Friends of LittleSis,

As students are heading back to school this month, we wrapped up our summer Research Tools for Organizers series. 

Billionaires, corporations, non-profits—each of these play a critical role in upholding the power structure and profiting from systemic injustice. From May to August we explored how power research helps us better understand these entities and how to challenge them. We had 500 organizer-researchers train with us from various movement backgrounds and over 40 states. 

Historically, power research in movements has served to demystify the corporate playbook, find strategic targets and points of leverage, identify campaignable opportunities, reshape narratives to better inform the public, and find new ways that campaigns and movements are interconnected and can build power together for the long haul.

Across the country, organizers and researchers are working together to fight for what their communities deserve while exposing corporate corruption and continuing to lay the groundwork for generations to come.

In Miami, Florida, organizers with We Count are taking on Swerdlow Group and their proposed redevelopment project by leading efforts to win a Community Benefits Agreement for workers, tenants, and community residents through the Build a Better Miami coalition.

Meanwhile, students with Campus Climate Network utilize every tool at their disposal to uncover their university’s ties to the fossil fuel industry.

In New York, the Make Billionaires Pay campaign led by organizers with New York Communities for Change laid the foundation for the successful fight to “Tax the Rich”.   

Each of these efforts serve as a case study in the use of power research for social movements. We were happy to have each of these organizations share their knowledge and strategies with us at the RTFO training sessions. Find the training recordings and slides here.

Executive Excess 2025, Institute for Policy Studies

“At a time when many American workers are struggling with high costs for groceries and housing, the nation’s largest low-wage employers are fixated on making their overpaid CEOs even richer.”

Power Research for Labor: How Research Advanced the Justice for Janitors Campaign, Maggie Corser, Popular Democracy

J4J’s strategic corporate research secured vital protections for people in janitorial services, looking back on these efforts offers valuable insights for researchers and organizers today.

What the Boss Doesn't Want Us to Know: Discovering Power and Winning Campaigns, Tom Juravich, Olivia Geho, and Andrew Gorry

[What the Boss Doesn’t Want Us to Know] explores how to identify corporate decision-makers, profit centers, growth plans, and secondary targets and the kinds of power that activists can use to beat even global giants.”

The Organizing Center - Fall 2025 Workshops 

• Building A Bigger “We”: Organizing Conversations That Grow Our Movements
• Sept 9th - Sept 30th, Oct 7th - Oct 28th
• Making Absorption Real: How To Bring New People In And Keep Them
• Sept 9th - Oct 1st, Oct 7th - 29th
• Stronger Together: Coalition Practices For Navigating Tension And Disagreement
• Sept 9th - 25th, Oct 7th - 30th

May Day Strong - Find a Labor Day event in your city

Onward,

LittleSis