Comm Org philosophies
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Community Organizing: Addams and Alinsky
Maurice Hamington
A settlement constantly endeavors to make its neighborhood
realize that it belongs to the city as a whole, and can only
improve as the city improves.
--Jane Addams
The job of the organizer is to maneuver and bait the
establishment so that it will publicly attack him as the
dangerous enemy. The word enemy is sufficient to put the
organizer on the side of the people . . .
--Saul Alinsky
It is not coincidence that Chicago produced two of the
most important figures in community organizing of the
twentieth century: Jane Addams and Saul Alinsky (1909-1972).
Chicago was a center of social upheaval as exhibited by the
Haymarket Riots of 1888, the Pullman Strike of 1894, and the
Race Riots of 1919 (as well as race riots in the 1940s,
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1950s and 1960s). This citys social unrest existed in
dynamic relationship to ideas about social change and reform
fomented in Chicago as witnessed in the settlement work of
Addams Hull House, the socialist work of Eugene Debss
American Railway Union, the urban research and social
theorizing of the Chicago School [i] , and the Back of the Yards
organization founded by Saul Alinsky. Addams was the visible
leader of one reform effort, the Social Settlement Movement,
and Alinskys name became synonymous with the communityorganizing movement. As activist Heather Booth describes,
Alinsky is to community organizing as Freud is to
psychoanalysis. [ii] In this article, I will challenge the
notion that the genealogy and influence of community
organizing originates with Alinsky, and suggest that the
innovation of Jane Addams work and philosophy are being
overlooked. The Settlement Movement has been characterized as
well meaning, but paternalistic and patronizing [iii] , while
the Community Organizing movement is described as a grass
roots effort that was tough minded and effective. [iv] Alinsky
facilitated the distinction between the two movements by
frequently criticizing the methods of the Settlement workers.
This chapter focuses on the comparative community organizing
philosophies of Addams and Alinsky. I wish to dispel some of
the misconceptions about the differences between the two
leaders while highlighting other crucial dichotomies. I claim
that although Addams and Alinsky differ in regard to how to
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leverage power and social vision, in many ways Alinsky
(through the Chicago school) is an unwitting protg of Addams
when it comes to social epistemology and participative
democracy.
The Addams Model of Community Organizing
In the late 19 th century and early 20 th century, Addams
authored a series of articles that served to define the social
settlement movement and establish Addams as the spokesperson
for the movement. Addams viewed social settlements as
experiments in learning that cut across culture and class:
Hull-House endeavors to make social intercourse express the
growing sense of the economic unity of society, and may be
described as an effort to add the social function to
democracy. [v] Her ultimate goal was social advancement, and
she felt this was only possible if citizens were highly
invested in one another. This social democracy required
what she described as sympathetic knowledge or a duty to
learn about others in society, no matter how unfamiliar those
others were, with an openness to caring for and acting on
behalf of those others. For Addams, sympathetic knowledge is
the connective understanding necessary for a robust democracy.
[vi] Social settlements were physical manifestations of her
democratic philosophy. The settlement was a multifaceted
educational conduit that existed to facilitate social
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knowledge across boundaries of identity such as class and
culture. Those in the neighborhood had an opportunity to
learn about one another as well as about how to navigate and
succeed in the United States through settlement programs.
Simultaneously, settlement workers learned from the various
cultures around them. Addams reflected upon and thematized
what she learned through her writing and speeches thus
allowing those not involved in settlements to learn about the
experiences as well. The social settlements were
intentionally not charity organizations and Addams was quick
to criticize that label: I am always sorry to have Hull House
regarded as philanthropy. [vii] Starting from the feminist
ontological view that humans are fundamentally connected in a
web of relationships rather than atomistic agents, the social
settlements facilitated self sufficiency by supporting
community ties and promoting life long learning. Addams
analogized social settlements as good neighbors, and as such,
modeled the behavior of members in a healthy democracy. Good
neighbors listen carefully, respect community members, and
respond to their needs. If garbage needed to be collected, the
settlement workers found a way to get it picked up. If
working parents needed day care, the settlement workers
organized one.
One example of Addams concern for women and the
development of self sufficiency in the neighborhood can be
seen in the creation of the Jane Club, described in Twenty
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Years at Hull-House. At a time when collective bargaining did
not enjoy the legal protections that it does today, Addams
observed that single women labor union members were
particularly vulnerable when it came to periods of
unemployment created by strikes or lockouts. During labors
actions single working women could no longer afford rent
money. Such vulnerability reduced the power of the bargaining
unit and the influence of women within that unit.
Collaborating with labor leaders such as Mary Kenney, Addams
established a workingwomans cooperative, subsequently named
the Jane Club. This cooperative ensured that all members
rent was paid in the event of labor interruptions. Addams
secured funding to build housing for the Jane Club, but it
operated as an independent entity as described in the Hull-
House Year Book (1934): The club has been, from the
beginning, self-governing, the officers being elected by the
members from their own number. [viii] This report came after
the Jane Clubs 27 th year of continuous operation. The Jane
Club allowed individual members to flourish through the power
of communal enterprise. Addams organizational vision made
this project possible.
As seen in the example of the Jane Club, Addams
philosophy of community organizing was responsive, anti-
ideological, fluid, and methodologically anti-antagonistic.
Most of all, Hull House listened to the community and
responding to needs. It was non-ideological in that Hull
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House did not affiliate with any particular group. Although
socialists and anarchists were invited to speak at Hull House,
there was no affiliation. Many residents held religious
beliefs, but no settlement ties to organized religion were
made. Furthermore, Addams lack of ideology meant that she
was open to many different paths to achieving success. For
example, she was willing to collaborate with government
agencies in order to advance societal interests. Finally,
Addams philosophy of community organizing was anti-
antagonistic, which should not be confused with being
nonconfrontational. On many occasions, Addams confronted
entrenched others in her struggles to advance the interests of
the neighborhood. She did so without engaging in personal
rancor. For example, on three occasions she organized
unsuccessful opposition campaigns to unseat the local corrupt
alderman, Johnny Powers. However, Addams avoided personal
antagonism. Although disagreeing with Powers backroom deals
and cronyism, she was objective enough to admire his ability
to form close ties with the community. [ix] She refused to
villainize anyone, although she was not afraid of pointing out
their errors. In her account of the Pullman Strike, she
delineates the mistakes in leadership that George Pullman made
including a lack of connection to his workers and a blind
paternalism. [x] Despite her support for labor organizing, she
also recounted the errors of the workers. Pullman was not
characterized as inherently evil, but rather as an all too
human gone astray. In community organizing, Addams attempted
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to keep all people in the conversation and avoided alienating
individuals through unnecessary personal antagonism.
