PODCAST: Faiz Shakir, National Political Director, ACLU
“Once you communicate with a lot of people & arm them with facts (through digital media) (…) then in order to persuade them & move them to your side, you need to get on the ground, go face-to-face, and talk to them — and really demonstrate your passion and the credibility of your convictions.”
— Faiz Shakir, ACLU
Faiz Shakir joins the Grasstops’ podcast show — published by Grassroots Campaigns (GCI) — one year after he addressed a forum of dozens of GCI Canvass Directors during their small donor fundraising canvass training in Washington DC.
As Faiz addressed the canvassers from dozens of cities across the US, ACLU was also in the midst of launching its new platform for grassroots action — more formally known as People Power.
Faiz Shakir, the man who brought the idea of grassroots people power to ACLU’s Executive Director, Anthony Romero, highlighted the pivotal role GCI plays in helping ACLU become a grassroots institution with a “grassroots culture” — as GCI’s canvassers greet citizen pedestrians face-to-face on street corners across America wearing ACLU’s logo, speaking truth to power, and raising millions of members and small dollar donations.
One year later, on the first anniversary of ACLU’s People Power (and Faiz’s address to last year’s GCI Canvass Director Training Forum) John R. Gagain Jr. — the host of Grasstops by GCI and GCI’s Communications Director — asked Faiz, “how’s everything going with ACLU’s transition towards a ‘grassroots culture?’”
