OUR WORK

Movement Catalyst organizers have decades of experience facilitating critical conversations, setting up decision making processes, and supporting partners in strategy development in a range of social movement spaces. Drawing from our deep experience, we have experience in a range of collective processes and engagement for networks plus have experience using a number of tools to assist in effective discussions.

Direct action is at the heart of what Movement Catalyst does. We have decades of experience organizing all sorts of actions ranging from mass marches and rallies bringing together thousands of people to much smaller creative direct actions that disrupt business as usual. Over the years, we’ve marched thousands of people through the streets, blockaded hundreds of intersections, held moving candlelight vigils, occupied bank branches, blockaded fracking sites, hung massive banners off of buildings, hauled GoGo bands through town on flatbed trucks, painted murals on city streets, and organized head-start classes in corporate lobbies.

We know the nuts and bolts of organizing logistics for actions inside and out, but what really sets us apart is our ability to help partners think strategically and creatively about actions that move forward campaign goals, build capacity, and maximize impact.

Movement Catalyst organizers have decades of experience facilitating trainings and workshops on creative direct action, organizing, research, campaign planning, know your rights and myriad other topics. Drawing from our deep experience, we have training modules that are available off-the-shelf and we are able to adapt training programs to meet the specific needs of our partners.

In addition to our team’s decades of practical experience facilitating trainings in social movement spaces, Beth Yirga spent 10 years as a special education teacher and founding school leader. During that time, she created and differentiated curriculum for students, teachers and adult learners; amplified black and brown student voices and cultivated spaces of cultural inclusivity, collective action and community.

We live, work, and organize in Washington, DC so we know the district well. From press conferences to meetings to organizing summits, we know the lay of the land in the DMV. We know where to find the best backdrops for media events, which hotels and meeting spaces are best for different events (and which ones to avoid!). One of our founding partners is an attorney with experience navigating the permitting processes in numerous jurisdictions. We have a large (and growing!) stash of gear for providing sound, lighting, and other infrastructure for events just about anywhere, and a long list of collaborators who we bring in to help with logistics and other tasks. And when we don’t have the equipment or expertise internally, we have a long list of local vendors that provide everything from catering to flat-bed trucks.

In high stakes campaigns, making decisions and developing strategy based on best-available-data is essential. The Movement Catalyst team has experience in qualitative, quantitative, financial and legal research methods. We work with partners to understand and articulate problems, develop strategy, identify creative solutions, find opportunities to transform power holders.

Today our organizations and movements have access to more information than ever. The key is finding patterns, identifying trends and putting that data to work in our campaigns. That’s why we work with partners to visualize data (Tableau and Kumu), map the our physical and political landscape (ArcGIS), and put information at everyone’s fingertips with easy-to-use interactive databases.