In summary, Addams community organizing supported her
political philosophy which emphasized social democracy,
widespread participation, and the development of
connected/sympathetic knowledge. Although Addams philosophy
came alive through the work of Hull House, it did not reflect
the entire settlement movement. The Settlement Movement was a
very disparate amalgamation of efforts. The over 400
settlements that existed at the movements peak had no formal
ties to one another. For example, although Hull House avoided
religious affiliation, many other settlement communities
overtly embraced religion. [xi] The movement also underwent
drastic changes through its decline in the 1930s; the largest
of which being the use of professional social workers. After
World War I, fewer volunteers were forthcoming resulting in
the settlements employing more contracted professionals who
did not reside at the settlement. These settlements became
increasingly bureaucratic and institutionalized and thus less
like the fluid and flat Hull House that Addams had managed.
Addams viewed proximal relations as paramount. She overcame
her outsider status in the Hull House neighborhood by treating
her neighbors with dignity and respect, as well as living in
the area for almost 50 years. Subsequent settlement workers
had more specialized education, as described by Judith Ann
Trolander: In place of residents, the post-World War II
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settlement house hired increasing numbers of M.S.W.s, changed
its methods and image, enlarged its professional
organizations, and attracted different kinds of people as
settlement house works. Professionalization was the
underlying cause of these changes. [xii] These professional
social workers were more clearly marked as outsiders to the
community. Settlement houses continued to work for the
improvement of impoverished communities, but the philosophy of
community organizing moved away from Addams vision of a
highly connected and engaged good neighbor. I mention this
evolution because the settlement movement that Alinsky
confronted and criticized was not the same one that Addams had
created in the early decades at Hull House. Karl Marx once
famously declared, I am not a Marxist in response to the
many unsavory manifestations of his work. If Addams were to
confront the professionalized settlement movement of the
latter half of the 20 th century, she might similarly declare,
I am not a settlement worker.
The Alinsky Model of Community Organizing
Addams (with Ellen Gates Starr) opened Hull House in 1889
in West Chicago on Halstead Street. A half-century later, in
1939, Saul Alinsky and Joseph Meeghan organized the Back of
the Yards community located behind Chicagos Union Stock
Yards, the subject of Upton Sinclairs The Jungle. As early as
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1906, Addams described the sickening stench and scum in the
Chicago stock yards as unendurable. [xiii] The neighborhood
that Alinsky confronted was largely foreign born, suffered
from high rates of unemployment, and resided amidst the
environmental nightmare of the stockyards including its
pervasive putrid odor. Alinsky led the formation of the Back
of the Yards Neighborhood Council (BYNC), a confederation of
numerous local groups, brought together to collectively
address issues in the neighborhood. Many of the local ethnic
communities were at odds with one another, but Alinsky and
Meeghan negotiated a major public meeting where churches,
fraternal clubs, athletic clubs, local businesses, and labor
unions were represented. Alinsky did a great deal of behind
the scenes work to bring the parties together, and he
coordinated a highly effective campaign for the event.. The
local newspapers almost immediately hailed Alinsky as the
architect of a new movement for community justice. [xiv] The
Alinsky led coalition successfully leveraged public outrage to
bring expanded city services and political power to the Back
of the Yards community. This effort launched his 35 year
career in community organizing that found him replicating the
model in other beleaguered urban areas through the Industrial
Area Foundation (IAF). In 1940, after securing funding from
philanthropist Marshall Field and progressive Catholics in
Chicago, Alinsky created the IAF to systematize his community
organizing efforts. The IAF took the Alinsky method to
impoverished areas in Baltimore, Detroit, Little Rock,
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Rochester, San Antonio, and Toledo. Meeghan stayed to work in
the BYNC while Alinsky moved from battleground to
battleground.
Alinskys philosophy of community organizing is based on
power relations. He built grassroots organizations that
democratically leverage power to address social inequities.
It begins with understanding the community. Alinsky, drawing
upon his roots in social science, advocates social research to
thoroughly understand a neighborhood and its problems. As
Robert Bailey Jr. describes, organizers seek to mobilize a
communitys residents to attack problems affecting their
community. [xv] Social research is followed by the
identification and development of local leadership that
Alinsky describes as native or indigenous leadership.
[xvi] Alinsky views contacting and fostering native
leadership as crucial to the process of understanding the
neighborhood and rallying the community around a cause.
Professional organizers provide the skills, but the community
gains its power through participation and coordination in a
manner analogous to labor union organizing. Alinskys
approach is to create an overarching community organization
made up of representatives of local groups. Invitations are
extended to these community groups rather than individuals.
The strategy is one of strength in numbers that parallels the
solidarity crucial for effective collective bargaining.
Ultimately, Alinsky views community organizing as a power
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struggle to gain rights and privileges for marginalized
communities: The present power age denies and evaluates
everything in terms of power. To this common and accepted
view, the field of organization has been no exception. It is
universally assumed that the function of a Peoples
Organization is similar to that of any other kind of
organization, which is to become so strong, so powerful, that
it can achieve its ends. [xvii] For Alinsky, the operant
metaphor for community organizing is that of a battle or game
to be won.
The BYNC applied Alinskys organizing philosophy
successfully to bring tangible and intangible benefits to the
community. [xviii] Tangible benefits included improved
services to the neighborhood, and the intangible benefits
included a new sense of pride. One incident that reveals how
Alinsky valorized the leveraging of power occurred in 1944.
