Pounce! Starting a RAN Group in Your Community

POUNCE!starting a RAN group

in your community

Welcome to RAN!Thanks for your interest in getting more involved with Rainforest Action Network! We’re excited to have you on board as we expand and strengthen our grassroots network and work toward making some serious social and environmental change.

For 25 years, RAN has worked to challenge corporations that destroy the environment and violate human rights. Right now, we are in a moment with great potential for change as the world shifts its focus to global crises like climate change and deforestation. The movement toward a greener, more sustainable global economy is growing quickly. But as our governments, as well as corporations, talk about the need to stop global warming, they continue to build new coal-fired power plants, drill for new dirty sources of oil and turn our precious forests into paper and mono-crop plantations. We need to help build this growing movement for change and make it even stronger and more accountable so that people everywhere, especially those most directly impacted by global environmental and human rights abuses, can have a sustainable and healthy future. We need to challenge corporations and governments to do better – not to simply talk better – and then hold them to their promises. In doing so, we can re-shape the relationships of power that gave us all these problems in the first place.

This, you might have guessed, requires a powerful movement of well-trained, informed and passionate people. (Like you!)

To better connect amazing activists working on these issues, we have supported a network of activist groups that can work on RAN’s hard-hitting national and international campaigns at the local level and take on relevant local issues as well. The goal: to build a strong movement committed to challenging corporate power and protecting the environment and human rights for ourselves and future generations.

This introduction will tell you a little bit about RAN’s mission, vision and campaigns. In the broader Pounce Toolkit, you’ll find introductions to basic organizing and campaigning skills that will help your group grow and achieve its goals. Our web site (www.ran.org) has a lot more info and you can always contact the RAN Grassroots Team with questions or comments.

Welcome! We look forward to working with you!

The RAN Grassroots Team,Debra, Josh, Hillary and Tracy

If you have any questions, contact the Grassroots team at:Rainforest Action Network221 Pine Street, 5th FloorSan Francisco, CA 94104Phone: 415-398-4404Fax: [email protected]

R A I N F O R E S T A C T I O N N E T W O R K | P O U N C E ! | P A G E 2


Our MissiOnRainforest Action Network campaigns for the forests, their

inhabitants and the natural systems that sustain life by transforming the global marketplace through education,

grassroots organizing and non-violent direct action.

Our VisiOnRainforest Action Network envisions a world where each

generation sustains increasingly healthy forests, where the rights of all communities are respected and where corporate profits

never come at the expense of people or the planet.


RAN’s MAjoR CAMpAigNs

Today, we have five priority campaigns:

RAN’s Rainforest-Free Paper Campaign is based on the belief that converting thousand-year-old trees into copy paper or 2x4’s is outdated and immoral. Together, we’ll change the logging industry by pressuring its customers to eliminate products originating from endangered forests and Indigenous lands to replace them with sustainable alternatives.

Our Global Finance Campaign challenges large banks to stop funding the world’s most destructive industries and start funding renewable energy. Specifically, the campaign is working to stop mountaintop removal coal mining, the American tragedy that is devastating communities and landscapes in Appalachia. The Freedom From Oil Campaign is breaking America’s oil addiction by working to halt the development of the Canadian Tar Sands, the dirtiest and most deadly attempt yet to profit from and prolong humanity’s crippling addiction to oil.

Our Rainforest Agribusiness Campaign is challenging the latest and fastest growing threat to the world’s tropical forests: the rapid expansion of industrial agriculture. The campaign has targeted U.S. agribusiness giants ADM, Bunge and Cargill for their role in destroying rainforests from Brazil to Indonesia to make way for industrial soy and palm oil plantations.

Chevron is responsible for one of the largest environmental disasters in history. Today the oil giant is waging unprecedented public relations and lobbying campaigns to avoid having to clean up environmental and public health catastrophes that continue today. With our Change Chevron Campaign, RAN is spearheading an effort that combines and amplifies the influence of communities, investors, celebrities, and Chevron employees to transform the oil giant.

Each of these campaigns is designed to protect endangered forests, decelerate climate change and support the rights of Indigenous and front-line communities around the world, while also reasserting democratic principles to counter the power of multi-national corporations.

