|
|
Overview
WE ORGANIZE FOR POWER TO TRANSFORM COMMUNITIES
Washington Interfaith Network (WIN), founded in 1996, is a broad-based, multi-racial, multi-faith, strictly non-partisan, District-wide citizens’ power organization, rooted in local congregations and associations. WIN is committed to training and developing neighborhood leaders, to addressing community issues, and to holding elected and corporate officials accountable in Washington, DC. WIN’s 48 dues-paying members represent 25,000 families in every section of the District and reflect its theological, racial, geographic, and economic diversity.
WIN seeks to create long-term power: a broad and united front of organized institutions—organized people and organized money--acting consistently and persistently for change on multiple issues at the local and city-wide levels. WIN engages leaders across the divides of race, culture, income, faith, and/or neighborhood to initiate public action on their issues (e.g. affordable housing, public safety, youth, etc.) and to partner with and hold the government and corporate sectors accountable for addressing these issues.
WIN accomplishes this through institutional organizing, which entails:
- Developing core organizing teams in member institutions, who are trained to identify new leaders and surface issues for potential action;
- House-meeting campaigns, to develop relationships, identify leaders and issues and develop a constituency of people willing to do the work necessary to take public action;
- Research Actions, to develop, among a broad group of leaders, the knowledge and expertise around an issue to make action effective and meaningful;
- Action, bringing public pressure to bear on the person or persons with the authority to make a decision for a specific change on a specific issue; and
- Evaluation, assessing what leaders have learned from their experience to help them grow as public leaders and to inform future organizing.
- Leadership Development & Training, identifying, training, and deploying into action hundreds of DC leaders each year to take action on issues that affect their lives. WIN believes in the Iron Rule: “Never do for others what they can do for themselves, never.” WIN and IAF sponsor leadership training institutes 5-8 times per year, training leaders in the principles of broad-based organizing: how to build power, how to negotiate an effective action agreement to address issues, and how to hold officials accountable for taking action on their promises.
- Ownership. WIN member organizations and volunteer leaders do the work of WIN—organizing, public negotiation, issue identification, strategy development and ratification. Organizers are teachers. WIN leaders give thousands of volunteer hours per year that produces significant change in DC. They support the organization with membership dues: $80,000 in 2008. Each member institution pays annual dues ($10 for each regularly contributing member; Minimum dues: $1,000 and Maximum dues: $7,500) to support WIN.
WIN is also supported financially by national and local businesses, foundations, individuals and other grantors who recognize the unique service WIN provides the Washington, DC area. WIN is registered in DC as a not-for-profit corporation and has been designated by the US Internal Revenue Service as a 501(c)(3) organization for income tax purposes. WIN is entirely non-partisan, supports no party or candidate, and accepts no financial support from any level of government for its operations.
WIN’s organizing is perhaps best understood from the bottom up. The base of the organization is the hundreds of leaders building and maintaining strong relationships with each other, and with their neighbors through the institutions important in their lives: congregation, synagogue, mosque, school, union, business association, athletic club, community health center, or other voluntary association.
These relationships are developed through one-one-one conversations, where two people share their stories, values, and interests—things that they would like to see changed.
Out of these one-on-ones and larger “house” or small group meetings, WIN leaders identify priority issues and the leaders with enough passion to work hard to resolve them. An issue might be addressed by a small group of institutions or, if the concern and passion is more widespread, by the entire WIN organization.
Each WIN institution has a Core Team of 5 to 10 leaders that do the work of local organizing and represent WIN to their institution. The core teams of all member institutions form the Action Team—the central decision making body for WIN, a democratically controlled membership organization. The Action Team meets regularly for teaching/learning about public issues and to make all major decisions for the organization.
Often, the Action Team receives recommendations from the Strategy Team. The Strategy Team is a group of the most experienced leaders, who do the strategic thinking and plan the actions for WIN. There are also four Co-Chairs, the most senior leaders, who identify leaders, recruit new organizations, and develop strategic power relationships.
The only paid positions in WIN are the lead organizer, three other organizers and a part time office manager. The organizers are teachers and talent scouts. Their job is to identify and train talented leaders; to help them organize with others for power; to teach leaders how to use that power consistent with their values and how to exercise power strategically to make change on issues that affect their lives.
Training is an important part of WIN. The organizers and senior leaders provide training in one-on-ones, house meetings, how to research and act on an issue, how to do a power analysis, how to develop allies, fundraising and other skills as necessary to be effective in the public arena. Leaders are also encouraged to participate in the IAF’s National Leadership Training, which is offered four times a year.
Teaching and evaluation are also important elements of WIN organizing. Each action is carefully planned, with specific objectives and roles assigned to leaders. If individuals outside of WIN are to be part of an action, WIN leaders will brief them on what to expect, and what will be expected of them. After every action, WIN leaders conduct evaluations to determine which goals were achieved, which were not, and why. These lessons help WIN volunteers grow as public leaders and ensure more successful actions in the future.
|
|
