Grassroots Organiser

Salary
Graduate: Often on voluntary basis with expenses
Employee with experience: £20,000 - £29,000
Senior Post: £30,000 - £40,000

Main Employers

• Charities and NGOs
• Conservation organisations
• Freelance

Job Profile
Grassroots organisers work to unite groups around issues such as recycling, pollution, sustainability, corporate accountability and social justice. Organisers help citizens create the mission, vision, and strategic plan to stimulate change and achieve their goals. Grassroots organising is focused on helping concerned citizens speak for themselves on issues that concern them. The primary goal of organising is to educate, activate, and mobilise large numbers of people to hold corporate or governmental institutions accountable to a more meaningful vision of the common good.

Role and Responsibilities
Jobs will vary according to each employer; however you could expect to be involved in:

• Recruiting and supervising volunteers, interns and students
• Overseeing outreach efforts
• Giving presentations
• Assisting with the coordination of media outreach and publicity events
• Participating in organisational fundraising
• Educating communities on current environmental issues
• Organising coalition activities
• Assisting in the management of an online activist network
• Developing fact sheets and other informational materials

Qualifications
Relevant further education subjects include: Communications; Economics; English; Environmental Science; History; International Affairs; Law; Languages; Politics; Public Affairs; Public Relations; Social Policy.

Advocacy and campaign experience, together with particular personal qualities, are more important than degree subject.

Career Development
This career is a great opportunity for someone who is passionate about the environment, not motivated by money, and wants to work a flexible schedule.

While there are definitely more job openings in the public and private sector than in the not-for-profit world, let alone the advocacy and organising segment of the not-for-profit sector, there are still thousands of organising or advocacy positions. Today’s environmental organisations are increasingly looking for well-trained staff members who have leadership skills and ability to foster an environmental movement that appeals to the general public, regardless of class, race, and ethnicity and political expertise.
 
Very few people who enter the field of environmental advocacy and organising are likely to earn the same as the public or private sectors. But the increasing number of people becoming concerned about the future, who are also willing to contribute money, are allowing an increase in job positions to occur.

Working in the field over many years is not easy. Organising positions often lead people to work very long hours for the cause, sometimes leading to unbalanced lives. Furthermore, anyone who is passionately committed to nature protection, sustainability, public health, corporate accountability, political democracy and social justice is vulnerable to despair during periods of reaction and retrenchment. It is easy in this situation to lose perspective and undervalue small victories.

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