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Tonei Glavinic's avatar

this is super interesting and insightful, and makes me (33) think a lot about the organizations I'm now involved with, the organizations I've worked with in the past, and the incredibly difficult challenge so many of them have had in maintaining relationships with former participants and converting them into donors or other roles

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Ben Jones's avatar

Thanks for this great synopsis, Dave. I wrote an article years ago on the volunteer continuum related to work I was doing with a national progressive religious coalition around the same issues and themes. As a grassroots Sierra Club leader, we benefitted directly from SSC leaders in our midst, but had to recognize that we might have three years of their involvement at best. And an issue they would connect with. But that’s organizing 101. I know though that for some chapter leaders, they found this frustrating - “these kids aren’t in it for the long haul.” And if your time horizon is ten years, that’s true. If it’s for fifty years, and truly oriented towards movement building, you can’t get enough of their involvement. I understand some of the challenges of dealing with financial short falls, but to your point, even having a little bit of focus now would go a long way towards building the SC’s future - indeed, being part of the engine of change overall. Thanks for all you do, including raising your little ones now.

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