The event also serves as contrasting Alinskys approach with
that of Addams. An opportunity arose to bring the Infant
Welfare Societys (a childrens health clinic) branch station
to the Back of the Yards community. Two local organizations
vied to house the station: BYNC and the University of Chicago
Settlement. To win the battle, Alinsky told the Infant
Welfare Societys president that if the University of Chicago
Settlement housed the infant station, the priests of the
largely Catholic neighborhood would initiate a boycott from
the pulpit. Alinsky viewed this conflict as an opportunity to
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gain status for BYNC as the voice of the community and he was
determined not to lose. He escalated the antagonism by
accusing the Chicago Settlement of being anti-Catholic because
it gave out birth control information. Alinsky made this
accusation despite his own pro birth control beliefs. [xix] In
a public struggle, he backed the Chicago Settlement into a
corner and rebuffed their efforts at conciliation until it was
clear that BYNC was victorious. Alinsky had once again
demonstrated how effective his methods were. As a result of
the confrontation, the Chicago Settlement never fully regained
its stature in the community. [xx] The BYNC used its newfound
status to fight for increasing benefits for the community.
Common Themes
Superficially, Addams and Alinsky appear to have very
different organizing philosophies. However, a delineation
between style and philosophical commitments reveals more
commonality than usually attributed. Part of the challenge of
making this separation is that Alinsky and members of his
organization intentionally and forcefully depict themselves as
differing strongly from social settlements. Sidney Hyman,
whose sister had been a resident of Hull House, became an
activist for Alinsky in the BYNC. In a 1983 interview
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describing his enthusiasm for working with Alinsky, Hyman
contrasts Addams philosophy with that of Alinskys:
The good Episcopalian ladies with the good-bad
conscience did everything for Hull House. These
were the so-called hellfare workers, the Lady
Bountifuls. Going to work for Jane Addams at Hull-
House was a romantic thing to do for a young,
sensitive woman. [Their noble purpose was] to help,
but it was always the Lady Bountifuls who were doing
the helping. Now Saul comes along and turns it
around and sort of sets the whole Hull-House idea on
its head. He says he doesnt want the hellfare
worker, he doesnt want the Lady Bountiful; he wants
people to help themselves and that became a very
romantic idea. A lot of people wanted to get it on
that one, just like an earlier generation a lot of
people wanted to get in on the Hull-House idea. [xxi]
Hyman makes the error of associating Addams with unreflective
charity work; however, the real target of his critique should
have been what the settlements evolved into during the post-
Addams era rather than Addams philosophy. Addams would likely
be aghast at such an association with charity work because she
vehemently contended that settlements were intended to
facilitate education and connection, not charity. In
Democracy and Social Ethics , Addams devotes an entire chapter
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to criticizing well meaning, but ineffective charity workers
who fail to understand the communities that they attempt to
serve. Addams criticism of charity workers is strikingly
similar to Hyman and Alinskys criticism of social settlement
workers. Addams challenges the class structure of charity,
for example, when she criticizes the charity worker who judges
the cleanliness of the neighborhood home over against her own
parasitic cleanliness and a social standing only attained
through status. [xxii] The notion that Addams stood for
charity in opposition to Alinsky who stood for collective
action is not borne out by historical examination. It can be
demonstrated that Addams and Alinsky share much in terms of
their philosophy of community organizing, with some important
exceptions.
Addams and Alinsky shared a concern for listening and
learning the needs of the community employing both
quantitative and qualitative means to gain perspective. When
asked how to organize people, Alinsky responds, You find out
what they care about, what they are worried about, and you
organize them around these issues. [xxiii] Addams began her
settlement with the simple plan of being a good neighbor, but
within 5 years of opening Hull House, she and her cohort were
engaging in systematic research to understand the community.
In 1895, Addams co-authored Hull-House Maps and Papers, a
groundbreaking social study on the ethnicity and conditions
surrounding the settlement. Historian Kathryn Kish Sklar
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refers to this study as the single most important work by
American women social scientists before 1900. [xxiv] In the
introduction, Addams makes it clear that Hull-House Maps and
Papers , is not in the interest of science, but part of a
connection to the community that will serve to facilitate
progress:
The residents of Hull-House offer these maps and
papers to the public, not as exhaustive treatises,
but as recorded observations, which may possibly be
of value, because they are immediate, and the result
of long acquaintance. All the writers have been in
actual residence in Hull-House, some of them for
five years; their energies however, have been
chiefly directed not towards sociological
investigation, but to constructive work. [xxv]
In this manner, both Addams and Alinsky demonstrated a respect
for the knowledge generated by social science and the
scientific method, and each understood the need for presence
and responsiveness beyond quantitative analysis.
Both Alinsky and Addams advocated for the active
participation of community members in the organizing of social
efforts. Addams recognized that when existing social
institutions do not provide a reasonable means for citizen
participation, those citizens will organize to resist. For
example, according to Addams, an unresponsive government,
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forces the most patriotic citizens to ignore the Government
and to embody their scruples and hopes of progress in
voluntary organizations. [xxvi] Hull House afforded numerous
opportunities for local groups to organize, particularly as
clubs or labor unions. The settlement acted as an incubator
for such groups providing meeting space and expertise without
formal affiliations. Similarly, Alinsky viewed his
organizations as fully democratic: This kind of organization
can be built only if people are working together for real,
attainable objectives. [xxvii] Alinskys community groups
were democratic to the point that he regretted some of the
directions chosen by local groups he helped found. [xxviii]
Both Addams and Alinsky share a commitment to giving the
disenfranchised a voice. Addams may have held paternalistic
ideas when she opened Hull House, but she soon realized that
the community needed to speak for themselves: The residents
at Hull House find in themselves a constantly increasing
tendency to consult their neighbors on the advisability of
each new undertaking. [xxix] Addams came to view the active
participation of the marginalized as essential to the success
of the settlement. For Addams, settlements draw into
participation in our culture large numbers of persons who
would otherwise have to remain outside. [xxx] In the same
way, Alinsky is very concerned that the United States is
facing a crisis of disenfranchisement: It is a grave
situation when a people resign their citizenship or when a
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resident of a great city, though he may desire to take a hand,
lacks the means to participate. [xxxi] The community
organizations provided citizens with a means to reengage
themselves with political processes. In this trajectory,
Alinsky and Addams held an expansive view of democracy that
entailed a citizens duty for active involvement.
Correspondingly, both had an abiding faith in humanity.
Alinsky describes the community organizer as having a
complete commitment to the belief that if people have the
power, the opportunity to act, in the long run they will, most
of the time, reach the right decisions. [xxxii]
The resonance between the social philosophies of Addams
and Alinsky is not surprising if the Chicago School connection
is taken into account. Addams and Hull House helped shape the
sociology department of the University of Chicago, which in
turn influenced Alinskys approach to community organizing.
