employees for overtime wages or lunch breaks. After five months, the group settled the lawsuit by paying $600,000 in compensation, which was divided between the 125 impacted employees. In 2008, a group of former Chicago-based Grassroots Campaigns employees also filed a lawsuit against the organization. The employees had been fired by the group for attempting to form a union. Grassroots Campaigns eventually settled the lawsuit by paying the employees $18,000 in back wages.[12]
Recent news
The link below is to the most recent stories in a Google news search for the terms Grassroots Campaigns Inc.. These results are automatically generated from Google. Ballotpedia does not curate or endorse these articles.
See also
External links
Footnotes
- ↑ Grassroots Campaigns, "Home," accessed May 9, 2017
- ↑ LinkedIn, "Grassroots Campaigns," accessed May 9, 2017
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 Facebook, "Grassroots Campaigns—About," accessed May 9, 2017
- ↑ Note: This text is quoted verbatim from the original source. Any inconsistencies are attributable to the original source.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 5.4 5.5 Grassroots Campaigns, "Our history," accessed May 9, 2017
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 Massachusetts Secretary of the Commonwealth, "Grassroots Campaigns Inc. 2015 Annual Report," March 23, 2016
- ↑ Idealist, "Grassroots Campaigns, Inc.," accessed May 9, 2017
- ↑ Grassroots Campaigns, "Why we canvass," accessed May 9, 2017
- ↑ Grassroots Campaigns, "Services," accessed May 9, 2017
- ↑ The Atlantic, "Small Donors Still Aren't as Important as Wealthy Ones," October 18, 2016
- ↑ Observer, "The Art of Street Canvassing," May 4, 2010
- ↑ 12.0 12.1 East Bay Express, "Hello, Wanna Give to a Good Cause?" November 3, 2010
- ↑ Daily Kos, "DNC fundraising: strip-mining the 'grassroots' in 2004, 2006, and beyond," May 22, 2006
- ↑ Grassroots Campaigns, "Who we are," accessed May 9, 2017
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