Grassroots Campaigns, Inc.

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Grassroots Campaigns
Formation 2003
Type For-profit company
Headquarters Boston, MA
Location Albuquerque, NM
Amherst, MA
Austin, TX
Berkeley, CA
Boston, MA
Brooklyn, NY
Chicago, IL
Denver, CO
Kansas City, MO
Los Angeles, CA
New Orleans, LA
New York, NY
Newport Beach, CA
Minneapolis, MN
Pasadena, CA
Philadelphia, PA
Portland, OR
Raleigh, NC
Sacramento, CA
Santa Cruz, CA
San Diego, CA
San Francisco, CA
Seattle, WA
Washington, DC
Founder Douglas Phelps
Website grassrootscampaigns.com

Grassroots Campaigns is a company [1] that does strategic consulting, and fund raising for humanitarian and progressive causes and political organizations. Grassroots Campaigns employs thousands of workers to generate small-donor contributions, increase visibility, and expand the membership base for a number of progressive groups, issues, and campaigns. Headquartered in Boston Massachusetts, the company was founded in December 2003 by a small team of experienced organizers who specialized in grassroots-level political and public interest organizing with groups like the Public Interest Research Group.

History

Grassroots Campaigns was founded in December 2003. By April 2004 Grassroots Campaigns had opened offices in 40 cities throughout the country. By July 2004 they had over 2,000 staff knocking on doors and fund raising on behalf of the Democratic National Committee. With continued work on behalf of MoveOn PAC to run "Leave No Voter Behind," (LNVB). This was a "get out the vote" (GOTV) program intended to give Democratic candidate John Kerry an edge in the swing states. With continued work on behalf of MoveOnPAC in October 2004, they added 50,000 individuals canvassing their neighborhoods in 17 of the most contested swing states of the 2004 Presidential Election.[citation needed]

In 2006, Grassroots Campaigns again partnered with MoveOn.org to run Call for Change, the largest voter contact and get out the vote phonebank to date.[citation needed] Over 120 organizers in 40 cities nationwide recruited and trained over 100,000 volunteers who made more than 7 million phone calls to voters in the closest races of the midterm election.[citation needed]

During the 2008 election cycle, Grassroots Campaigns staff registered more than 250,000 voters in key battleground states and worked with the League of Conservation Voters to contact more than 18,000 voters in Virginia and North Carolina.[citation needed]

During the 2010 midterm elections, Grassroots Campaigns was active in Pennsylvania, Colorado, Missouri and Washington state. [citation needed]

Grassroots Campaigns ran nationwide voter mobilization effort in 2012 to re-elect President Obama and help other Democratic candidates get into office. Most work was done in Colorado and Nevada, with additional projects in Montana and a few other states.[citation needed]

Following the 2012 election Grassroots shifted its focus back to the ongoing base-building and fundraising operation, which has continued to expand.[citation needed] Currently Grassroots Campaigns operates 33 offices, including new expansion offices in Durham, NC, New Orleans, LA, and Brooklyn, NY.

Current work

Grassroots Campaigns is currently running national campaigns for progressive political and charitable organizations like the American Civil Liberties Union, Oxfam America, The Nature Conservancy and The Southern Poverty Law Center.

Grassroots Campaigns entered the fall of 2012 running offices in 18 cities. Grassroots Campaigns currently employs over 100 Lead Directors,Assistant Directors and Field Staff who manage staff and run these offices and an estimated 750 paid canvassers nationwide.

Past and current clients

Lawsuits

In 2006, GCI was sued in California for allegedly having staff work longer days than allowed by law at that time.[2] The suit, filed in federal court in San Francisco in 2006, accused Grassroots Campaigns, Inc. of asking staff members to work long hours, sometimes seven days a week, gathering petition signatures and donations for Democratic candidates and groups like Moveon.org in the lead up to the 2006 election. The Nelson Law Group, a San Bruno, California firm filed the class action on behalf of six former employees.[2] The parties reached an out-of-court agreement.

In Oregon in 2006 a small group of former staff members filed suit against Grassroots Campaigns claiming they were owed additional wages for their work on the 2004 John Kerry Campaign. According to the complaint filed in August 2006 in Multnomah County Circuit Court, Grassroots paid the students the federal minimum wage for some of their time on the campaign, instead of Oregon's higher minimum wage. Grassroots claimed the students were paid correctly and legally. (Willamette Week, 9/20/06). The suit sought any wages each student was owed, plus a $1,692 penalty per student. A settlement was agreed upon by both parties and the case was dismissed on August 2, 2007.[3]

In 2008 Grassroots campaigns was involved in a lawsuit that involved the firing of three employees from their Chicago office. The employees claimed they were fired after attempting to form a union.[2] The employees took their case to the NLRB who agreed to take the case. The parties settled out of court in 2010.[4]

Grassroots Campaigns Leadership Staff

  • Founder: Douglas Phelps
  • Vice President and National Canvass Director: Wes Jones
  • Vice President: Sue Moran
  • Chief Financial Officer: Hyam Kramer
  • Client Services : David Hackman
  • Finance Director : Bill Sprong

National Recruitment

  • National Recruitment Director : Christina Colaizzo

Field Staff

  • National Field Director: Jon Scarlett
  • National Field Director: Clayt Freed

Canvass Management

  • Assistant National Canvass Director : Steve King
  • Regional Director : Dan Doubet
  • Regional Director : Amanda Van Kessel
  • Regional Director : Bill Baker
  • Regional Director: Matthew Beer
  • Regional Director: Will Cirocco
  • Regional Director: Angie Coleman-Levy
  • Regional Director: Elise Steuwe

Pay System for Canvassers

Grassroots Campaigns uses a quota system to pay its canvassers: "All canvassers are expected to raise at least 80% of the average [earned by all the canvassers in the office] or $135 per day, whichever is greater. Once quota is met, canvassers receive 30% (and in some cities this is 20%) of all funds raised over the week's quota, as well as a base pay (which also depends upon the city). (Note: for single large contributions, the bonus is 30% (or 20%) up to $200, and 10% of anything above that. . . .) A canvasser who does not meet the quota in a week will be paid the local minimum wage for all hours worked.[5]"

Further reading

  • Peter Levine, President of CIRCLE (The Center for Investigative Research on Civic Learning and Engagement), whose endorsement appears on Activism, Inc. complicates and qualifies it somewhat on his blog.

See also

References

  1. ↑ http://www.grassrootscampaigns.com
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 Friedman, Taylor (28 September 2011). "Gross Profit: Money Given to Clipboard Kids Rarely Makes It to Nonprofits". SF Weekly. Retrieved 26 January 2012. 
  3. ↑ Oregon Courts Online, subscription needed to access court records
  4. ↑ Illinois Courts Online, subscription needed to access court records
  5. ↑ Grassroots Campaigns employee information sheet

External links

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