Clients

Iraq Veterans Against the War

We have worked with IVAW for almost three years. Our work began by designing a dynamic, organizing-based website that launched in the summer of 2006. We managed and added features to the website through early 2009.

After launching IVAW.org, we worked with Doyle Canning of SmartMeme to design and facilitate a training for the board and other leaders from around the country, teaching skills in strategy, action and campaign planning, and non-violent direct action. During this training we led the development of a national strategy that has guided IVAW's work since that time.

With Emilie Surrusco (our favorite media guru), we developed and ran a series of trainings across the country for over 100 IVAW members on direct action, media work and IVAW's national strategy.

Following this process, we provided mentorship and coaching to implement the organization's strategy, working closely with IVAW's Strategy Team, national staff, and local chapters. In early 2008 Jethro joined IVAW's staff as Organizing Director, where he supervised the organizing team. Nick continued as webmaster and strategy consultant. In 2008 we served on the organizing team for Winter Soldier: Iraq and Afghanistan, an event which included more than 35 hours of testimony from U.S. soldiers and Iraqi civilians broadcast live through IVAW.org, radio, and satellite.

During our time with IVAW, the organization has grown from fewer than 300 members to more than 1,500, and from fewer than 10 chapters to more than 50.

Casino-Free Philadelphia

Jethro co-founded Casino-Free Philadelphia in June of 2006. Since that time the organization has grown to a movement-building force in Philadelphia and the region. Casino-Free engages citizens of various backgrounds through strategic campaigns that are rooted in direct action and smart media strategy as it confronts the predatory gambling industry.

In the Spring of 2007 Nick joined Casino-Free in a unique effort to run a city-wide citizen-run referendum after the <!--StartFragment-->Pennsylvania Supreme Court removed a question from the ballot that would have prevented casinos from being built near homes, parks, places of worship and schools. The original question, which had been placed on the ballot by a Casino-Free campaign, was removed just four weeks before election day. Casino-Free designed and ran Philadelphia’s first citizens’ election, Philly’s Ballot Box. Ballot boxes were set up at polling places across the city, and a secure internet and phone voting system was developed to allow as many registered voters to vote as possible. More than 13,000 people across the city participated in Philly’s Ballot Box. Ninety-five percent said “YES” to the 1,500-foot buffer.

Casino-Free Philadelphia was highlighted in a January 2009 article titled "Shouldering into Philadelphia may prove to be the American casino industry's Waterloo."

Alternatives for Community and Environment

The Action Mill worked with ACE to create the Boston Bus Marathon in 2006, which highlighted the inequities in Boston's public transportation service by organizing teams of riders competing to complete a 26-mile route using different modes of transportation. As part of this project, we redesigned the ACE website, creating a dynamic Drupal-based site that is maintained and updated by ACE staff.

Billionaires for Bush

Nick provided strategic support during the Billionaires for Bush 2004 campaign, in addition to designing the logo and website for the Billionaires.

Bring Them Home Now Tour

In August 2005, Gold Star Families for Peace, Military Families Speak Out, Veterans for Peace and Iraq Veterans Against the War joined forces to sit vigil outside Bush’s ranch in Crawford Texas. It was a historic undertaking that many credit for undermining Bush’s second term agenda and bringing the War on Iraq home to the US in ways that were to that point unprecedented. In late August, the four groups decided to take their show on the road in order to share their stories with citizens around the country. They toured 51 cities in 21 days, traveling from Texas to Washington, DC, via three different routes. The Bring Them Home Now Tour hired the Action Mill to help develop their website and provide organizing and strategic support. Our work enabled citizens and the media to follow the tour step by step without actually being on the bus.

HomeFromIraqNow.org

Following the Bring Them Home Now Tour, we jumped into a unique petition drive to work to end the war through a Massachusetts ballot question. Our client, HomeFromIraqNow.org, had a novel approach but was getting started late. We developed a dynamic website and a strategy to do traditional, volunteer-based signature collection, as well as tools for a decentralized internet-based effort. We built a state-wide, county-by-county organizing plan that was successful in increasing the signature collection but ultimately, the campaign was unsuccessful in collecting the required signatures to get the question on the ballot. 

To see websites we've designed and developed, click here.