Mary Jo Deegan documents the strong ties between Addams and
the early sociologists of the Chicago School: George Herbert
Mead and William I. Thomas. During this early period, the
sociologists collaborated with Addams often, and were frequent
visitors to Hull House, just as Addams visited and lectured at
the University of Chicago. The academics hailed the
publication of Hull House Maps and Papers as a landmark work
in urban sociology. The next generation of sociologists,
including Robert Ezra Parks and Ernest W. Burgess were also
interested in social settlements, but were more concerned with
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professionalizing the discipline of sociology in a manner that
distanced itself from social work. An implicit gender divide
emerged, as social workers were largely female and the
academic sociologists were almost exclusively male. Alinsky
attended the University of Chicago from 1926 to 1932 by which
time most of the first generation of sociologists had left.
Park and Burgess likely mentioned Addams only sparingly in the
classroom, but this does not diminish her influence upon
them. As Lawrence J. Engel describes, Although these male
sociologists failed to acknowledge the significance of Addams,
their work was nevertheless influenced by Hull House: its
community-mapping techniques, its emphasis upon the social
dimensions of democratic neighborhood life, and its
institutional relationships within the community (labor
churches, city agencies, etc.). [xxxiii] Even though Alinsky
was loath to credit his academic roots in forming his
philosophy of community organizing, Engel identifies clear
evidence of connection. Equally compelling is Deegans
evidence for Addams influencing the Chicago School. This
genealogy places Addams as an indirect and unacknowledged
mentor of Alinsky and explains much of their philosophical
convergence.
Divergence
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Where Addams and Alinsky differed was in methodology and
long-range vision. Addams emphasized cooperation devoid of
antagonism. Her interest was in widening the circle of those
actively engaged in any particular issue and thus she avoided
unnecessary alienation. Addams believed in the power of
rational argument to sway the views of her opponents. She was
not nave about conflict and recognized that it occurred, but
she had faith in the ability of people to make common cause.
Addams recognized the role of power and the ability Hull
House had to leverage its power. For example, Addams
describes one function of the social settlement as big
brother whose mere presence on the play ground protects the
little ones from bullies. [xxxiv] Nevertheless, their
rhetorical methods diverged widely. Addams was guarded in her
remarks in order to keep people engaged in the conversation.
Alinsky was flamboyantly bombastic to intentionally provoke
opponents. For example, in describing the difference between
social workers and his organizers, Alinsky declared, they
organize to get rid of four-legged rats and stop there; we
organize to get rid of four-legged rats so we can get on to
removing two-legged rats. [xxxv] He enjoyed a good battle and
he particularly enjoyed winning. Alinskys organizations
viewed each effort at social justice as a contest: we are
concerned with how to create mass organization to seize power
and give it to the people. [xxxvi] Alinskys Rules for
Radicals maintains numerous war metaphors describing community
organizing as warfare with the enemy requiring tactics
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to gain and redistribute power. Accordingly, Alinskys
abrasiveness elicited numerous critics. Addams had her
detractors as well, but they were for the positions that she
took, not because of her rhetorical demeanor.
Methodology is not the only difference between the two.
Perhaps more substantially, Addams and Alinsky had different
approaches to the scope and long-range goals of community
organizing. Alinsky was vague about the broad social changes
he was attempting to institute and made little effort to
thematizing across the individual battles for social justice
that he was waging. Joseph Heathcott claims that Alinskys
lack of broader political vision makes his philosophy of
community organizing less serviceable in an environment where
large stable organizational constituencies such as unions and
churches are not there to support his planned confrontations.
By contrast, Addams viewed social progress as the overarching
goal for which all efforts are connected. For example, Addams
found no contradiction in arguing for labor rights at the
local level and advocating for peace at the international
level. Both advanced the cause of social democracy. For
Addams, war was regressive and wasteful and thus a threat to
society. The success of labor unions brought greater quality
of work life for all citizens and was thus a boon to society.
Addams philosophy also envisioned ongoing efforts at
community organizing. For Addams, the social settlements were
intended to be lasting good neighbors. She led the effort to
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convert the settlement workers outsider status to insider
status by living in proximity and reciprocity with oppressed
peoples. Alinskys organizations developed leadership talent
within the community, and intended it to be strong enough to
last, but there was no effort at a long-term presence by the
organizer. Once the community organized, it was on its own
with occasional consulting from the outside. These
differences in method and vision cannot be directly correlated
to success. Both Addams and Alinsky had their successes, and
their failures.
An interesting example of the stylistic difference
between Addams and Alinsky has to do with their approach to
higher education. They both were college educated and
benefited tremendously from the skills, knowledge, and mentors
of their academic experience. Both found fault with abstract
scholarship that found no basis in social advancement.
Alinsky is explicit, I never appealed to people based on
abstract values. [xxxvii] Addams also recognizes the
limitations of abstract ideals. When it came to organizing
social efforts around an issue such as prostitution or child
labor, Addams thought it was crucial to use tangible examples
that resonated with the audience in order to fuel interest and
passion for the subject. Nevertheless, Addams maintained a
commitment to scholarly reflection to help characterize and
give meaning to social issues. In regard to a holistic notion
of peace that was more than the absence of war and required
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local and international effort, Addams proposed that, it
requires the philosopher to unify these spiritual efforts of
the common man into the internationalism of good
will. [xxxviii] Addams did have her criticism of scholarship
that became too academic, as reflected in her falling out with
the University of Chicago. Comparatively, Alinsky appears
almost bitter in his anti-intellectual tirades. In a 1965
interview, Alinsky muses, In college I took a lot of
sociology courses too, but I cant say they made a deep
impression on me. . . . Today the University of Chicago
sociology department is just a tribe of head
counters. [xxxix] The professionalized social settlement
workers of the era was one of the educated groups that Alinsky
railed against, referring to their training as formalized
garbage they learned in school. [xl]
Gender Mapping
Ultimately, Alinsky and his followers emphasize that they
were engaging in a new brand of community organizing. Note
that Alinsky reveled in the word radical. Alinskys two
most important works are Rules for Radicals and Reveille for
Radicals . Sanford D. Horwitts biography of Alinsky is titled
Let Them Call Me Radical, and Marion K. Sanders published
interview with Alinsky is titled The Professional Radical .
