Environment, Inc. From Grassroots to Beltway

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Environment, Inc.From Grassroots to Beltway

• Christopher J. Bosso
• 2005

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Overview of the Environmental Movement

• Was cultivated from local organizations
  diversified and sought niches.
• Organizations go national, move towards corporate
  structure, focus on fund-raising survival
  tactics.
• The anti-environment movement emerges
  environmental organizations must fight at all
  levels of government.

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Authors Main Ideas

• No one political party, president or session of
  congress can claim credit for the resiliency of
  the environmental movement.
• The movement has faced criticism from both left
  and right. The Left accusing it of being too
  mainstream and the Right claiming, as a
  collective, it is self-serving and puts too much
  emphasis on marketing.
• For all of the movements challenges, including
  being labeled as too narrow, not diverse enough
  and too willing to compromise, environmental
  organizations appear to be a permanent fixture of
  American culture, with no signs of disappearing.
  
• Essentially, Bosso concludes
• The environmental movement has adapted to
  survive, transitioning from local, to national,
  to state level, to today.

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Origins of the Environmental Movement

• The movement did not emerge spontaneously.
• Developed from organizations founded during
  earlier spurts of organizational creation
• Emphasis shifted from the preservation of nature
  for aesthetics to preservation for recreational
  purposes. Resulted in a division.
• Movement has diversified due to a need to cover a
  broader range of policy concerns

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The Progressive Era

• The Progressive Era (1890-1920) saw an explosion
  of organizational creation at the local and state
  levels.
• The Sierra Club and the National Audubon Society
  were such groups.

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The Interwar Period

• The period between the world wars saw a focus
  shift from preserving nature for aesthetic
  purposes to that of recreation.
• New organizations were formed to encourage the
  enjoyment of the outdoors for every American.

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Ducks Unlimited

• Organization created to encourage nature
  recreation
• Spawned from the More Game Birds in America
  Foundation
• Addressed the decline in American game birds, due
  to declining Canadian breeding grounds

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Following WWII

• Organizations formed in the late 40s and 50s were
  the first in a group of niche fillers, each
  occupying a policy or advocacy niche previously
  unoccupied.
• Resulted from a post-WWII swell in membership.
• Reflected a growing alarm over the effects of
  industrial pollution and chemicals on wildlife

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The Modern Environmental Era

• Surges in citizen advocacy grew from an increase
  in middle-class participation
• Furthered the diversity of causes and increased
  the number of organizations
• Increased the need for niche filling.

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Recap

• The movement did not emerge spontaneously.
• Saw a division when emphasis shifted from nature
  preservation to recreation.
• Organizations formed shortly after WWII were the
  first in a group of niche fillers.

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An Early Move Towards Specialization

• Differences in opinion about policy agenda and
  organization governance within the organization.
• Competition for funding and membership with other
  organizations.
• Led to dissident groups and niche-seekers, a
  national move of environmental organizations
  towards specialization.

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Apples and Oranges The Dissidents and the
Niche-Seekers

• Dissidents - competitive complimentary
• David Browers leadership as executive director
  of the Sierra Club
• Friends of the Earth emerges
• Niche-seekers - strategic specialized
• Proliferation of organizations dedicated to a
  single species and habitat Ducks Unlimited, The
  North American Wolf Society, Desert Tortoise
  Council, and the Desert Tortoise Preservation
  Committee.
• And of organizations filling tactical and policy
  niches American Rivers, Conservation
  International, and Ocean Conservancy.

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Breaking Free Why Organizations Sought to
Specialize

• New, specialized organizations made to fill
  legal, policy, or resource-based niches. Attract
  special interest groups, and often have
  single-issue agendas attractive to one-time
  donors and larger membership bases.
• Niche-seeker organizations actively seek
  specialized policies, tactics, and support bases
  to differentiate from their competitors.
• Dissidents break off of from old-line
  organizations due to differences of opinion in
  policy agenda, leadership, or tactics.

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Democracy Over Dictatorship

• Members their place and their power, an example
  of dissidents in the Sierra Club (1960s)
• On David Browers Side Membership satisfaction
  must bow before larger social interests as
  defended by advocacy leadership. Members a
  source of revenue and mobilization base, not
  governance. Wants to go national.
• On Ansel Adams Side Chapter-based members
  essential to organizations financial and
  advocacy future. Actual over virtual
  representation of membership in organization
  governance.

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A New Vision of Advocacy

• A new environmental ethos contributes to group
  specializing.
• A wilderness-preservation focus becomes an
  environmental-preservation (holistic) focus.
• National Parks Association
• Transforming members from advocates into donors.

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ACTIVITYMerging Organizations The Pros and Cons

• Ducks Unlimited
• Roots as a hunting association, focus on
  maintaining the species for recreational gain
• Began as the More Game Birds in America
  Foundation
• The National Audubon Society
• Grew into a bird-watching association, focus on
  maintaining all avian species for their own sake.
  
• Originally organized around the prevention of
  bird feathers being used in womens fashion

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Corporate vs. Grassroots

• It is difficult for any advocacy organization to
  survive.
• Pressure to cling to original ideals all while
  maintaining membership and money difficulties.
• The environmental movement had to learn how to
  adapt within politics, economics and leadership
  styles.

