How Grassroot movements get things done?

Published in

Diversity.Social

7 min readSep 17, 2020

Welcome to the complete guide to the Grassroots meanings, definition, and everything you can learn about the grassroots campaign and activism.

The comprehensive education of Grassroots

Grassroots Definition

Grassroots definition is illustrated in the word itself. It means the most basic or fundamental level of activity in operation or organization. Or, at the roots of the grass. When an organization or community is looking to make a change from the ground up, they will start at the grassroots. In simpler terms, grassroots is the place where things begin and grow.

However, in a modern context, the word is often used to drive an ideology or political movement.

Since the early 1900s, mass grassroots movements have been prevalent in both the United States and other countries worldwide. Some of the significant examples of grassroots campaigns include some aspects of the American Civil Rights Movement in the 1950s — 1960s, Brazil’s land ownership revolution in the 1970s.

In the 1980s, the Chinese rural democracy movement and the German peace lobby. These movements were primarily politically driven, where the organic association of people was the basis for supporting the issue/ideology or candidate.

Grassroots organizing and campaigning must be community-based, very
inclusive and definitely broad. Grassroots includes the everyday ordinary working people, who constitute a significant part of the organization. Moreover, it is also how companies function smoothly in the first place.

Grassroots Movement

Grassroots movement relies on the collective action of the people supporting the cause. The movement employs different types of strategies to achieve its objectives. Many of these movements share a focus on increasing participation by the community or people most affected by the very issue the movements stand up for. In politics, a “grassroots movement” is a movement that develops organically at a local level before spreading throughout the state and even the country.

Often, grassroots movements tackle social injustice, environmental issues, human rights violations, poverty, and economic inequality. When executed correctly and effectively, these movements can offer a wide range of creative and inspiring approaches for ordinary people to get involved in the change they want to see.

Furthermore, grassroots movements often function as a powerful conversation platform where ordinary people come to terms with their ability to ignite change and make a difference.

A true “grassroots movement” isn’t organized by political forces — instead, a “grassroots movement” springs up spontaneously due to some pressing issue that a community feels needs to be changed or enhanced. Education is the backbone of any grassroots campaign as people cannot participate in something that they do not understand. It is important therefore to raise awareness of an issue and to communicate effectively why it is such a concern. A higher level of visibility garners more support, and information is power for followers who want to be able to advocate for themselves, increasing the collective impact of the group.

Grassroots movements and organizations use collective action from the local level to effect change at the local, regional, national, or international level. Grassroots movements are associated with bottom-up, rather than top-down decision making, and are sometimes considered more natural or spontaneous than more traditional power structures

Grassroots Organizations

In recent years, there is a significant rise in grassroots organizations worldwide. Not only they’re gaining more massive support from civilians or the ordinary people, but many large bodies such as the UNHCR (United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees) are also recognizing and supporting their causes.

In January 2019, UNCHR published an article on how grassroots organizations are just as important as seed money for innovation. Stated was how these organizations have that much significance to affect change. The bottom-up approaches employed by grassroots organizations are more relevant.

It allows more common people who come from various walks of life and backgrounds to identify with the cause. At the same time, define their own goals and decide how to achieve them because the cause has personal and community consequences for them.

Grassroots organizations have spread like wildfire that it no longer limits itself to the country where it is started. People worldwide can rally behind these organizations and support the cause because they believe in it.

However, it’s important to note the difference between grassroots organizations and other advocacy capacities. Grassroots organization uses the process of shoring up power through the support of the people by first identifying the issue that these people share. Subsequently, it identifies individuality within to lead solutions. On the other hand, advocacy uses multiple forms of advocacy. Where communicating with governmental representatives is one. This is to influence the opinion of the public and ultimately aims to influence the decisions within social, political, and economic institutions.

Grassroots organizations are primarily made up of civilians advocating a cause to spur change at local, national, or international levels. Grassroots initiatives are community-based approaches created to address localized problems. Projects backed by local organizations can quickly gain momentum on the local level because they are generally enacted by local actors. Moreover, larger organizations could benefit from local grassroots initiatives that are directly connected to the issues and the people living in need.