Alinsky defines a radical as, that unique person who actually
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believes what he says. He is that person to whom the common
good is the greatest personal value. He is that person who
genuinely and completely believes in mankind. The radical is
so completely identified with mankind that he personally
shares the pain, the injustices, and the sufferings of all his
fell men. [xli] Despite this fixation with the term, was
Alinsky a radical? Alinsky advocated for social reform and
change using tactics designed to provoke and gain attention,
but he did not question fundamental institutions of society
such as capitalism. By many standards, including those of
feminist theorists, Alinsky is a mild radical at best.
Sociologists Donald C. Reitzes and Dietrick C. Reitzes claim
that despite self description to the contrary, Alinskys
philosophy of community organizing is not radical and
revolutionary. [xlii] During the Civil Rights Movement in the
United States, the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee
held dialogues with Alinsky and his organizers, but they
became frustrated because he was only advocating reform. Mike
Miller, who worked for both SNCC and later an Alinsky
organization, describes: A common label attached to Alinsky
was that he was only local, failing to understand that major
decisions were made at a national level. [xliii] I suggest
that Alinsky was using the term radical not in the sense of
challenging existing institutions and structures, but as
describing a curmudgeon with integrity. Furthermore, the term
is clearly masculine in Alinskys mind. For Alinsky, a
radical is a man who does not use methods traditionally
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described as feminine. Furthermore, all of Alinskys
examples of radicals John P. Altgeld, Edward Bellamy, John
Brown, Patrick Henry, Thomas Jefferson, Henry Lloyd, Horace
Mann, Thomas Paine, Upton Sinclair, and Lincoln Steffens--are
male.
What is intriguing about the difference in methodology
between Addams and Alinsky is how well it maps onto gender
stereotypes. Addams was cooperative and caring in fostering
life-long learning and relationships. Alinsky was competitive
and abrasive in trying to achieve victories in the name of
social justice. Alinskys organizing did not exclude women,
but its demands and style favored men, and this was borne out
demographically. [xliv] Kenneth Boulding describes Alinskys
community organizing as requiring, behavior more typically
identified as male; activism, aggression, self assertion, and
organizing more frequently associated with the managerial
sex. [xlv] Perhaps not surprisingly, the masculine
approach has been considered realistic and efficacious while
the feminine approach has been thought of as nave and
simplistic. Accordingly, for decades Alinsky has been
assigned the title of father of community organizing, while
Addams community organizing legacy through social settlements
has been overshadowed. Until recently, Addams has been
excluded from serious consideration in philosophy and
sociology [xlvi] as well as activism/community
organizing/radicalism. Given the breadth of her social
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theorizing, the volume of her publications, her impact on
local communities and international policies and institutions,
one has to wonder if implicit sexism is not at the heart of
her exclusion.
Susan Stall and Randy Stoecker authored one of the few
comparative studies of gender and community organizing. They
compare the Alinsky approach to a women-centered approach
in community organizing, thus Addams is not a direct target of
comparison, but she is a leading figure in the women-centered
approach. This insightful and comprehensive study divides the
two approaches along a public/private sphere split. According
to Stall and Stoecker, Alinskys methods assume working within
the public sphere while a women-centered approach must
traverse the private to the public. The assumptions of the
two approaches are very different with the Alinsky model
assuming the self-interested agent and the women-centered
approach assuming a caring model. Accordingly, Alinskys
organizers must find the issues that resonate with peoples
individual self interest. The women-centered model seeks to
foster connections among community members to facilitate
caring. Although this is a useful and well-documented
analysis, a few of the assumptions of Stall and Stoeckers
discussion appear to belie the gender biases that they wished
to highlight. Comparing an individuals community organizing
approach (Alinskys) to an amalgamation of approaches (women-
centered) appears unbalanced. Stall and Stoecker claim,
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unlike the Alinsky model, the women centered model of
community organizing cannot be attributed to a single person
or movement. [xlvii] The implication of this statement is
that Alinsky is solely responsible for his philosophy of
community organizing: the myth of the heroic male. Such a
decontextualized claim ignores Alinskys training and
acknowledged mentors such as labor organizer, John L. Lewis,
as well as the aforementioned Park and Burgess. Furthermore,
such an approach assumes that what Alinsky did was novel. His
tactics may have been unique, but much of his philosophy, a
social epistemology of participative and proximal relations,
can be found in Addams theories of the settlement movement.
Stall and Stoecker also seem to implicitly denigrate the
ability of a women-centered approach to structure large-scale
projects: The presence, and partial restriction, of women in
the private sphere leads the women-centered organizing model
to emphasize a very different organizing process formed around
creating an ideal private-sphere-like setting rather than a
large public sphere organization. [xlviii] Just because women
were restricted from the public sphere did not mean that they
did not enter or manipulate it. Addams Hull House was very
much an entre into the public sphere that Addams and her
cohort leveraged to become more widely influential. For
example, Robyn Muncy documents how Hull House residents were
responsible for creating the Womens Bureau, the first
government agency headed by a woman, longtime Hull House
resident Julia Lathrop. The Womens Bureau was not only a
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women-centered organization, but it integrated numerous
feminist principles of operation. [xlix] To be fair, Stall and
Stoecker are not alone in assuming the primacy of Alinskys
community organizing, but it is intriguing that gender bias
runs so deep that even those attending to it cannot escape it.
[l]
Alinsky accomplished a great deal in his lifetime and
modern day activists do well to study his philosophy and
methods, but his legacy is perhaps generally overstated and
inflated to match his larger-than-life personality. Judith
Ann Trolander notes that Alinsky was a powerful spokesperson
for community organizing and a brilliant self promoter, which
served to advance his cause. [li] Perhaps Alinsky influenced
the extent of his own legacy.
Conclusion: Addams as a Model of Feminist Community Organizing
Marie Weil lists various United States social movements
with significant female leadership, and no one is associated
with more movements than Addams. Despite this delineation,
Weil falls prey to gender perceptions, claiming:
Despite a rich and proud heritage of female
organizers and movement leaders, the field of
community organization, in both its teaching models
and its major exponents, have been a male-dominated
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preserve, where, even though values are expressed in
terms of participatory democracy, much of the focus
within the dominant practice methods has been
nonsupportive or antithetical to feminism.
