Editing Introduction to Organizing (section)

== Mobilizing & Organizing ==
'''Organizing''' is leadership that enables your people to turn their resources into the power they need to make the change they want. '''Mobilizing''' is leadership that focuses on leveraging that capacity and power through immediate action. Understanding the differences between two main approaches, their limitations, and how they complement each other can help us more effectively approach a campaign.
{| class="wikitable"
|+
!
!Mobilizing 
!Organizing 
|-
|Strategy for building power
|Builds power by building membership; take people where they are.
|Build power by building leadership; transform motivations and capacities of members to take on more leadership.
|-
|Strategy for building membership
|Build membership by getting as many people as possible to take actions; build a bigger, more targeted prospect list.
|Build membership by developing leaders who can engage others; constantly develop leadership among new prospects.
|-
|Implications for structure
|Centralize responsibility in the hands of staff or a few key volunteers.
|Distribute responsibility out to a large network of volunteers.
|-
|Implications for types of asks made to volunteers
|Focus on discrete requests that often allow people to act quickly or alone.
|Focus on interdependent asks that are often more time-intensive, force people to work with others, and give them some strategic autonomy.
|-
|Implications for communications with volunteers
|Focus on reaching out to as many people as possible by developing attractive “pitches” that will draw in the most people and new networks.
|Focus on reaching out to people by building relationships and community with them.
|-
|Implications for support
|Minimal resources needed for training and reflection.
|Need extensive resources for training, coaching, and reflection.
|}
This table based on ''[https://www.hahriehan.com/books#:~:text=HOW%20ORGANIZATIONS%20DEVELOP%20ACTIVISTS How Organizations Develop Activists]'' by Hahrie Han.

Both are important in creating change; however, some campaigns only use mobilizing to create actions without using organizing to increase capacity. If you skip the first three leadership practices (telling stories, building relationships and structuring teams) and go right to strategizing and taking action, you are probably just mobilizing.

If you only organize, your efforts will be deep but narrow. If you only mobilize, your efforts will be broad but shallow<ref>Rivera, G. (2012, July 17). Organizing or Mobilizing. Retrieved September 26, 2015, from <nowiki>http://interactioninstitute.org/organizing-or-mobilizing/</nowiki></ref>. Effective campaigns blend them both to achieve a combination of breadth and depth.