What it Takes for Climate Organizations to Motivate People to Act

The climate crisis can feel like an increasingly large and intractable issue, and it also seems like there is ever more conflicting guidance on what to do about it. While different actors or constituencies have different roles in tackling climate change, it can feel especially confusing for an average person parsing out what actions they should take: Turn off your lights, water your lawn less, opt for an EV — but wait, EV batteries are bad for the environment too, so should I go back to gas? — start a compost, install a heat pump, and the list goes on. 

The good news is that hyper-local grassroots climate organizations can play an important role in helping their communities navigate this confusion and ultimately encourage people to take more action. But how do you get there? What is it that you need as an organization to get more people to act? 

It’s important to start by understanding what paralyzes people when it comes to taking climate or sustainability-related actions. 

A major reason is that people simply don’t know how or where to go to do so. There is so much information out there, some of it conflicting or misleading, that it can be difficult to parse out which sustainability measures are worth taking or which are ‘right’ for a specific person or household. And when someone does land on an action they’re hoping to take, there can be so many barriers to actually enacting it. Think about it: Do you know how you would go about installing solar panels on your home? What are the composting options in your town? 

Even for those people who do know where to go or who are willing to go to the lengths of conducting research and figuring it out on their own, this process can be incredibly time-consuming. And in our fast-paced world where every second counts, climate action should be something people can reasonably fit in their daily schedules.

Then there’s the price tag of climate action: Even if someone commits to taking a particular action, upfront costs can be a significant deterrence. The issue of cost can also prevent someone from making the decision to act in the first place – there’s a pervasive perception that going green can cost more, even though this is not always the case. In fact, greener options often incur savings in the long run, but it takes time for those savings to come back to you.

People may also feel like their efforts alone just don’t matter: Why should they incur the extra costs of or take the time to install solar panels or compost when the next-door neighbors blast their AC on high all summer long and overfill their trash bins constantly?

And the final, and perhaps the most pertinent reason, is that taking climate action is just not easy. You’re asking people to make pretty significant behavioral changes that affect their daily habits and routines. 

As a climate organization, you should be prioritizing efforts to overcome these barriers.

Your organization can connect residents with local resources and show people how to take action through creating educational materials, and offering workshops, events, and coaching. Your organization should also aim to be the one-stop shop that people go to when they’re ready to act and have questions about how to make it happen. 

You can also address the problem of time by helping people fit climate action into their day. For instance, you can provide information on curbside or central composting options in your town, or even help people sign up, showing community members that it doesn’t all fall on them.

You can also show people that going green doesn’t have to cost more, and connect them with financial rebates and incentives that lessen costs. 

Finally, climate organizations also have the essential role of bringing community members together to show that there are people who think (and act) like they do — for instance, lines of people at a pollinator kit giveaway can highlight that there are people who care about native butterflies and insects just as much as they do.

Your climate organization should make taking climate action easier for community members. But this clearly takes a lot of work and begs the question: Who is going to do all of this? 

It takes dedicated people — both volunteers and paid staff members. While a strong base of volunteers can form a critical part of your organization, you can’t run an organization with volunteers alone. There are a couple of reasons for that: You need people who are able to stick around long term and retain the know-how and continuity of the organization.

Climate organizations should also be diverse and reflect the demographics of the community it serves, and this is especially true when it comes to age diversity: In order to attract younger people to your organization, you will need paid positions — younger, working-age people generally cannot afford to volunteer a significant amount of time. 

In order to have paid staff, you need funding. Funding can come from many different sources, but these sources all look for certain things when deciding whether to back an organization — funders are looking for organizations that have long-term viability, the ability to show local impact, and a track record of success.

What does it take to have/prove long-term viability? It takes a solid board of directors for governance. It takes a solid business plan and a 3-year budget. It takes strong operational systems and processes. It takes permanent staff. It takes strong local support from the local government, schools, the business community, other local organizations, and the citizens themselves – your organization’s partnerships. 

It may be hard to believe that you really need all this to get people to act. Isn’t there an easier way to do it?

Consider your city or town: What local nonprofits, whether climate-oriented or otherwise, are successful? Which ones have a more limited impact? The difference almost certainly lies in how they are run, or in other words, their structure: Those nonprofits that are run as a business, or which follow a business model structure, have a much higher rate of achieving their goals. How much you can get people to act depends on how well your climate organization is set up.

An organization that is missing some of the pieces mentioned above will only be able to achieve a frustrating start/stop cadence of activity, inhibiting their ability to maximize their impact. By setting a solid structural foundation, your organization can get into a rhythm and generate a nonstop flow of activity. So how can you make sure your organization has a solid structure?

Well, the good news is that you don’t have to create this from scratch. Green Community Catalysts offers a playbook, which you can follow to create your own hyper-local organization based on a vetted business model. The climate organization Green Beverly is an example of what an organization can look like in your community if you follow Green Community Catalysts’ playbook: At one point Green Beverly was just a vague idea in a community, and three years later, it had grown to a fully fledged organization with a $650k annual budget, 24 staff members, and 6 active projects/initiatives that engaged over 4,000 people.

So if you’re a leader of an organization who’s struggling to increase the impact of your organization or someone who wants to do something about climate action but doesn't know how to get started, understanding our model and the importance of running your organization like a business is a good place to start. 

You can learn more by joining us for the free webinar: “What’s Needed to Succeed? Key Elements to Inspire Local Climate Action.”