What we do

The Action Mill works with groups large and small who want to make the ideas behind The Action Is the Message and Taking Action in the Commons their own. Our job is not to give you the answers, we ask the right questions and help groups develop their own solutions to their own challenges. When you do find the right action, it's usually an idea that is so simple, so obvious, that it's hard to believe you didn't think of it before. We'll work hard with you to make it look easy. And these actions aren't simple for simple's sake: clear, compelling ideas reach more potential supporters, and give them a clear reason to join you and a way to participate.

How we do all this depends on the group we're working with. Sometimes it's a training or a workshop. Sometimes it's building a tool or a website. Sometimes it's creating a partnership.

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.

Organizing through action 

We help groups take full advantage of the process of planning and taking action. Many groups focus primarily on the number of people they can mobilize and invest little energy in other goals. Our approach to action planning focuses on 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.

Where we come from

Over the past ten years, the Action Mill has taken many different forms and has worked on many different campaigns – from local political races to international actions – both for other organizations and independently on actions we've created. 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. We invited people to join us at the inauguration in January 2005 for a simple action meant to show the world that we stood united against Bush's policies. Within a week we had several hundred people signed up.

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 offices donated to us in Washington, a volunteer staff of fifteen, and training organizers in 41 states. The BBC invited a spokesperson from the campaign to provide commentary on the night of the inauguration. More than 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.

Who we are

The Action Mill is run by Jethro Heiko, the Organizing Director, Nick Jehlen, the Creative Director, and Meredith Warner, the Educational Director. We work with additional members and allies for specific campaigns.

Jethro is an organizer, artist and activist from Newton, Massachusetts. Following the death of his father, he founded and ran a bereavement support organization for college students. He worked in Boston’s Fenway neighborhood for seven years where he organized the successful effort to stop the demolition of Fenway Park. Since moving to Philadelphia in 2003 he has been working on a variety of issues including affordable housing, tenant rights and stopping mega-developments. He was the National Organizer and co-founder of Turn Your Back on Bush.

Nick is a writer, activist and designer from Somerville, Massachusetts. Nick has conceived and created direct actions since 1990 including large-scale image projections, parody websites, building banners and mass mobilizations. Nick was Creative Director and co-founder of Turn Your Back on Bush. Currently, Nick is the lead organizer of the Enough Fear campaign, which sets up public phone hotlines between the US and Iran. Since 1999, Nick has been the Art Director at The Progressive magazine. His design work has been recognized by PRINT magazine, HOW magazine, Communication Arts, and the Society of Publication Designers.

Meredith is an artist, activist and educator from Philadelphia. She has a Masters in Fine Arts and teaches as several local universities. In 2006, Meredith was one of the founders of NABR (Neighbors Allied for the Best Riverfront), an organization that advocates for sustainable development along the Delaware river. In the same year, she was one of the founders of Casino Free Philadelphia. As part of her artistic practice, Meredith is the Director of Department of Investigation of Neutrality and Palatability of the Think Tank that is yet to be named (in other words she creates bureaucracies to undermine bureaucracies).