Strategies have largely been based on macho-power
models, manipulativeness, and zero-sum gamesmanship.
[lii]
I would qualify Weils largely accurate description by
suggesting not that the field has been male dominated, but
that the portrayal of it has been. Much like Alinskys effort
to depict himself as using necessary masculine methods over
and against inferior feminine methods, history has masked the
successful communitarian and cooperative efforts of women
organizers as anachronistic. In this manner, feminist
community organizing is hidden behind the acclaim heaped upon
male organizing. The feminist process of reassessing given
historical truths reveals more grassroots organizing than is
commonly attributed.
Addams develops a feminist philosophy of community
organizing emphasizing proximal relations and sympathetic
knowledge that in some ways resonates more with modern
feminist sensibilities than it did with first or second wave
feminism. In 1990, Patricia Yancey Martin explored the
dimensions of a feminist organization. She offered numerous
definitions one of which is that a feminist organization is
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pro-woman, political, and socially transformational. [liii]
Addams approach to community organizing was inclusive,
providing new and unique opportunities to empower women
including athletic expression, reproductive information
dissemination, and economic independence. Hull House
residents often found themselves engaged in political
conflicts. Ultimately, it was a women-centered community that
modeled what women could accomplish in the public sphere.
This form of community organizing has a modern quality in its
fluidity and cosmopolitanism, and yet sought to create lasting
social relationships. Addams settlement community was not
bogged down in layers of bureaucracy or institutional rules
and was therefore capable of responding quickly to the needs
of the neighborhood. Addams embraced diversity in a manner
ahead of her era. She believed cultural and intellectual
pluralism were crucial for the success of a democracy.
Finally, Addams approach to community organizing supported the
notion of setting down lasting roots in the community to
provide ongoing service. This quality might particularly
appeal to modern feminists in a world dominated by truncated
social transactions and technology that facilitates long
distance interactions. Hull House, and Addams reflections
upon society and social settlements, remain a fascinating
example of feminist community organizing that has not been
fully mined for its ongoing significance.
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[i] The Chicago School is associated with scholars at the
University of Chicago in the very late 19 th century and early
20 th century in the fields of economics, philosophy,
psychology, religion, and sociology; however, the meaning of
the term has evolved differently in the various disciplines.
Addams was associated with early influential members of the
Chicago School including philosophers John Dewey and George
Herbert Mead while later sociologists, Robert Ezra Park and
Ernest W. Burgess, influenced Alinsky.
[ii] Robert A. Slayton, Back of the Yards: The Making of a Local
Democracy (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1988), 198.
[iii] Allen F. Davis, Spearheads for Reform: The Social
Settlements and the Progressive Movement 1890-1914 (New York:
Oxford University Press, 1967), 17, 20.
[iv] See, for example, Donald C. Reitzes and Dietric C. Reitzes,
Saul D. Alinsky: A Neglected Source But Promising Resource,
The American Sociologist 17 (Feb 1982): 47-56.
[v] Jane Addams, Hull House (Chicago), in ed. William D. P.
Bliss, Encyclopedia of Social Reform (New York: Funk &
Wagnalls Company, 1908), 587-90.
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[vi] For a discussion of sympathetic knowledge, see Maurice
Hamington, The Philosophy of Jane Addams (Urbana: University
of Illinois Press, forthcoming).
[vii] Jane Addams, The Objective Value of A Social Settlement,
in ed. Jean Bethke Elshtain The Jane Addams Reader (New York:
Basic Books, 2002), 45.
[viii] Hull-House Year Book: Forty-Fifth Year , 57.
[ix] Jane Addams, Democracy and Social Ethics (Urbana:
University of Illinois Press, 2002), 99.
[x] Jane Addams, A Modern Lear Survey 29 (Nov. 2, 1912), 131-
7.
[xi] Mina Carson, Settlement Folk (Chicago: University of
Chicago Press, 1990), 219 n38.
[xii] Judith Ann Trolander, Professionalism and Social Change:
From the Settlement House Movement to Neighborhood Centers,
1886 to the Present (New York: Columbia University Press,
1987), 31-2.
[xiii] Addams identifies the problems in the Chicago Stock Yards,
as a failure of the local government to adhere to the will of
the local inhabitants, foreshadowing what Alinsky would
confront over 30 years later. Jane Addams, Newer Ideals of
Peace (Urbana, University of Illinois Press, 2007), 58.
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[xiv] Sanford D. Horwitt, Let Them Call Me Rebel (New York:
Vintage Books, 1992), 75.
[xv] Robert Bailey, Jr., Radicals in Urban Politics: The
Alinsky Approach (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1972),
49.
[xvi] Saul Alinsky, Reveille for Radicals, Vintage Edition (New
York: Random House, 1969), 64.
[xvii] Ibid., 53.
[xviii] The BYNC website lists dozens of accomplishments since
its inception. http://www.bync.org/site/information/bync
[xix] Saul Alinsky, Rules for Radicals: A Pragmatic Primer for
Realistic Radicals (New York: Vintage Books, 1971), 94.
[xx] Horwitt, Let Them Call Me Rebel , 138-43.
[xxi] Sidney Hyman quoted in Horwitt, Let Them Call Me Rebel ,
127.
[xxii] Addams, Democracy and Social Ethics , 12.
[xxiii] Saul Alinsky in Marion K. Sanders, The Professional
Radical: Conversations with Saul Alinsky (New York: Harper and
Row, 1970),
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[xxiv] Kathryn Kish Sklar, Hull-House Maps and Papers: Social
Science as Womens Work in the 1890s in ed. Helene
Silverberg, Gender and American Social Science: The Formative
Years , (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1998), 127.
[xxv] Jane Addams, Prefatory Note in Hull-House Maps and
Papers: A Presentation of Nationalities an Wages in a
Congested District of Chicago, Together with Comments and
Essays on Problems Growing Out of the Social Conditions,
Residents of Hull House, (Urbana: University of Illinois
Press, 2007), 45.
[xxvi] Addams, Newer Ideals of Peace , 62.
[xxvii] Alinsky in Sanders, The Professional Radical , 48.
[xxviii] Bailey, Radicals in Urban Politics , 49.
