Written by Savita Deo
Welcome to your guide to OFTW’s Community Organizing Model! In 2023, OFTW launched a new model based on community organizing principles for a select cohort of undergraduate chapters to trial, one that would incorporate more of a vibrant, social aspect into our current model and create a place on campus where students find solidarity with one another while learning about effective giving. As a chapter leader, you are now a community organizer, and are at the forefront of this important and exciting shift!
The result is a chapter environment that feels less transactional, and more uplifting, accessible, and joyful. This model was created through incorporating feedback from chapter leaders like yourself in an Organizing Taskforce, who wanted to create a vibrant campus community dedicated to eradicating global poverty. Whether you are implementing this model on your campus this semester or are interested in doing so in coming years, we are so excited that you are joining us on this journey!
Chapter leaders and OFTW HQ staff at the Fall CLM, 2022.
Sections in this Article:
- Our Model: At a Glance
- A New Mindset: Growth vs. Commitment
- Ways to Engage with your Community
- Community Action
- The 1:1
- Make this model your own!
Our Model: At a Glance
This is your new community organizing model!
1. The beginning of the semester looks very similar to our previous model, where you will be engaging in broad outreach, participating in club fairs, and spreading the word about your club on campus. However, you will also be recruiting folks to participate in an advocacy program, where they will learn more about the principles of effective giving. You can learn more about advocacy programs here.
2 and 3. After that, you will want to alternate between having a meeting for these advocacy programs (i.e. reading groups, discussions) and community socials. This can look like whatever you want, so get creative here! Some typical examples are coffee chats, lunches, or dinners, but you can even do a walk along a trail on campus, a friendly snowball fight towards the end of first semester, or a game night. The options are endless. The idea here is to get your community together on a consistent basis, so that potential pledgers and chapter members get to know each other and find a sense of belonging with each other.
4. Towards the end of the semester, we are interested in organizing a community action. This is an exciting opportunity to get your broader campus community and the public involved in a demonstration for effective giving. There are a variety of ways to plan this. You know your campus community best! There are also a lot of things to keep in mind when planning a demonstration like this. We will get into that in the Community Action section on this page [insert quick link].
5. Towards the end of the semester, you will also be having a Pledge Week! This will use all of the momentum that you have been building to convince as many people to take the pledge as possible.
6. And finally, make sure you celebrate! You and your team work so hard - this is a perfect time to celebrate all of the effort that’s been put into the semester.
Shout Out to our Organizing Task Force!
The model you see here would not be what it is today without the valuable feedback from our Organizing Task Force, which was announced in Spring 2023, and met twice over that semester to help inform our final version of this model. A big thank you to the chapters who participated in this Task Force - Brock University, St. Andrews University, Northeastern University, and London School of Economics (LSE) - your thoughts and contributions helped create the version of this model that we presented to our board and really informed us of what kind of community we are trying to create at OFTW.
We will continue to rely on your feedback throughout the implementation of this model - this is an exciting, pivotal moment for us as an organization, and we can’t thank you enough for being a fundamental part of that shift!
A New Mindset: Growth versus Commitment
As a community organizer, something that you are going to be working to balance throughout each semester is the growth of your chapter and folks’ commitment to your chapter and to One for the World. Don’t get me wrong - securing pledges for your chapter is undeniably important, and we are still setting ambitious pledge goals every semester! However, someone taking a giving pledge does not necessarily mean that they understand why they did it, or the values behind that pledge. They may have in the moment, but they lose touch with your chapter after a tabling event or Giving Lunch, years go by, and by the time they are working at their post-grad job, One for the World is a distant memory to them; this leads to them canceling their donation.
What we have always been aiming for is a life-long commitment to effective giving. We want folks to truly understand and care about their monthly donation, and stick with it years after they graduate. In order to achieve that, folks are going to need consistent engagement with your chapter. They need to feel as though they are stepping into a community! This means balancing pledge-recruitment with socials, events, and 1:1s. In the section below, we’ll explore some ways you can engage with your community, and discuss which activities build new relationships or keep existing ones.
Ways to Engage with your Community
A vibrant tabling session at Columbia University
There are lots of different ways to engage with your community, whether it is inviting in a person who has never heard of effective giving or a potential pledger who has been involved in the club for years. We have dedicated sections to almost all of these on the Chapter Hub for you to explore.
With this new model, something important to consider is whether this activity or action is bringing new folks into the community, or maintaining relationships you’ve already established. And keep in mind that some of these activities do both!
Quick Links:
Community Action
Towards the end of the semester, you will be looking to organize a community action, a gathering of people from both inside and outside of your community that draws a large amount of attention to One for the World. Organizing an event like this can feel daunting, but we’re here to help make this as smooth and intuitive as possible! This section will cover some key considerations that you should have when planning your community action.
OFTW at Fort Lewis College chapter held a spoken word event in 2023.
Key Considerations:
- Your ‘WHY’: What is your goal for this community action? Are you hoping to bring people together? Are you hoping to increase visibility for OFTW on your campus? Working backwards from the outcome you want can help you decide what kind of action would be best to do.
- Your ‘WHAT’: What is the community action you are hoping to do? What is drawing people’s attention to your campus community or to OFTW?
- Your ‘HOW’: How are you getting people’s attention?
- Safety and Legal Considerations: Do you need permission from university or campus officials to hold your event? What are the laws surrounding community gatherings in your city/state/province/region? This is super important! Every campus has different rules and regulations when it comes to gatherings or demonstrations, depending on what you will be doing.
Your People:
- Who are your constituents?
Your ‘constituents’ are people who have roles and responsibilities during your community action. It is super important to know exactly who has what role during the gathering, in order to help the community action run as smoothly as possible.
- Who is your audience?
Your audience is the people you are hoping to impact through your community action. What is the effect that you are hoping to have on these people, whether they are folks from your campus community or the general public? Understanding the outcome you are hoping for will help you plan a successful event that can specifically target or appeal to a certain group of people.
While thinking through all of these things can seem like a daunting task, it is much more important to consider all of these ahead of time and create an action plan, so that you are not scrambling to make things happen in the moment.
The 1:1
1:1s are extremely important in community organizing, as they establish, build, and maintain relationships. Long-term relationships are foundational to successful social movements!
Check out this page on 1:1 Outreach and Following Up to learn more about these types of conversations.
Make this model your own!
Previous cohort of members of the Wharton MBA chapter.
One of our favorite things about the model is how much creativity it offers you as a chapter leader - you get to build your OFTW community in a way that best fits your chapter and your campus community! Maybe your chapter relies heavily on 1:1 conversations, and you create a mentorship system where new potential members of your chapter can meet with pledgers who have been with the club for a couple of years. Maybe you host a bunch of socials over the course of the year. It’s really up to you - you are the organizers, the foundation of our movement!
