State Environmental Leadership Program

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What We Do

Organizational Capacity Building
Statewide environmental advocacy organizations are essential in devising environmentally sound laws and policies, and helping to ensure that policies are implemented and enforced. In order to be effective, most groups, whether large or small, need organizational capacity building assistance (e.g. strategic planning, board development, organizational management, etc.). SELP provides group and individual organizational capacity building trainings conducted by renowned trainers and experts from around the country. SELP also coordinates a peer-to-peer mentoring program that matches experienced senior staff members of one organization with those of another who are new to the job or movement, or just seeking alternative organizational management techniques. SELP provides guidance on how to maximize the relationship, subsidizes the mentee's travel, and provides mentors with honorariums.

Annual Conference
Executive Directors and senior staff of SELP member organizations meet annually to share information and develop strategies on how to affect environmental state policy, and to participate in organizational capacity building sessions. They are joined by representatives of foundations, CEOs of various national organizations, and experts on selected environmental policy and organizational issues. Click here to learn more about the conference's history.

SELP's 21st annual conference will be held Wednesday, November 19th through Sunday, November 23rd 2008 at Asilomar State Beach and Conference Grounds in Pacific Grove, CA. The agenda and more detailed information about the conference will be available this summer.

Power Building
In the coming year, SELP will be taking an exciting new direction in our constant drive to help our member groups become even more successful and effective: power building. Possessing power and knowing how to harness that power effectively have always been essential to the success of our work as nonprofits. By helping our members increase their power, we endeavor to make them even more successful in promoting and defending sound state-level environmental policies.

At SELP, our goal is to make state-level environmental advocates more successful, because greater state-level environmental policy successes can be achieved by groups that are strong and effective. As similar, forward thinking environmental policies are instituted throughout different states around the country, they begin to form a critical mass, and reverberate on a national level, ultimately provoking national policy to address the issue. Thus, through power building efforts, SELP member groups will collectively have a greater impact on national policy. SELP's power building efforts will focus on the following:

• Power Assessment. Using a power assessment can help organizations determine who the key players are in a given campaign and whether the organization has the ability to influence them. In 2006, SELP will work to: partner with members to create an initial power map, provide assistance (via SELP staff, consultants or partner groups) in using power maps for existing campaigns, help identify strategic opportunities for building power and identify resources and facilitate procurement of relevant data and tools (e.g. enhanced member lists, voter files, etc).



• Strategic Communications. Communicating effectively and strategically is critical to developing and exerting power. While many organizations have talented and experienced staff, often our communications efforts are not as effective as they could be. SELP will help build on the existing skills by: retaining a communication expert to conduct a needs assessment of members, provide ongoing training to develop staff expertise, and provide direct assistance on campaigns. In addition to working with a communication expert, SELP will also solicit funding that allows members to buy questions on polls, analysis of existing public opinion research, or provide seed money for an organization to hire dedicated communication staff, retain outside communication experts to assist members with selected campaigns, and assist in planning and budgeting to build and incorporate sustained communication capacity within member organizations.



• Base Building The means of power for most environmental activists is people, and for many organizations, building a far-reaching, vocal and dependable base of support can be crucial for its success. Two ways to help build an organization's base of support are via a grassroots mechanism and/or a grass tops mechanism. Properly utilizing these disparate levels of base building can amplify an organization's power to reach a broad audience and enable it to mobilize support from within that audience. In 2006, SELP will help members develop and strengthen its potential on both levels.

Issue Identification, Enhancement and Support
In many instances, SELP members from around the country work on similar issues, and/or against common opponents at the same time. SELP works to identify such efforts and thereby enhance members' effectiveness in promoting positive change at the state level. We work with members and allies to identify particular issues of concern, facilitate strategy meetings which bring together advocates working on similar issues, analyze model state policies, programs and strategies and generally act as a clearinghouse for information. We also have the ability to provide or obtain needed research, and assist with communication strategies in these areas.

Tracking Anti-Environmental Efforts & Entities
SELP staff track entities that are likely to introduce and promote anti-environmental proposals and policies. In the past several years, such entities have worked in concert to weaken environmental regulations and promote polices that negatively affect human health and the environment throughout the country. By keeping an eye on their proposals and rhetoric, our members are better prepared to do their jobs.

Multi-State Campaigns
SELP works to enhance the effectiveness of its member groups' work by overseeing the design, coordination and the implementation of multi-state projects. Particularly in this time of fewer resources, joint efforts make a great deal of sense because they can minimize duplication of effort, and maximize the spread and use of effective strategies. Current multi-state campaigns include our Federal Budget/ Grasstops campaign, Mercury Products campaign and our Energy Efficiency campaign.