[xxix] Addams, The Objective Value of A Social Settlement, 41.
[xxx] Jane Addams, Widening the Circle of Enlightenment
Journal of Adult Education 2:3 (June 1930), 279.
[xxxi] Alinsky, Rules for Radicals, xxvi.
[xxxii] Alinsky, Reveille for Radicals, xiv.
[xxxiii] Lawrence J. Engel, Saul D. Alinsky and the Chicago
School The Journal of Speculative Philosophy 16:1 (2002), 63.
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[xxxiv] Addams, The Objective Value of A Social Settlement,
43.
[xxxv] Alinsky, Rules for Radicals, 68.
[xxxvi] Ibid., 3.
[xxxvii] Saul Alinsky in Sanders, The Professional Radical , 31.
[xxxviii] Addams, Newer Ideals of Peace , 15.
[xxxix] Ibid., 14-15.
[xl] Alinsky, Rules for Radicals , 68.
[xli] Alinsky, Reveille for Radicals , 15.
[xlii] Reitzes and Reitzes, Saul D. Alinsky, 54.
[xliii] Mike Miller, The 60s Student Movement & Saul Alinsky:
An Alliance that Never Happened. Social Policy 34:2&3
(Winter 2003, Spring 2004): 106.
[xliv] Susan Stall and Randy Stoecker, Community Organizing or
Organizing Community? Gender and the Crafts of Empowerment
Gender & Society 12:6 (December 1998), 735; and, Trolander,
Professionalism and Social Change , 65.
[xlv] Kenneth Boulding, Alienation and Economic Development:
The Larger Background of the Settlement Movement,
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Neighborhood Goals in a Rapidly Changing World (New York:
NFS, 1958), 62-3.
[xlvi] The pioneering work of Mary Jo Deegan and Charlene
Haddock Seigfried has asserted Addams intellectual
significance in sociology and philosophy respectively.
Deegan, Jane Addams and the Men of the Chicago School; and
Charlene Haddock Seigfried, Pragmatism and Feminism: Reweaving
the Social Fabric (Chicago: University of Chicago Press,
1996).
[xlvii] Susan Stall and Randy Stoecker, Community Organizing or
Organizing Community? Gender and the Crafts of Empowerment
Gender & Society 12:6 (December 1998), 736.
[xlviii]Ibid., 746.
[xlix] Robyn Muncy, Creating A Female Dominion in American
Reform, 1890-1935 (New York: Oxford University Press, 1991).
[l] Joan Acker has observed that men, making feminist analysis
without implicit assumptions about masculine primacy
challenging, dominate organizational theory. Joan Acker,
Hierarchies, Jobs, Bodies: A Theory of Gendered
Organizations Gender & Society 4:2 (June 1990), 139-58.
[li] Trolander, Professionalism and Social Change, 144.
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[lii] Marie Weil, Women, Community, and Organizing in Nan Van
Den Bergh and Lynn B. Cooper, eds. Feminist Visions for Social
Work (Silver Spring, Md: National Association of Social
Workers, 1986), 192.
[liii] Patricia Yancey Martin, Rethinking Feminist
Organizations Gender & Society 4:2 (June 1990), 182.
Core Components of CommunityOrganizing
As we searched the literature and conducted interviews, seven key components of organizingemerged across different styles and approaches.
More information about each component and its relationship to the evaluation of organizingis provided. Although there is overlap among the key components, it is useful to focus oneach of these points.
1. Development of Power 2. Development of Constituent Leadership and Power 3. Participation and Membership4. Organizing "Wins"5. Meaningful Impact of Organizing Work 6. Organizational Capacity and Management7. Ongoing Reflection and Innovation
1. Development of Power
Increasing the collective power of a constituency or organization is a critical component of community organizing, recognized across different organizing theories and philosophies.Though closely related to the attainment of organizing "wins" on an organizational level, thedevelopment of power speaks more broadly to the perception of the organizing group in thebroader political sphere. It is reflected in the ability to gain access to politicians, the ability toput issues on the map, and recognition of the organization as a "go-to" group on a particular issue, among others. When evaluating a group's organizing work, one should keep an eye onits strategies and success in developing its power, especially beyond the confines of anindividual campaign.
Key Issues and Implications for Evaluation: The development of collective power is one of the most challenging core components to evaluate. Challenges include the fact that "power"
is difficult to measure and can take many years to attain. In evaluating communityorganizing efforts, it is important to consider what "power" looks like, "indicators" that the
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constituency and organization are gaining power, and that evaluating this aspect of acommunity organizing group's work may require seeking input from stakeholders outside theorganization and the constituency.
2. Development of Constituent Leadership and Power
Two of the key features that distinguish community organizing from other types of changeefforts are its focus on developing leadership and developing constituents' sense of purposeand power. Well-crafted pathways for constituent leadership development within theorganizing process (including intentional processes for consciousness raising and thedevelopment of critical analysis skills) take time, effort, and skill. Ensuring that theorganizing process reinforces a healthy sense of strength among constituents is alsosomething that requires intentional action. Though almost all organizing groups note thecritical role of constituent leadership and power, the demands of ongoing campaign work sometimes lead organizers to trust that simple participation in campaign activities will createresults in these arenas.
Additionally, these components are often viewed more as "processes" than "outcomes,"making it difficult for many groups to evaluate their performance in these areas. However,tracking an organization's strategy and capacity for developing leadership and constituentpower is a critical part of understanding how successful that organization will be atcommunity organizing, especially in the long run.
Key Issues and Implications for Evaluation : One of the most common challenges toevaluating this core component is creating and measuring indicators of leadershipdevelopment that move beyond simple participation in campaign activities. In addition to
defining measurable indicators for leadership, power, and sense of purpose, evaluation of thiscomponent should include how to track and evaluate an organization's strategy and capacityfor developing leadership and constituent power.
3. Participation and Membership
Closely related to the development of constituent leadership and power, constituentparticipation in decision making (often expressed as membership within the organization) isanother hallmark of the organizing process. This participation can take place in identifyingorganizing goals, deciding on strategies and tactics, negotiating changes in plans throughoutthe organizing process, and even deciding organizational policies as a board member.
