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Fisher’s Principles of
Community Organizing



  1. Organizing cuts across the political spectrum.
  2. Organizing develops in a specific historical and political context.
  3. There is a dialectical relationship between local organizations, national politics, and nationwide social movements.
  4. Organizing must extend beyond the local level.
  5. Organizing must be built on more than materials rewards and incentives.
  6. Organizing must create and sustain a galvanizing vision rooted in people’s lives and traditions.
  7. Organizing requires a gentle balance between organizing, leading, and educating.
  8. Political education must be part of organizing.
  9. Success must be measured by both tangible and intangible results.
  10. Organizing must be committed to developing the knowledge, dignity, and self-confidence of the community. They must see themselves as part of a larger cause.




“Through organizing, people begin to rediscover themselves. They find out who they are, where they came from, their background, their history, their roots, their culture. They rediscover things in their family, their gender, their class, their ethnic or language group, their race that give them strength. They rediscover their own history of struggle and resistance…In organizing…we relearn the skills of cooperation, of collective action, or working together, of supporting each other. In this knowledge and this experience is the beginning of real power for people.”



—a former client
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