Belonging Begins Here

• We commit to treating every person with recognition of their inherent dignity. We commit to transforming our world. For some of us, that is rooted in our belief in the transformative power of the Divine and our deep desire as human beings to co-create a new world with the Divine. For others, it is our deeply held values for a more just world.  

• We believe that we can only achieve as much justice as we have the power to compel. We believe that our power begins in the grounding of our faith and is then manifested through our relationships.  For this reason, good organizing work must be rooted in our local communities. Therefore, we center the development of local organizations to be as powerful as possible, and capable of shaping decisions and narratives affecting our families and communities. Our driving purpose is to build the power of local federations, by ensuring the strong organizational health of our affiliates through operations, human resources, communications, and data infrastructure support, as needed. This builds the power of the statewide collective as a whole.

By democratic power we mean an organization that at its core finds its direction and strategy through a process of active members co-creating and determining our steps.  We do not practice complete consensus, but instead focus on ensuring that all voices are heard and that when a decision is made, the group has decided collectively through a majority.    

• Our organizing is about people, and we understand that our own liberation and healing is tied to the liberation and healing of everyone. We focus on the work of building relationships and engaging in the formation, healing and liberation of ourselves and our community leaders.  We seek to build an organizing culture where people are constantly being invited and encouraged to cross bridges to their own power and to public power.

• We aim to build organizations and communities that truly see and love each other across lines of race, place, class, gender, immigration, religion, culture, and anything else that keeps us from recognizing the divine in each other. We believe that addressing and healing racism in all its forms – along with any other form of “othering” – is absolutely crucial to the work of liberation and building our collective power.

• Local power organizations aligned around liberation and power can shape a trans-local vision and create a plan for building prophetic power. We believe our collaborative work can develop local leadership and leverage greater victories for our families and communities. 

•  We believe that people should have a say in the decisions that shape their lives. And we believe that in order for people to feel like authentic architects of a shared future, both power and accountability must be shared broadly. We aim to build a culture of co-ownership and democratic-decision making combined with mutual accountability.

•  We recognize that a chain is only as strong as its weakest link. To be as powerful as we want to be, we must ensure that each member affiliate is as strong and powerful as it needs to be. 

Affiliates agree to fully participate in key network spaces focused on relationship building and collective negotiation to shape the direction, culture and strategy of the MCAN network. Overall expectations include, but are not limited to:

• All new affiliate staff take part in School Of Prophetic Action training, either locally or by attending another affiliate’s training. 

• Affiliates raise disagreements within the network, to be transparent about divergent strategies, and to take no action that directly undermines other affiliates and/or the network as a whole. 

• Affiliates uphold collective agreements. (i.e. affiliate members shouldn’t join another network without agreement from the network wide team)

• Affiliates have a responsibility to support collectively decided upon statewide issues that MCAN affiliates select. The process will be led by affiliate grassroots leaders in a room together to determine MCAN statewide fights. Campaign expectations are decided collectively by those leaders. 

• Affiliate directors will support the network in accomplishing its mandate and adapting to the needs and changing environment of organizing by actively engaging in both problem solving as well as collective action.

• Each affiliate director shall act as an MCAN leader, not only an affiliate leader, by sharing with the network as a whole their expertise, knowledge, know-how and perspective gained through their organizational position and lived experience.

• Affiliates will support the development of an MCAN Board by the recruitment of 2 representatives from each affiliate that creates and executes core strategic areas of work in alignment with the network’s priorities. (i.e. policy, communications, research, etc.)

• Affiliate organizations will attend and support MCAN’s annual fundraiser, and other collectively held funder events or donor relationship building meetings.

• Affiliates agree to use the network’s top line guidance on campaign messaging (as developed together) and to share relevant information (to the degree possible). When affiliates are not able to use the agreed upon messaging, they will communicate with the network about why and agree not to act in ways that publicly harm the overall campaign.