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The Environmental Movement Encounters Dramatic
Change in Response to the Reagan Administration

• The anti-environmental agenda of the Reagan
  Administration (1980-1988), the conservative
  congress, and major environmental positions were
  being filled by those previously working for
  industry caused great alarm to environmentalists.
• Catastrophic events such as the Exxon Valdez oil
  spill let to greater urgency within the public
  for environmental action.

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Adaptation

• Key environmental groups such as the Sierra Club
  and National Resources Defense Council have
  survived because of their size and adopting a
  variety of environmental issues.
• Greater self-sufficiency
• Diversification of support
• Less dependence on governmental funds
• As a result of the Reagan Administration,
  environmental groups received little support from
  congress. They now had build upon or create
  their own scientific, legal, and technological
  resources.

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Professionalism and Different Leadership Styles
Emerge

• There was a high turn-over rate in key leaders in
  the mid-80s.
• In the 1980s, and still today, there is greater
  hierarchy in the structure of Environmental
  organizations.
• The number of full time professional staff has
  tripled, leaving some activists disenfranchised.
  
• It is more common now for leaders of
  environmental groups to have their degrees in
  economics or Business and past degrees such as
  natural science or law are far less common.
• Shift from environmental activism to management
  expertise.

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Greater Cohesion and Cooperation

• Summit of 10 first met in 1980. The summit of 10
  was the top executives from major environmental
  organizations.
• In 1985, Group of Ten produced a declaration of
  Priorities of American Environmentalism.
• Criticized for not adequately dealing with how to
  handle corporate power and failure to address
  environmental injustice.
• Currently there is a Green Group, which has
  branched to include other advocacy groups.

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Fiscal Issues

• Today most rely on voluntary donations.
  Membership dues account for much of the current
  budget.
• There has been a steady increase in environmental
  donations. In the year 2002, donations were over
  2 billion dollars.
• Changes in public attitude, have a huge impact on
  environmental organizations. Highest growth in
  recent years have dealt with organizations that
  handle and focus attention on land conservation.
• Fiscal issues are more difficult for ideological
  organizations such as Greenpeace and Rainforest
  Action Network. They have to be creative and
  focus on ways to raise money without corporate
  sponsors.

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Fiscal Issues Continue

• Organizations have to deal with the issue of
  major gifts. The IRS allows nonprofits to
  shield donors from public, with gifts of over
  2,000 or more.
• Foundation gifts are controversial because
  foundations can pinpoint and have an enormous
  amount of power over where the money can go.

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Membership

• There has been a huge shift from governmental
  power back to the people in terms of how
  environmental groups survive.
• In 1980 there were only four groups that could
  boast 100,000 members or more and now 15 groups
  have membership greater than 100,000 people.
• Most groups depend on membership/individual dues
  to survive. Outer focus on member mobilization
  and less on government influence.
• Critics claim this creates passive donors and it
  still doesnt move beyond the middle class and
  deal with more pertinent issues impacting those
  who are less affluent.

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Criticism of How Much Executives Get Paid

• John H. Adams Executive NRDC
• salary 330,501
• ----------------------------------------
• Randall Hayes Pres Rainforest
• salary 67,396
• ---------------------------------------
• Carl Pope, executive director of Sierra Club
• salary 141,704, benefits 16,995
• ---------------------------------------
• Kathryn S. Fuller, president and chief executive
  officer World Wildlife Fund
• salary 223,560, benefits 29,516

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Adjusting to the Modern Political Situation

• Environmental groups replenished the grassroots,
  adopted new tools, like the Internet, and banded
  together in order to remain effective.
• A result of the Republican takeover of congress
  in the 1990s, property rights groups, Wise Use
  groups, and the Bush administration.
• Increased pressure at all levels of government.

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The New Conservative Surge

• Led to the demise of the more liberal wing of the
  Republican Party, which was pivotal to bipartisan
  agreements.
• Resulted in a dependence on Democrats.
• Environmentalists and Democrats realized
  attaining the White House is essential.

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Further Reasons for Change

• Environmentalists increasingly encountered
  well-organized and well-funded opposition from a
  variety of property rights and Wise Use groups
  at the state and local levels.
• Authority over the implementation and enforcement
  of regulations had been shifted to the states.

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The Internet as a Tool

• Gives any advocacy organization the capacity to
  communicate with the mass public
• Makes it possible to narrow-cast in order to
  target information to specific audiences.

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Renewal of the Grassroots

• Local activists are needed to counteract pressure
  from property rights and Wise Use groups
• Local roots aid in influencing members of
  Congress and state legislators
• Increasingly possible with the Internet

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Working Together Toward a Common Goal

• Facing large opposition, groups are joining
  together in a unified force to fight at all
  levels of government.
• Environmental groups success is evident through
  their ability to block drilling in the Arctic
  National Wildlife Refuge.

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Recap

• The Conservative surge, property rights and
  Wise Use groups, and a shift to state level
  politics have forced environmental groups to
  adopt new tools, replenish the grassroots, and
  band together in order to remain effective and
  relevant.

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Wining Over America Looking Back At a Maturing
Advocacy Community

• The affects of organizational adaptation from
  local - to national - to state - to today.
• The difficulties of representing a generational
  problem of global and local scale.
• Adapting movement values for survival
• The short-term socioeconomic-oriented society

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About the Author Comments Criticisms

• Liberal-biased, has an agenda
• Inaccurate predictions
• Great Man, Great Organization historic
  perspective
• Overly simplistic responses to criticisms of
  environmental organizations

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ACTIVITYA Timeline of Environmental Advocacy