Grassroots Examples

One non-profit grassroots organization that is well-known among musicians is the Axis of Justice. Co-founded by musicians, singers, and songwriters Tom Morello, who is well-known for his role as the lead guitarist of the rock band Rage Against the Machine, and Serj Tankian, best known as the lead vocalist and primary lyricist for the heavy metal band System of a Down.

The organization was formed after Morello witnessed some audience members promoted racist symbols and imagery at the 2002 Ozzfest concert. They were adamant about eradicating racism and fascism in the music industry. In their efforts to do so, Axis of Justice found an ally in Anti-Racist Action shortly after it was formed.

This organization’s objective is to bring musicians and music fans together in their fight for social justice. The Axis of Justice aims to bridge the music industry and its fans from around the world and interested political organizations to organize measures that will and can help issues of peace, human rights, and economic justice. They are committed to affecting change, mainly through music’s power, by bringing to attention any social injustice, freedom violations, and education inequality.

The Axis of Justice

The AoJ is a not-for-profit group co-founded by Tom Morello and Serj Tankian. It is intended to connect musicians, music fans, and progressive grassroots ideals to promote social justice.

AoJ tents have appeared at music festivals where either System of a Down or Audioslave were performing. Most famously, the group appeared at Lollapalooza in 2003. The Axis of Justice also produces a monthly radio program that can be heard on XM Satellite Radio and KPFK (90.7 FM), a Pacifica Radio station in Los Angeles, California. The AoJ radio broadcasts are archived as MP3s on the AoJ website, and are available to download for free.

Grassroots Campaign

Grassroots movements are built from the power of local and community involvement. Since they often started locally, these movements aim to raise money, awareness to their cause, build recognition, and, if possible, deepen political participation to make their objectives a reality.

The campaign strategies strongly focus on local involvement. Some of the ways a grassroots organization campaigns for their cause are hosting neighborhood meetings and distributing posters and pamphlets.

They also talk to and engage with the people on the street, go door-to-door, gather signatures for petitions, run fundraising events to raise money for advertising and promotion. They also organize peaceful rallies or public demonstrations and ask people to share their views and opinions on social media by using specific hashtags.

Grassroots campaigns work entirely via narrow communication methods as email, phone calls, or the good-old face-to-face meetings. These do not consider broadcast media like television or radio. Ask your grassroots campaign donors to volunteer. A lot of times someone writes a check and is not asked to do anything else besides writing more checks. This is a mistake some of my best donors have become volunteers ( the reverse is also true) keep asking till folks say no.

Grassroots activism

It’s not uncommon for grassroots movements to fail at gaining traction and momentum in furthering their cause. Unfortunately for many, belief is not strong enough to convince them to act.

Grassroots activism focuses on ways to mobilize supporters and utilize the strength of their passion and conviction to move their cause forward. Grassroots activism largely depends on determined individuals within the movement who are willing to lead the change they want to see.

Grassroots activism is about mobilizing a group of people, who are passionate about a cause and harnessing the power of their conviction to push for a different outcome.

Because the cause of grassroots movements is usually something very personal to these individuals, they often take the lead without much persuasion. It has the strength and power to move the community to take action.

Many grassroots organizations are doing some serious changes in their community. They are seen as drawing-board allies for ideas and inspirations for community improvements and policy implementations.

The community should continue to support grassroots movements that have the power to make a difference. If they fail at their mission, they shouldn’t be subjected to shame because even if they failed, they tried to take actions where many probably wouldn’t.

The power of grassroots activism lies simply in the will and passion of the people who represent it. Personally motivated, the grassroots people bring an unrestrained enthusiasm that can carry a motion through the challenges that typically accompany change. This kind of movement relies on individuals who are willing to drive the change that they are concerned about from the ground-up. Often, the cause is something very personal and takes place in the activist’s own community.