For more detailed and up to date info on all of our campaigns, please visit www.RAN.org.


In addition to our hard-hitting campaigns, RAN has several cutting-edge programs designed to support the goal of a more just and sustainable world:

Rainforests in the ClassroomRAN’s Rainforests in the Classroom program educates and empowers students to become in-volved in issues that affect them: their environment, their community and rainforest ecosystems worldwide. Each year, RAN receives hundreds of requests from teachers and students seek-ing information about rainforests and actions they can take to protect forests and stop climate change. The goal of this program is to educate teachers and primary and secondary school students about the vital role that healthy forests play in our own survival and that of the planet and to mobilize them to take an active role in protecting the environment. By introducing con-cepts of ecological sustainability and educating students about the consequences of deforesta-tion, we aim to inspire environmental stewardship ideals within the generation that will inherit tomorrow’s global challenges.

RYSE (RAN Youth Sustaining the Earth)RYSE (RAN Youth Sustaining the Earth) supports a network of youth activists in middle and high schools, college campuses and communities that work to protect the Earth and support human rights through education, corporate campaigning, grassroots organizing and nonvio-lent direct action. We offer many opportunities to get involved and resources to share. See RYSE.RAN.org for more information.

Protect-an-Acre ProgramRAN established the Protect-an-Acre Program in 1993 as a tool to protect the world’s forests and the rights of their inhabitants by providing grants to traditionally under-funded organiza-tions and communities in forest regions. PAA projects prioritize gaining legal recognition of indigenous territories (a process called “demarcation”), the development of locally-based alter-native economic initiatives, community organization and resistance to destructive practices such as logging, fossil fuel development and large-scale infrastructure projects in forest areas.

The PAA program is an integral part of Rainforest Action Network’s dynamic approach to halt-ing further destruction of the world’s forests while supporting the livelihood of forest peoples. Traditional communities are stewards of the fragile rainforest ecosystem and possess a unique knowledge of these forests. Any real solution to the crisis of rainforest destruction must begin by recognizing the rights of these communities.

Many projects are aimed at securing specific and measurable tracts of forest for protection and are typically implemented by local forest communities, indigenous federations, or supporting non-governmental organizations. PAA projects are designed to work in concert with RAN’s primary campaigns to end logging and other industrial activities in the world’s remaining old growth forests.

One of PAA’s primary funding sources is school-based fundraisers. Learn more about how you can support this program in the fundraising section.

The Climate Action FundThe Climate Action Fund is a program for progressive organizations and businesses who want to be part of the solution to climate change. The Climate Action Fund is designed specifically to help you measure and minimize your work-related carbon footprint while challenging our national dependence on fossil fuels. Through your support the Climate Action Fund provides grants to frontline activist groups directly tackling the root causes of climate change: extraction and combustion of fossil fuels.

What Is a RAN Group?We want to work with you. Maybe this means collaborating on a campaign, or training camp, or action. Maybe you’re an individual organizer who can mobilize your friends every now and then. Maybe you have an organization you’re involved with. We’re happy to connect at whatever level makes sense for your context. One of the easiest ways is to have a group that associates with RAN in some way.

A “RAN group” (or chapter) is an organization that says they want to be a RAN group (or chapter). Simple, right? This can mean that a group with another identity and another agenda (or even another name) chooses to do RAN stuff in addition to their own stuff. It can also mean that a group only forms for the purpose of doing RAN campaigns, calls itself “Rainforest Action Network,” holds fundraisers to support our work and plasters the logo over everything they see. It can mean anything in between. What is important is that the group identifies as part of the RAN network. How you use that network, our resources, or plug into our campaigns is up to you.

International chaptersActivists all over the world are welcome to start RAN groups. However, given our location, campaign focus, areas of expertise and resources, RAN is unable to provide support to chapters outside the US and Canada beyond online materials and some consultation via email. If you are from outside the US or Canada, you are welcome run your own local campaigns that fall within RAN’s mission and operate as, and call yourself, a RAN chapter (after sending in the forms found in this guide). If you do, please keep us posted on your activities so that we can let other activists know about – and be inspired by - your work.

