3 tips for starting your grassroots initiative
Wanting to start a grassroots initiative, but don’t know where to start? I can relate. When I started Rise In STEM, I did not know what I was in for but I knew there was a much needed space to encourage and support Black youth into STEM and higher education.
There are many resources for non-profit and charity organizations, however without charitable status many groups doing great work may not qualify. I definitely understand this limitation and I am here to share 3 tips that helped me navigate the non-profit space as the lead of an unincorporated, grassroots initiative.
Tip 1: Find an organizational mentor
An organizational mentor (OM) is essentially an administrative partner. It is a registered non-profit or charitable organization that provides financial accountability and capacity building support to your group. This usually looks like financial bookkeeping, but depending on your relationship with the OM this could be supported around strategic planning, team development, program planning and more.
For some funding programs, grassroots groups can be eligible when applying with an OM and can therefore open up opportunities for financial support.
Having an OM while piloting Rise In STEM was a game changer because it gave me that safety net and someone to lean on to ask all the “dumb” questions. It was assuring to know that there was support from an organization with established processes and systems. If you are in the City of Toronto and don’t know here to start, check out the OM’s for the Impact N’ Identify Program. Note that this is not an exhaustive list, and an OM can usually be any group with registered status.
Tip 2: Understand the power of a logic model
Halfway through the pilot program of Rise In STEM, I realized I needed a way to show the impact of our work. I googled youth program evaluations and Youth Research and Evaluation eXchange came up and I signed up for a program consultation.
Through this program, I was able to systematically structure the program and logically think about ways the resources available will help us deliver the program and realistically assess the outcomes. It was my first time thinking about program development in this way, and now it is a foundational tool that I use to ground all initiatives at Rise In STEM.
Impact is an essential currency for growing your initiative so it is important to think about and prioritize your program development and evaluation tools — it could be as simple as accurate documentation how many and often people show up to your program.
Tip 3: Join a community network focused on the professional and business development
There are many professional and business development initiatives that I am a part of including Black Business Professional Association, Black Professionals in Technology, the Black Resilience Cluster to name a few.
When starting Rise In STEM, one of the first community networks that I engaged with was CEE’s Black to the Future, which is a community of practice that consists of conferences, webinars and funding resources for Black-led and Black-focused organizations. Through this initiative, I met some of our first program partners, accessed funding and consultation support to develop the brand of Rise In STEM and participated in so many workshops centering marketing, which really gave me the tools and confidence I needed to push the initiative forward.
Finding a community can be a challenge, however, I find it valuable to join many different professional networks because they can each serve different purposes and offer tangible and intangible benefits from connecting with like-minded individuals to accessing new resources and opportunities and keeping afloat with the sector.
I hope you found these three tips to starting your own grassroots initiative useful.
