Relational Organizing

Creating and implementing an effective relational organizing strategy can supercharge your campaigning. This guide will help you develop a relational organizing strategy, think about how to use your existing network to build power, and provide a few tactics you can use to push people up your ladder of engagement. Download the most recent version of this slidedeck here.

Additional tools and resources to support your work:

6 Evidence-Based Insights for Relational Organizing
Tipsheet: 6 Evidence-Based Insights for Relational Organizing
This tipsheet covers six principles to help organizations interested in developing and implementing a relational organizing strategy
Relational Organizing Worksheet
Worksheet: Relational Organizing
This worksheet is meant to help individuals and groups further crystalize their understanding of how to develop a relational organizing strategy
A Digital Field Experiment Reveals Large Effects of Friend-to-Friend Texting on Voter Turnout
Article: A Digital Field Experiment Reveals Large Effects of Friend-to-Friend Texting on Voter Turnout
This paper evaluates get-out-the-vote tactics using the OUTVOTE app and relational organizing
“Not Fissures but Moments of Crises that Can Be Overcome”: Building a Relational Organizing Culture in Community Organizations and Trade Unions
Article:  “Not Fissures but Moments of Crises that Can Be Overcome”: Building a Relational Organizing Culture in Community Organizations and Trade Unions
This study shows how a "relational organizing culture" can enhance the strength of an organized group that might otherwise be internally divided by certain lines of identity
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Key Points

Relationships are key to keeping people engaged and ready to take action. Familiar relationships provide better opportunities for contact and increase the likelihood a person will take action.

Developing a relational organizing strategy takes time. Like any good organizing strategy, building out your relational organizing program will require dedication, so start early!

Variety of relational organizing approaches is the spice of life! Test different approaches to find which strategy works best in your network. Communities will respond to different types of tactics.

Relational organizing is power building. Relational organizing can be a big part of base-building given you are utilizing the relationships you already have with people to further build power by developing clear ladders of engagement.

1-on-1s are about creating long-lasting transformative relationships. 1-on-1s are one of the most fundamental aspects of organizing, useful for building new relationships and strengthening existing ones.

Relational organizing and cultural organizing can be very effective together. The 5 Cs for cultural organizing are Culture, Collaboration, Communication, Creativity, and Community. Cultural organizing is a strategy to shift cultural norms away from the dominant culture, which aligns with relational organizing’s focus on raising up people power as a viable solution for change.