We believe in organizing
Framing and messaging are great, but the thing that creates change today is the same thing that always has: moving people to action. If  you want to plan an original action that gets attention while  building the skills of the people in your organization, or your idea of a great website is one that asks more of visitors than just clicking a button to “sign” a petition, we're the people to talk to.

The action is the message
We're tired of marching through empty capitals holding the same old signs while chanting the same old slogans. We bet you are too. Our strategy for planning actions starts with honing the message your group is trying to send and then building an action or campaign that  communicates that message directly.

We believe actions should tell a story. Our goal is to create actions that amplify the voices of participants, and in order to do that we take into account all of the people involved - from the organizational leadership and volunteers to the press, bystanders, opponents and the larger public.

Organizing through action
We help groups take full advantage of the process of planning and taking action. Many groups focus primarily on how many people they can mobilize and invest little energy on other goals. Our approach to action planning considers other areas that a group of people  organizing for long term social and political change should  consider, such as building the skills of leaders and participants, cultivating your donor base and strengthening your overall  organization. By focusing on the experience of everyone involved - from the coordinators to the observers to the press - we help groups create actions that have lasting impact.

Actions are exciting, and groups can channel that excitement toward larger goals. By placing organizational goals within the process of  action planning, actions themselves become more than events; they  become a process that is aligned with your mission and can directly build the power of your supporters and members to make the change your group wants to see in the world.

Who we are
Over the past ten years, we've had many different forms and worked on many different campaigns – from local political races to international actions – both for other organizations and actions we've created independently. We've worked on housing and tenants' rights, environmental justice, and anti-war campaigns, and we've created materials from t-shirts and large-scale banners to building  projections and websites.

On the night of the 2004 Presidential election, we stayed up late watching the poll results come in and biting our fingernails. Weeks before, we'd begun outlining an action in case Bush was returned to office, and that night at 3AM we launched the Turn Your Back on Bush website. Within a week we had several hundred people signed up to join us in January, 2005 at the inauguration for a simple action  meant to show the world that we stood united against Bush's policies.

A week later, the campaign was covered  on CNN, and then Saturday Night Live's Weekend Update did a segment on the action. We'd hoped to bring dozens of people to DC with us – within two months we had  donated offices in Washington, a volunteer staff of fifteen training organizers in 41 states, and the BBC was inviting a spokesperson from the campaign to provide commentary on the night of  the inauguration. Over 5,000 people traveled from 47 states to participate in Turn Your Back on Bush, with simultaneous actions taking place in Belgium, Mexico and England.

We officially formed the Action Mill a few months later to help other groups learn how to do effective organizing and action planning. Want to find out how we can help your organization? Contact us.