One of the measures of success in our work is being able to walk away from a client knowing they have their own innovations, capacity, and expertise to keep going without a grassroots solutions presence day in and day out. For the last six years, we’ve had the pleasure of helping LIVESTRONG build a national grassroots movement to improve the lives of people affected by cancer. As we wrap up our work with LIVESTRONG, we’re looking back on what we built together.
Organizing the Pieces
When LIVESTRONG (the Lance Armstrong Foundation) hired grassroots solutions in 2005, the organization had already achieved great success. Founded in 1997, LIVESTRONG had grown from a one-person, volunteer organization focused on providing grants for cancer research to a vibrant 70+ person organization with a vision for building a grassroots movement to make cancer a national priority.
They had the raw materials in place—a magnetic name with a high profile, a compelling story about cancer survival that inspired cancer survivors and their loved ones across the country, a distinctive brand, a growing cadre of volunteer fundraisers, and a wildly successful wristband sales campaign that had distributed over 65,000,000 yellow wristbands in a very short period of time.
What they wanted was a concrete, systematic plan for leveraging and organizing those raw materials into a powerful force for cancer advocacy. LIVESTRONG challenged grassroots solutions to take their grassroots advocacy program to the next level.
Laying Out the Framework
LIVESTRONG had a broad view of what advocacy means, far beyond just mobilizing people around federal legislation and policy. They wanted to engage their supporters in all aspects of cancer policy, treatment and care. The challenge was maintaining this broad vision while continuing to make progress in the fight against cancer. LIVESTRONG also intended to remain a relatively small organization based in Austin, Texas, so their grassroots work had to maximize resources and be effective from a centralized location.
In the early years of our work together, grassroots solutions spent days brainstorming with LIVESTRONG staff and leaders, thinking about how to create structures and an organizational culture and practice that supported their vision. Our first goal was to develop a plan for turning their supporters into active volunteers, activists, and leaders.
Building the Movement
Before getting started on this new model of engagement, grassroots solutions surveyed the landscape to catalogue and assess LIVESTRONG’s strengths, grassroots resources and potential obstacles. We then developed a comprehensive plan that helped LIVESTRONG prioritize cities, recruit volunteers and create ongoing support for localized events on the ground. The grassroots solutions team also created a training program and grassroots field manual that gave local activists the tools they needed to succeed.
The results were transformative. Moving beyond an advocacy model that had relied heavily on action alerts and limited engagement, we invented a network of local leadership teams (or “armies”) that took action in their own communities.
One of the earliest successes of the LIVESTRONG armies was the transformation of LIVESTRONG DAY, which had started out as a Day on the Hill for cancer advocates to meet with their members of Congress. Through the armies, LIVESTRONG DAY became a cascade of hundreds of localized events all across the country that brought new attention to cancer issues and pressured elected officials to take notice.
In 2008, grassroots solutions helped organize the national LIVESTRONG Summit, which brought together a record-breaking 1,000 cancer survivors from across the country for four days to engage in the common cause of making cancer a national priority. The trainings were designed to focus on grassroots action and skill building, and virtually every member of the grassroots solutions team was involved in designing, planning and executing the Summit.
LIVESTRONG Goes Global
When Lance Armstrong returned to the professional cycling circuit in 2009, LIVESTRONG set their sights on developing a global agenda. grassroots solutions helped modify the national grassroots program to fit their emerging global vision, and supported staff as they made the transition. We helped develop on-the-ground activities that activists could conduct anywhere on the globe, and made LIVESTRONG Day a global day of action to fight cancer. Over 1,100 events took place across all seven continents. From a car wash in the Marshall Islands, to a visit from a three-ton elephant seal at the British Antarctic Survey, LIVESTRONG advocates celebrated their commitment to fighting cancer. Now a vital global player with partners around the world, LIVESTRONG continues to support grassroots engagement efforts both here in the U.S. and abroad. It’s been an honor to be a part of their wonderful work and see their grassroots vision come to life.
Stay tuned next month for an inside-look at LIVESTRONG when Dan Cramer and Ann Wiesner share their video diaries from a recent trip down to Austin, Texas.