The Sierra Club is an environmental organization with chapters in all 50 United States, Washington D.C., and Puerto Rico. The club was founded on May 28, 1892, in San Francisco, California, by the Scottish-American preservationist John Muir, who became the first president, as well as the longest serving president at approximately 20 years in this leadership position. The Sierra Club operates only in the United States. Sierra Club Canada is separated from the Sierra Club.
Public Interest Research Groups (PIRGs) are a federation of U.S. and Canadian non-profit organizations that employ grassroots organizing and direct advocacy on issues such as consumer protection, public health and transportation. The PIRGs are closely affiliated with the Fund for the Public Interest, which conducts fundraising and canvassing on their behalf.
Student activism or campus activism is work by students to cause political, environmental, economic, or social change. Although often focused on schools, curriculum, and educational funding, student groups have influenced greater political events.
The Consumer Federation of America (CFA) is a non-profit organization founded in 1968 to advance consumer interests through research, education and advocacy.
Maryland Public Interest Research Group (MaryPIRG) is a student activist non-profit organization and one of many State PIRGs. The organization works on a variety of local activist activities, including environmental activism, textbook trading on college campuses, democratic reforms, control of antibiotics in food products, and help for the homeless. They also provide internships and work study jobs for students at the University of Maryland.
The Fund for the Public Interest is a 501(c)(4) non-profit organization that runs the public fundraising and canvassing operations for politically liberal nonprofit organizations in the United States. The Fund is the largest fundraiser for progressive causes in the United States. FFPI was set up in 1982 as the fundraising arm of the Public Interest Research Group (PIRGs), which was founded by Ralph Nader. The Fund has been named as a defendant in several lawsuits alleging unfair labor practices, including failing to pay its workers minimum wage.
Environment California is a nonprofit political organization that lobbies for environmental legislation in the U.S. state of California. It is affiliated with Environment America and the Fund for the Public Interest.
Tom Hucker is an American elected official and a Democrat from the U.S. state of Maryland. He served from 2007 until 2014 as a member of the Maryland House of Delegates from District 20, which includes Takoma Park and Silver Spring neighborhoods including Hillandale, Woodmoor, White Oak, Indian Spring, East Silver Spring, Park Hills, Sligo Park Hills, Long Branch, Seven Oaks/Evanswood, Sligo-Branview, Burnt Mills, Burnt Mills Hills, South Four Corners, Franklin Knolls, Montgomery Knolls, Clifton Park Village, Oakview, Quaint Acres, and parts of Colesville in Montgomery County.
Grassroots Campaigns, Inc. is a for-profit corporation that does strategic consulting, and fund raising for humanitarian and progressive causes and political organizations. Grassroots Campaigns employs thousands of workers to generate small-donor contributions, increase visibility, and expand the membership base for a number of progressive groups, issues, and campaigns. Headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts, the company was founded in December 2003 by a small team of experienced organizers who specialized in grassroots-level political and public interest organizing with groups like the Public Interest Research Group However, since its founding, it has consistently faced accusations of anti-union activity at odds with its stated progressive roots.
Activism, Inc.: How the Outsourcing of Grassroots Campaigns Is Strangling Progressive Politics in America is a book by the sociologist Dana Fisher, based on an ethnographic study of Fund for Public Interest Research canvass offices during summer 2003. Fisher argues that the corporate fund-raising model mistreats idealistic young people by using them as interchangeable parts and providing them with insufficient training. Fisher also believes that the outsourcing of grassroots organizing by political groups led to the decay of grassroots infrastructure and opportunities for involvement on the left.
The Minnesota Public Interest Research Group describes itself as "a grassroots, non-partisan, nonprofit, student-directed organization that empowers and trains students and engages the community to take collective action in the public interest throughout the state of Minnesota."
Philip David Radford is an American activist who served as the executive director of Greenpeace USA. He is the founder and President of Progressive Power Lab, an organization that incubates companies and non-profits that build capacity for progressive organizations, including the Progressive Multiplier Fund and Membership Drive. Radford is a co-founder of the Democracy Initiative, was founder and executive director of Power Shift, and is a board member of the Mertz Gilmore Foundation. He has a background in grassroots organizing, corporate social responsibility, climate change, and clean energy.
Environment America is a federation of state-based environmental advocacy organizations in the United States. The organization researches and advocates for environmental policies through lobbying, litigation, and the mobilization of public support. Environment America advocates new laws and policies to address climate change, air pollution and water pollution, and is a proponent of clean energy. It opposes offshore drilling.
Phineas Baxandall is a Senior Analyst at the Massachusetts Budget and Policy Center, located in Boston Massachusetts, where he focuses on transportation and tax policy in Massachusetts state and local government. Previously, between 2006 and 2015, he directed the Tax & Budget program and the Transportation programs for the United States Public Interest Research Group and its thirty state affiliates. Earlier, at Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government, Baxandall helped direct the Taubman Center for State and Local Government. and the Rappaport Institute for Greater Boston, where he conducted research on state aid to localities, the effects of introducing legalized gambling, performance metrics for local government and other topics. He taught for eight years at Harvard's undergraduate honors program, the Committee for Degrees in Social Studies, where he won several teaching awards.
Illinois Public Interest Research Group is a non-profit organization that is part of the state PIRG organizations. It works on a variety of political activities, including childhood obesity, reducing the interest on student loans, and closing tax loopholes.
Missouri Public Interest Research Group (MoPIRG) is a non-profit organization that is part of the state PIRG organizations.
Ohio Public Interest Research Group is a non-profit organization that is part of the state PIRG organizations. It works on a variety of political activities.
Public Interest Research Group in Michigan (PIRGIM) is a non-profit organization that is part of the state PIRG organizations.
Green Corps is an environmental organization in the United States that trains recent college graduates in a one-year post-graduate program in grassroots community organizing. During the program, Green Corps organizers learn in the classroom and are deployed in the field to work on campaigns.
Dana R. Fisher is an American sociologist, professor of sociology, and public speaker and author. Her most recent book is American Resistance: from the Women’s March to the Blue Wave (2019). She is a professor at the University of Maryland who speaks and writes about activism, democracy and environmental policy.
