FAQ About MoveOn.org's Million Leaders StrategyMillion Leaders is our strategy to unleash a surge of previously untapped people power by encouraging and supporting MoveOn members and other progressives to step up as the leaders of their own campaigns for social change.This means MoveOn will double down on the approach it pioneered with its SignOn.org petition tool, making more aspects of its online toolset available to members who lead their own campaigns and organizing efforts -- and helping those leaders tap into the collective people power of MoveOn members. MoveOn's staff of expert campaigners will support and turbocharge the most promising campaigns. The strategy is intended to strengthen our impact on prominent national debates, while also leading to a surge of progressive activism at the local and state levels.MoveOn.orgMOO_f3e1248a-a4b5-11e3-8b9e-9b77d566cd33MoveOn is a community of more than 8 million Americans from all walks of life who use innovative technology to lead, participate in, and win campaigns for progressive change.
MoveOn.org was started by Joan Blades and Wes Boyd, two Silicon Valley entrepreneurs. Although neither had experience in politics, they shared deep frustration with the partisan warfare in Washington D.C. and the ridiculous waste of our nation's focus at the time of the Clinton impeachment mess. On September 18, 1998, they launched an online petition to "Censure President Clinton and Move On to Pressing Issues Facing the Nation." Within days they had hundreds of thousands of individuals signed up, and began looking for ways these voices could be heard.Progressives... if you’re a MoveOn member or a progressive, you have an important role to play. Our strategy only works if people like you step up as leaders and work with MoveOn to engage others in campaigns for progressive change.MoveOn LeadersThere are several ways you can step up and engage MoveOn members as you lead your own campaign for social change, whether at the local, state, or national level. You can use our petition tool, SignOn.org, to create an online petition calling for the change you’re campaigning for. If you gather at least 20 signatures, we’ll email your petition to a random sample of MoveOn members -- and if they find it compelling, we’ll send it to more, helping you activate our collective people power. You can also join the local MoveOn volunteer Council if there’s one in your area, contributing your ideas and energy as a leader in the fight for progress.MoveOn Members Thousands of MoveOn members across the country are stepping up as leaders in fights to improve their communities and the country, and we hope that you’ll consider doing the same. If you do so, we’ll provide you with tools and training, and other MoveOn members will have your back.
But we also realize that not every MoveOn member wants to run a campaign, at least not right now, and that’s just fine. You can remain a MoveOn member like you’ve always been, and we’ll connect you with excellent campaigns led by other MoveOn members that are likely to be of interest to you.Joan BladesMoveOn Co-FounderWes BoydMoveOn Co-FounderMoveOn.org Civic ActionMoveOn.org Civic Action, a nonprofit educational and advocacy organization, set up in 2001, is home to MoveOn’s public education efforts and issue advocacy campaigns as well as many of the online tools MoveOn makes available to progressives across the country.
We are currently focusing on what we call our Million Leaders strategy -- an audacious plan to unleash progressive people power by encouraging and supporting MoveOn members and other progressives to step up as the leaders of their own campaigns for social change. This strategy includes MoveOn Petitions, our online petition tool that empowers you to lead and win your own MoveOn-style campaigns.MoveOn.org Political ActionMoveOn.org Political Action represents the collective will of MoveOn's more than 8 million members at the ballot box by helping to elect progressive candidates to office and defeat candidates who stand in the way of progress.
But in contrast to most PACs, which funnel industry contributions to candidates in exchange for access, MoveOn.org Political Action bundles hundreds of thousands of small donors together to elect progressive candidates who will represent the American people. In fact, the average donation to MoveOn.org Political Action is less than $20.You have the power to organize and host events, petition deliveries, and house parties, to empower your supporters to mobilize each other with phone calls, and to raise funds with which you can support your campaign_f3e1248b-a4b5-11e3-8b9e-9b77d566cd33To encourage and support MoveOn members and other progressives to step up as the leaders of their own campaigns for social change_f3e1248c-a4b5-11e3-8b9e-9b77d566cd33OpennessIf you’re building an open platform, what’s to keep folks on the right wing or big corporations from using SignOn.org and your other tools to pursue policies that are anything but progressive?
MoveOn is and always will be proudly, unabashedly progressive. Our more than 7 million members wouldn’t have it any other way. What this means in practice is that MoveOn staff won’t promote or offer support to any efforts by the right to use our tools, and given that MoveOn members aren’t likely to support those efforts either, it’s hard to see how conservative efforts to co-opt them could prove successful.ProgressivenessWhat will make MoveOn different than other companies and organizations that provide online organizing tools?
MoveOn members' collective progressive people power is unparalleled -- we’re more than 7 million strong and growing rapidly. And only our tools allow progressive leaders to tap into that people power. Other things you should know: we’re unabashedly progressive, we’re not beholden to any political party, and we're non-profit. We’ll never allow others to pay us to promote petitions, and we do not accept corporate contributions.BoldnessWhy do this now?
Progressives just won a resounding electoral victory -- and yet in many ways, the Washington establishment is still refusing to deliver the change Americans voted for. Politicians are still focused on austerity, when the people want a focus on job creation. On gun violence, on climate change, on immigration, the status quo isn’t enough. Corporate lobbyists still have too much corrupting influence. Progressives need a bold stroke to dramatically increase our grassroots power. We think this strategy is it.Petition PlatformAdd new features to the SignOn.org petition platform_f3e1248d-a4b5-11e3-8b9e-9b77d566cd33Your SignOn.org petition tool is great -- but I’ve heard you’re also developing other tools I can use in my campaigns. What are they and when will they be available?
We’ve already begun adding new features to the SignOn.org petition platform. You can now use SignOn.org to email people who join your campaign by signing your petition, and to mobilize activists to make phone calls to your petition target. As part of our Million Leaders strategy, we’ll continue to add new functionality to the SignOn.org platform and may develop other tools as well. Our vision is that eventually, as a campaign leader, you’ll have the power to use MoveOn tools to organize and host events such as rallies, petition deliveries, and house parties, to empower your supporters to mobilize each other with phone calls, and to raise funds with which you can support your campaign.National CampaignsMake us more powerful in national campaigns_f3e1248e-a4b5-11e3-8b9e-9b77d566cd331... we expect that this new strategy will make us more powerful in national campaigns. And you should expect to see MoveOn remain as a progressive leader in the most prominent national debates of the day. This strategy will give more MoveOn members the tools, encouragement, and resources they need to step up as leaders in prominent national fights, and our staff will have their backs and help them turbocharge those campaigns.State & Local ChangeProvide tools to create change at the state and local levels_f3e1248f-a4b5-11e3-8b9e-9b77d566cd332And at the same time, MoveOn members who want to create progressive change at the state and local levels will have the tools they need to step up and win campaigns there too. So in addition to increased national power, we expect this strategy to unleash a surge of campaigning at the state and local levels.Electoral MuscleExperiment with change to place our members more directly in the driver's seat._f3e12490-a4b5-11e3-8b9e-9b77d566cd333MoveOn.org Political Action will remain a potent electoral force. But some of the way we approach elections will be different, with our members more directly in the driver’s seat. We’ve got a lot of ideas about how this Million Leaders strategy can increase our electoral muscle, and we're excited to experiment and see which of these new ideas prove most effective.2013-02-042014-03-05OwenAmburOwen.Ambur@verizon.net