Intro
Greenpeace’s new volunteer teams and opportunities are here — just in time for the 2020 election.
We hope to keep growing and expanding our impact, from calling on Congress, to holding corporations responsible for polluting our communities and ecosystems.
Below is everything you need to volunteer with Greenpeace!
Watch
Volunteer Teams
Already know which team you’re interested in? Great! Sign up with the links below. If you want more information on Greenpeace’s volunteer teams, please scroll down to read more.
Text Team
Call Team
Greenpeace Unidxs
Why Now and Why the Election
Freedom Fighter Philomena Wankenge holds her hand in the air during a rally on Capitol Hill as activists lay face down for more than eight minutes symbolizing the amount of time George Floyd was pinned under the knee of a former police officer in Minneapolis when he was killed.
Why Now
We have less than 35 days until the general election this November. We know the 2020 election is critical in setting the stage for the political fight to pass a Green New Deal — and to MAKE SURE we vote Trump out of office in November.
We also know that in 2016 — over 10 million environmentalists didn’t vote in the general election. We cannot have that happen again in 2021. That is why we are scaling up our national volunteer program that will help us win in 2020, and build power that we will use to fight for change in 2021 and beyond.
One of the best ways to get folks out to vote is to talk to them; to have conversations, tell our stories, and make sure folks have everything they need they need to vote.
Why the Election
Greenpeace’s volunteer efforts will be focusing on voter contact. Specifically, focusing on people who are registered to vote, care about the environment, but haven’t been voting recently. We’ll focus on key states that will help set us up for the best possible chance to win something like a Green New Deal next year.
Volunteers will have conversations to see who will most likely vote with the climate in mind — so as we get closer to November, we know who to focus on when we are getting out the vote. We’ll make sure they have everything they need to vote — that they are registered, are able to vote by mail if they need too, and have a plan to vote.
Importantly, we know that across the country, there’s a massive effort underway to keep Black and Brown people from the polls. Voter suppression isn’t a new tactic, but in 2020, it’s being pushed by politicians who want power at any cost. And now, with COVID-19, it’s going to be even worse. So we’ll be working to protect the right to vote too, in ways like re-registering folks who’ve been purged from the voter file and working with our partners.
Through every conversation volunteers have — We will be able to recruit even more volunteers for this movement. Meaning everytime we talk with someone, that could lead to thousands of people being contacted in the future by a new volunteer. We are going to win this through people power!
Our Goal
Supporter Mobilization has a BIG GOAL: to contact 2 MILLION people. That’s a big number but we can do it — we have the tools, the passion, and the people power to do it. If we can contact our slice of environmental voters — we can get them out to vote.
No matter who wins up and down the ballot, we will fight like never before for climate justice. But we need to show up now — this is our chance to choose who we’ll be going up against in 2021. The movement we’re building today around the election will be fighting for a Green New Deal next year. It will be fighting for climate justice in impacted communities. It will be fighting against the Fossil Fuel industry and for just recovery from COVID-19.
Volunteer Opportunities
There are so many ways to reach out to potential voters — and so many ways to volunteer. Each of the teams is essential to our work — and are going to continue fighting for our climate into 2021.
In 2016, 26 million Latinx voters were eligible to cast a ballot, but only 10 million did — and 65% of them voted for Hillary Clinton’s environmental platform. At this moment there are 32 million Latinx voters that are eligible to participate in the November 2020 election.
Greenpeace is stepping up to mobilize Latinos and Spanish speakers because our communities must come together and take a stand against environmental racism — since at the moment pollution is affecting our communities harder than any other, 2 in 5 Latinos live within 30 miles of a power plant.
The Trump administration has waived 41 environmental, natural resource, and land management laws in order to pursue its infamous border wall.
According to a new poll by Latino Decisions, out of those Latinxs planning to vote, we can expect a small portion of Latinxs to vote for Trump, so more Latinxs voting = bad news for Trump and his terrible, racist, anti-environmental policies. The time to take action and achieve the largest Latinx turnout possible is now.
The time is perfect to start engaging the Latinx community and Greenpeace is actively campaigning for this effort by seeking Latinxs and Spanish speakers among our volunteers to reach this crucial group of people, meet them where they are, talk about their concerns and priorities as it relates to environmental justice, and mobilize them towards the polls.
If you are wondering how you can support this effort:
- Do you speak Spanish? If so, join us!
- Do you want to talk about the injustices in your community? If so, join us!
- Do you want to help recruit volunteers, identify voters and organize. If so, join us!
Our team Greenpeace Unidxs, will be working on three tactics: text-banking, phone-banking, and organizing voices to share their personal stories around environmental injustices.
Our call team is an exciting new program we are building out right now.
A strong and involved democracy is vital to a healthy environment, and live person-to-person conversations are the most effective way to motivate people to take action. Talking with supporters lets us get strong commitments to vote, help them overcome obstacles, and lets us get volunteers more deeply engaged to build the strong distributed teams we will need to continue mobilizing beyond the election.
This team joins our weekly phonebanking sessions in partnership with Flip The West to contact voters in key states and support them in showing up for this election. These high-energy phonebanking sessions involve trainings and guest speakers.
This is great for volunteers who want to make a big impact in this election by motivating, communicating with, and mobilizing communities in key states.
The Advanced Call Team
These advanced callers do more in-depth outreach and confirmation with Greenpeace volunteers matches volunteers to opportunities and has 1:1 conversations to develop leaders. This is a great leadership opportunity. Because this team requires a more consistent time commitment and extra training, we ask folks to go through a short application process that becomes available once you sign up for the call team. If you’re ready to take your volunteering to the next level and help other volunteers get started, this is a good team for you! Sign up for the advanced call team here.
If you want to make a big impact on this election and have meaningful conversations with voters and volunteers across the country, sign up for the call team!
Our texting team has been working together to reach out to Greenpeace supporters for a while now asking them to help out with our various fights — anywhere from asking supporters to make a call to their representatives, attending events (pre COVID-19), or amplifying messaging online. Now we’re pivoting toward voter outreach for the election.
Texting voters and making sure they have the information and resources to cast their ballot for climate leaders is one of the most effective ways to have an impact on the election — especially in these times. Through our web-based texting tool, you are able to message hundreds of people an hour and have constructive conversations about environmental issues and the impact the election will have on them. You’ll easily be able to get support from staff and volunteer leaders in our Slack channel, and be part of a family of hundreds of fellow environmentalists who are fighting together for a Green New Deal and a fossil-free future. Sign up for the text team!
Stay in the loop and Join future calls
- Check out our other volunteer calls — including team trainings and the 2020 leader training series — in our volunteer event calendar!
- Join our Greenpeace slack to talk with other Greenpeace volunteers, ask questions and be the first to hear about new opportunities to take action.
- Weren’t able to make the call that launched this program? Check out the slides.
Thank you for coming along on this journey with us!
Supporter Mobilization (SupMob) Team at Greenpeace USA
Got any questions?
Greenpeace’s Supporter Mobilization Staff Photo September 2020
If you have any questions or run into any issues, reach out to the Supporter Mobilization Team at [email protected]