OUR NETWORKAs part of RAN’s activist network, you can expect regular communication from our Grassroots Team. Activist email updates – which are different from the action alerts you may already receive from RAN – will let you know what campaign and outreach events, actions, fundraisers and trainings are on the horizon that you and your group may want to participate in. We will work to connect activists in different cities using email lists, online tools and conference calls for information sharing and community-building. RAN offers trainings, both in person and on the phone, that you can take advantage of.


Represent RAN in your community:

• Promote diversity and anti- oppression values.• Connect with allies in your area.• Speak on RAN’s behalf at local events.• Increase RAN’s visibility with your local actions and events.• Identify compelling local problems and work towards solutions.

Support RAN campaigns:

• Participate in days of action and other call-outs for coordinated responses• Report on your group’s activities, send us pictures and video• Participate in advisory committees and conference calls to help set campaign strategy and plan grassroots activities.

Organize local events:

• Build a list of local contacts. Expand the network!• Organize “Community Builder” events on a RAN campaign or your local campaign (movie nights, tabling, house parties, teach-ins, debates, etc.).• Organize “Direct Action” events in support of a RAN campaign or your local campaign (demonstrations, rallies, vigils, street theater, marches, sit-ins and other creative ways to get a campaign message across to decision-makers).• Organize fundraisers for the RAN network and your community group (t-shirt sales, house parties, bake sales, auctions, concerts, etc).

What Do RAN Groups Do?

Build the movement:

• Look for opportunities to circulate RAN petitions, then send completed ones back to us to add to our email action list• Organize activist trainings and strategy sessions (we can provide training outlines and possibly trainers)• Look for opportunities to be a popular educator – download our lesson plans, reach out to schools and other places to educate and mobilize new activists.


local campaign Strategy and tactics:In addition to coming out to support RAN campaigns, we encourage community groups to initiate local campaigns that fit within RAN’s mission. Let us know what you’re thinking and we can help you develop your ideas. Working on local issues helps people feel more connected to their activism and lets you see changes right where you live.

Your group may decide you want to take on a local campaign that goes beyond RAN’s mission. You are welcome to do so, but please do not use RAN’s name for this part of your work. We don’t want to confuse the public, the media or our donors about the scope of our work. If you’re not clear on whether a particular campaign falls under RAN’s mission, just check with RAN staff.

Any campaigns that your group engages in should fully comply with both the letter and spirit of RAN’s commitment to nonviolence, diversity and anti-oppression.

What can RAN do for you?Rainforest Action Network has plenty of tools and resources to offer activists.

We have major campaigns that you can join and make huge differences on, and we can put you in touch with lots of amazing people doing similar things. RAN chapters are quickly building a powerful network of activists who share ideas and experiences, who work locally in their communities and on their own campuses and link up those efforts to have a much larger international impact. We’re helping build a movement.

The movement for environmental, social and economic justice is exploding right now. There are lots of ways to be part of it. Starting or working in a RAN group is one way to tap into it.


Here are a few things you can do initially to get your group started:

Make sure you and other group members are on RAN’s weekly email list, the Panther. This email will give you the latest on RAN’s campaigns and how they can plug in. It’s basically the RAN News. Join this list at RAN.org/get_involved.

Recruit others! Getting new people involved is the most important thing in early group development. Are there local events that you can get a table at to sign up interested folks? A farmers’ market? Can you plan an educational event, like a Rainforest Agribusiness Teach-in or a movie night that would attract people in your community?

Plug into RAN’s campaigns. You can find info on how to do this on our website at http://ran.org/get_involved/. We’ll also send you updates and ideas each month.

Let us know about you! When we receive your group registration form, signed anti-oppression principles and non-violence agreement, we’ll start treating you as an official RAN group. Send a licensing agreement and we’ll send you back a logo with your group’s name on it.

Give us a call and let’s explore how to work together to make a difference! Or, please feel free to email your phone number and a good time to call you.

And remember, you don’t have to start a formal group. Sometimes it’s easier to start by getting some friends together to take part in a specific action or event and see what unfolds – or to start taking action on your own.

“We look forward to working with you to change the world!”

Getting Your Group Up

and Running


Documents

Pounce! Starting a RAN Group in Your Community