How to organize your way out of hosting the Olympics
By Chris Asmar
As a NationBuilder Organizer, I get to work with amazing groups leading people to action and fighting for change in their communities. For this week’s Customer Spotlight, I talked to No Boston Olympics about the work they are doing to organize against the proposal for Boston 2024. As a BC alum and someone who grew up on the South Shore of Massachusetts, I’ve been impressed with the highly effective digital program No Boston Olympics created to amplify citizens voices from local meetings in Boston across the globe to the International Olympic Committee (IOC) Headquarters. Working with their team from initial brainstorming to implementation has been really gratifying.
Describe the mission behind No Boston Olympics.
No Boston Olympics is devoted to protecting the future of our city and commonwealth by opposing the costly, disruptive Olympic proposal pushed by Boston 2024. We believe that Boston 2024 would be a massive waste of taxpayer dollars. The people of Massachusetts would be required to financially guarantee a multibillion-dollar three-week event, at great risk to our economy and with little benefit to residents.
What’s more, Boston 2024 would dominate the civic agenda for the next 9 years, a huge opportunity cost when our civic leaders should be working to solve serious issues facing citizens now and in the future — like providing reliable public transit, affordable housing, and social services for our most vulnerable people.
Tell us about a success your organization has experienced in the past year?
As of Monday July 27th, 2015, the U.S. Olympic Committee has dropped the Boston 2024 bid entirely.
We could not be more pleased with the complete success of our movement, and the generous outpouring of support we received from people from all walks of life and political affiliations. Along the way, we achieved many smaller but ultimately crucial successes, such as pressuring Boston 2024 into releasing the bid documents for public scrutiny. Without our grassroots efforts Boston 2024 would have remained a back-door deal, with the IOC voting on our future before the people of Massachusetts even saw the bid.
What have you learned this year about growing your community that you would share with other leaders?
We were fortunate to start with broad support for our cause. Our main goal was to educate the general public and elected officials on the risks involved behind the shiny veneer of the Boston 2024 brand. Polling data clearly showed that the more people knew about Boston 2024, the less likely they were to support it.
To this end, we held public information meetings, and gave many presentations to civic and business groups. We made the presentations available on our website, and encouraged people to talk to their friends and families about what they learned. We also had a presence and handed out signs with our logo at every public meeting the mayor’s office held about Boston 2024.
No Boston Olympics used Twitter extensively, and we saw its great effectiveness in making people feel engaged with our cause. We actively replied to tweets about Boston 2024 with invitations to join us (with a link to the website), or with a polite statement of the facts and our position on the issue at hand.
How are you using digital engagement to incentivize action?
We used our Nationbuilder website as an information resource, where people and the press could go to find specifics about what was a very non-transparent Olympic bidding process. We presented our research, supported our positions, and produced graphics that quickly and easily explained complex issues surrounding the bid (especially its budget).
We sent mass emails to the supporter list judiciously, to announce an important event or respond to key points from news cycle conversations. Each email ended with a call to action, specific ways that supporters could help advance the cause — even if it was as simple as donating $20.24.
Twitter was a major engagement platform for us. At the press conference where Mayor Walsh said he would not yet commit to signing a taxpayer guarantee to fund the Olympics, he specifically referenced the opposition as “ten people on Twitter.” For example, we made liberal use of hashtags, often started by an allied organization, No Boston 2024. These hashtags (#noboston2024, #pullthebid, #USOCgohome, #saynoCharlie, and more) were specific demands targeted at specific officials with the power to implement them, and with our (far more than 10 people) supporter base Tweeting en mass, we often reached the top of the regional trending list, which only increased awareness of our message.
What do you plan to do next?
Our position has always been to advocate for smart, sound planning for our city and commonwealth’s future. We will continue to engage with city hall, the statehouse, the Boston Redevelopment Authority, and the leaders of Boston 2024 to advocate for and implement projects that will benefit us all in the long term.
Download the guide to Organizing a Successful Petition Campaign: nationbuilder.com/petition_campaign
