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Tools and Resources

Guides, trainings, worksheets and other materials for supporting grassroots activist work. Donated by members of the GGSN and open to public sharing with other like-minded groups! >>Click on titles below to open full articles

Storytelling for Deep Impact Course

This FREE course is designed to help grassroots groups understand the basics of  powerful storytelling to change hearts and minds and specifically to win over “moveable middle” audiences.

Making Your Activism Accessible

This guide was developed to support activists in making their spaces, events, meetings and communications more accessible, in order to ensure that everyone is welcome and encouraged to join a movement for justice in whatever way they can! This guide includes definitions of accessibility, considerations for accessible events, communication and content, creating an accessible culture and other suggestions related to creating a space that is inviting to all.

Campaign Communications Course

This FREE course is designed to help grassroot groups to understand the basics of public communications for building a convincing, winning campaign. It can support groups looking for skills on crafting targeted messaging and framing to move people towards social change.

Navigating Turnover in Activist Groups

Grassroots groups, especially student-led groups, face a high risk of dissolving because their members don’t stay on for long, which creates challenges in momentum building. This guide includes; challenges faced by student organizers, strategies to support and guide new members and building institutional memory, plus further insight on student organizing best practices, organizing in a pandemic, wellbeing and motivation and recruitment and retention strategies.

Working in coalitions infographic

Quick infographic on different variations of working with other groups, with requirements for each. Also includes some suggested ingredients for success when working in coalition.

Event accessibility guide

This quick guide was developed for a HUB event. It can be referenced as an example of a guide to educate attendees on the accessibility of a space, and what accommodations are being made.

Decision making and conflict infographic

Quick infographic on 3 models of decision making. Includes the steps, tips, a suggested ‘testing grid’ and key reflections. The latter half of the infographic gives some quick information on conflicts.

Building networked coalitions

When multiple groups and organisations come together to work on a campaign, they often opt to collaborate together in a coalition. Coalitions, however, have garnered a reputation for causing campaigners headaches due to their frequently slow, bureaucratic and top-down decision-making processes. In this guide, we look at an alternative way of building powerful collaborative campaigns.

Digital security basics for campaigners

Digital security practices help protect campaigners from malicious online attacks and intrusive surveillance efforts led either by groups that are hostile to your agenda or by repressive government agencies. This guide was created by the Blueprints for Change collective and draws on the experiences of activists from around the world.

Support and coaching techniques for remote groups

As digital group-work tools make it easier to coordinate teams at a distance, campaigns that access them can now scale rapidly and build collective impact through distributed organizing (see our guide on this for more). One of the challenges of this kind of organizing is that the lack of face time and direct human contact can lead to engagement and morale drop off. Several groups that have sparked remote teams and chapters have now developed ways to support these groups at a distance and maintain a sense of purpose and togetherness with their supporters no matter where they are.

Fundraising Tracker Sheet: Template

This Google sheet template was developed to track fundraising sources, something many grassroots campaigners, organizers and support staff have trouble with. This template is designed to help you and your organization plan, track, and forecast fundraising goals for the year.

The Power of Music for Social Change: Tips on Using Live Music to Promote Action

This resource is intended for musicians looking to leverage their platforms for social change, and for individual activists, grassroots activist groups and other changemakers interested in using the power of music for social change.

Commons Conversations: Insights into Environmental Justice Movements in India with Radhika Jhaveri

In this episode, Radhika Jhaveri (she/her) is interviewed by Kenzie (Mackenzie) Harris (she/they), the principal coordinator for the Global Grassroots Support Network (GGSN). Radhika is the the GGSN coordinator for India, a member of the youth based collective “Let India Breathe”, and the founder of Pantrynook- a zerowaste (plastic free) food packaging company...

Rural and Remote Communities Climate Organizing Toolkit

This toolkit aims to support climate advocates and organizers in rural and remote communities in empowering their friends, families, and neighbours to unite and transform themselves and their communities into climate leaders.

How to create your own podcast? GUIDE

A podcast is like a radio programme on the internet. You can listen to it online or download it to listen to whenever you want. There are many types of podcasts that deal with different topics and it is an alternative and much more exploratory way of generating content.

Basic financial education guide for grassroots organizations​​​​​​​

Here you will find a basic financial terms glossary, tips for finding funds, and other useful information for grassroots groups looking to find and manage funds

Ingredients for wins: lessons from successful climate justice campaigns in North America

Using case studies and interviews with organizers and land defenders, this article explores factors that contributed to the success of 14 intersectional climate justice campaigns.

Planning a Global Week of Action

A Global Week of Action is a week when people across the world take action with a common goal, set of targets, and with shared demands, storytelling and visual identity.