RESULTS

Organizational Vision
Citizen Base Strategy
Results

Organizational Vision

RESULTS is a U.S.-based citizen sector organization that lobbies for anti-hunger and anti-poverty legislation. RESULTS does not intend to attack hunger and poverty by producing grains or redistributing resources. RESULTS attacks the issues by changing the aspect of human nature which won’t address those issues. Creating that change in each and every individual is what drives RESULTS, which intends to eliminate hunger and poverty by creating the political will to do so. Creating political will means empowering citizens to act responsibly—and to encourage elected officials to do so as well. Therefore, at the heart of RESULTS strategy is a cadre of volunteers who sustain RESULTS as an organization by becoming its key resource and inspiration.

Citizen Base Strategy

RESULTS combines educational materials and public speaking skills to develop volunteers as spokespeople, giving them the confidence to conquer their own fear and speak out about hunger and poverty. Volunteers are educated and updated through Weekly Updates, Action Sheets, Editorial Packets, and Laser Talks. These are RESULTS’ secret weapons in creating powerful and influential volunteers by simply increasing their level of knowledge and their ability to communicate that knowledge.

“Volunteers become the people who know the most,” says Nadege Adam, a Global Grassroots Organizer. “What we ask takes a lot of courage. All this serious training and maintenance is a major asset of RESULTS. The major advantage is that the volunteers are prepared.”

Beyond education, RESULTS sustains its volunteer corps by employing a strategy known as AIR: Action, Inspiration, and Relationship. According to RESULTS, a successful volunteer program will have equal percentages of these components.

“Actions bring people into a movement,” says Leah Rogne, a grassroots organizer for RESULTS. “And it keeps people going when they achieve an action. When there is no more action, it’s only a social club, like old men on a bench reminiscing about what good times they had in the civil rights movement. We’re doing something, and it matters in the world.”

To sustain long-term interest, “actions must both matter to the world and be doable,” says Rogne. “we’re not just giving people an envelope to stuff or a potato to peel. We want them to be in it for the long haul. And if the action is beyond their capacity to achieve, we’re not even going to get their involvement at all.” This is where inspiration is critical.

Mary Dodson, a domestic organizer, agrees. “When volunteers begin to get frustrated by not seeing direct results, inspiration is the key. Inspiration comes in the form of feedback both from the RESULTS staff and from outsiders who show how the work of the volunteers is making a difference.” The National Conference Calls are a critical conduit for inspiration. Each month a guest speaker affirms the work of volunteers, and lets them know how it is making a difference. The monthly conference calls are invigorating. As one volunteer says, “we get charged by these calls and then after we leave, our daily grind takes over our lives. We need a monthly recharge.”

Rogne strongly believes “that a relationship is the glue that holds the social movement together. Study after study shows that the difference between people who join a movement and people who just attend, but don’t join or people who don’t even attend, is whether or not they have a relationship with somebody within the movement.”

RESULTS builds relationships by having volunteers rely directly on other volunteers, rather than the staff. “We act like we’re a big family,” reports Adam. “It’s fostered in our set-up. We’re all dependent on one another—only a small group is dependent on the office.”

Results

Twenty years ago, RESULTS consisted of six groups in California who met once a month to write their Members of Congress. Today, RESULTS has turned over 700 ordinary citizens into educated and articulate volunteers who speak to the media and their elected officials about cost-effective programs that decrease hunger and positively impact the lives of the poorest of the poor. The RESULTS Founder, Sam Daley Harris, clarifies this terminology: “these aren’t just volunteers, but partners in a social movement.” The volunteers, as citizens, are the only individuals who can create the political will to end hunger and poverty, first within themselves, second within their country, and third around the world.”