Organizational training to facilitate such participation can be key. Also as much "process" as"outcome," some organizations do not include constituent participation in their evaluationsbeyond such measures as increases in membership or participation in annual meetings.Because of the central importance of participation to the organizing process, a more nuancedlook at participation mechanisms and success is critical.
Key Issues and Implications for Evaluation: As with constituent leadership and power, oneof the most common challenges to evaluating this core component is developing meaningfuland measurable indicators of participation beyond counting the number of members and thenumber of meetings they attend. Evaluation of this component should include indicators of participation in other aspects of organizational decision making beyond organizingcampaigns, such as training and evaluation decisions It should demonstrate if there is a lineof progression by which those engaged in organizing and those benefiting from it can
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participate in campaigns, and eventually take leadership roles within the organization,including governance of the organization. Identifying related indicators and ways to measurethem can be an organization wide conversation.
4. Organizing "Wins"
The actual objective of a campaign or, as it is often called in organizing jargon, the "win" is often the most visible part of the organizing process and is probably the most commonlyevaluated. Related to the development of power, in that achieving the outcome of acampaign is often associated with developing the power necessary to win the campaign, it isusually fairly easy to objectively identify whether or not an organization has reached itscampaign objective. Yet, it is important for many groups to include a more nuanceddefinition of the organizing win that includes such outcomes as resident empowerment andorganizational development.
Key Issues and Implications for Evaluation: Organizations' wins can be externally or internally focused. Evaluation of external organizing "wins" is seemingly straightforwardand easy to measure by whether or not a campaign objective was met. Campaign objectivesare frequently long-term, though, and a group might work toward an objective for severalyears, or longer. From an evaluation standpoint, organizations need to think about how tobreak down long-term campaign goals into shorter-term interim objectives. For example,gaining support for an issue from key neighborhood leaders or city council members can bean important stepping stone towards an eventual policy change sought. Some internal interimobjectives might be "stepping stones" toward longer-term goals, and important "wins" in andof themselves, such as changes in constituent leadership and power, or changes inorganizational capacity. An organization might lose a campaign but at the same time
accomplish a "win" by building its power significantly.
5. Meaningful Impact
While the evaluation of an organization's success at reaching its campaign objectives iscritical, it is also important to gauge the meaningfulness of the campaign objective in terms of its impact on a community or on a particular issue. Choosing and winning campaigns that, inand of themselves, do not have a meaningful impact does not necessarily indicate successfulorganizing work. Including measures of the larger impact of organizing campaigns helps ussee the forest for the trees.
As an additional note for this component, many organizations recognize the need to think beyond individual campaign outcomes and focus on how the organizing process alsocontributes to a larger movement for change. Including the concept of meaningful impact inevaluation conversations not only helps organizations think critically about the relevance of their campaign objectives, but also about how the process of achieving these objectives cancontribute to a larger vision of positive change.
Key Issues and Implications for Evaluation: Evaluating "meaningful impact" is somethingthat organizations need to start thinking about in the early planning stages of a campaign, or even in the issue identification stage. They can ask themselves what will be different for people in the community if the campaign is won and what will be the measurableimprovement in people's lives. Another question about impact is what will be the range of people that benefit from the changes sought. Further, it is critical that constituents
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themselves be involved in defining what is meaningful. A longer term challenge is toidentify ways to track outcomes beyond the life of the campaign. For example, once a grouphas won a policy change it might track the implementation of that change and measure itsimpact on people's lives.
6. Organizational Capacity and Management
In order to engage meaningfully in long-term community organizing work, an organizationneeds to continue to assess and develop its capacity to do and manage organizing. Thegreater the focus (among staff, membership and board members) on analyzing root causesand structural causes of social problems, and the use of this analysis to sharpen theidentification and attainment of campaign objectives, the greater the impact an organizationwill have in creating small- and large-scale social change. Additionally, an organizationneeds to be developing its capacity (from the board to the staff level) to manage andunderstand the role of organizing work within its vision, mission, strategic plan, etc. Criticalareas within organizational development include, but are not limited to, organizationaloperations, the development of relationships and collaborations, and planning andimplementation capacity.
Despite its importance, especially for longer-term movement building work, an organization'sability to build capacity for and manage organizing, as well as an organizational structure thatsupports organizing, is easy to overlook, and often gets lost in the day-to-day needs of anorganizing campaign. However, the intentional development of organizational capacity andmanagement will often distinguish a group with the ability to have one successful campaignfrom a group that has the ability to make a more lasting impact.
Key Issues and Implications for Evaluation: While many tools have been recentlydeveloped for assessing nonprofit organizational capacity, identifying capacity needs, andmeasuring results of capacity building efforts, there has been less research and are fewer assessment and evaluation tools tailored to evaluating organizational capacity for effectivecommunity organizing. Organizations considering their key evaluation questions andappropriate indicators of capacity for organizing might include the organization's capacity to:cultivate and manage membership; engage diverse stakeholders in setting goals and priorities;adapt those goals and priorities quickly in response to changes in the environment; and createand maintain internal systems that support organizing (such as appropriate supervision for organizers and personnel policies that reflect the organization's social justice goals). One keyevaluation question is whether or not a group is part of a larger world of organizing in order
to aggregate power to accomplish its mission.
7. Ongoing Reflection and Innovation
Related to organizational capacity building and management, but more specifically focusedon ongoing implementation and adaptation of campaign strategies and tactics, a criticalcomponent to organizing success is the process of reflection and innovation. Organizing is asmuch art or craft as science, and organizers and the organizations that support them need tobe able to recognize when situations mandate changes to the organizing formula. Equally asimportant, as campaigns come to a close, a process of reflection and celebration are critical and again often overlooked pieces to successful organizing work.
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Key Issues and Implications for Evaluation: Evaluation, at its heart, is about incorporatingongoing reflection and learning into an organization's work. Community organizing work inparticular is about learning as you go learning about what kinds of strategies and tacticswork when, where, and under what conditions, and paying close attention to process and howleaders grow and develop. The implications of this for evaluation are twofold: (1) it suggests
that a highly participatory form of evaluation that engages all stakeholders in the process of defining evaluation questions (what is to be learned through the evaluation) and carrying outthe evaluation is appropriate; and (2) it suggests that an organization's evaluation plan shouldensure that the process builds in points along the way for stopping and looking at evaluation"results" to date, reflecting on them, and drawing lessons learned.