• Affiliates will implement a shared narrative identifying local work in the context of the statewide network, MCAN, in meetings and public communications including, but not limited to, social media posts and press releases. By affiliates publicly naming inclusion within the network we are building both local and statewide power. 

• Affiliates will demonstrate a clear understanding of networkprinciples, goals and the difference between the network and MCAN central team. Much of this is included in this document. A theory of change document is being written by MCAN central staff and will be provided to the entire network for review

• Each affiliate will have a director attend MCAN Director meetings and take responsibility for integrating and influencing the network’s overall strategy and coordination. If a local affiliate has a two-director structure, affiliates will ensure at least one of their directors is in attendance.

• Affiliate directors will engage in meetings and work between meetings. This includes follow-up conversations and action steps to advance concrete collaborative work. Examples of both meetings and necessary action steps include, but are not limited to:

  • Monthly in-person director team meetings; bi-monthly network staff development sessions; grassroots leader assemblies and trainings; staff retreats or other elements of the undoing racism/culture change process 

  • Identifying MCAN board members

  • Participate in the building of a regional and statewide power analysis

• Staff, boards, and grassroots leaders hold each other accountable to commitments and the covenant made with each other as a network. 

  • Each affiliate takes responsibility for communicating with MCAN central’s directors when support is needed or the affiliate is no longer able to meet agreed upon expectations. 

• Affiliate directors take responsibility for communicating important MCAN network information and changes with their bases.

• We believe that a “chain is only as strong as its weakest link”. For that reason, affiliates commit to proper financial tracking and reporting (including the development of yearly budgets and ongoing cash flow statements) and tax filing (including annual 990s and audits or independent financial reviews) as well as to sharing those documents with other affiliate members. As soon as an affiliate recognizes support is needed, affiliate directors agree to reach out to MCAN central’s staff or other affiliate directors. 

As a means to support our collective power, responsibilities that are shared across the entire MCAN network, meaning at both the statewide and affiliate level, include:

• A commitment to agreed upon meetings, trainings and collective action dates as well as tracking them.

• A commitment to our yeses - meaning that when we say yes, we follow through to completion.

• All grassroots leaders and staff have individual work plans that are clear and rooted in building power. These plans are a part of a larger strategic organizational work plan.

• Staff across the network commit to responding to emails, calls and texts from other network staff, leaders, staff, and board members within 48-72 hours. 

• Across the network, we commit to holding each other accountable through loving agitation and clear agreements. This includes acknowledging when harm or broken commitments have occurred. That acknowledgement should happen both individually when appropriate and collectively if the harm occurs in a group setting. As a network, we are committed to holding each other accountable and do not expect the MCAN central staff team to take this responsibility. We are also committed to establishing formal accountability practices which are restorative and rooted in love.

• Staff and grassroots leaders initiate requests for needed support/training, rather than waiting for someone else to offer.

• Directors and staff must ensure that proper documentation and data tracking is done of impact and outcomes.

MCAN central refers to the centralized network staff team at the state level. The driving purpose of MCAN central staff and resources is to build the power of local affiliates and the power of the statewide collective as a whole. To this end, MCAN central staff agrees to work with each local affiliate’s staff and board, the MCAN board, and the MCAN co-executive directors to determine the primary needs of each affiliate, as well as the network as a whole, and how we can negotiate and use our collective resources to achieve our common purpose. Key areas that MCAN affiliate directors have identified as important to local and state power-building include

General Obligations for MCAN Central:

• Producing top line messaging guidance and communications materials related to campaigns and the public narratives we seek to shift. This will enable affiliates to adapt their communications to meet local needs in order to build power both locally and statewide.

• Assisting with fundraising, including both direct fundraising in coordination with affiliates and collective fundraising opportunities and strategies as a network. (both foundation and individual donor work)

• Identifying and sharing professional development opportunities outside of the MCAN Network and when possible offering funding support.

• Ensuring MCAN meetings are convened and well facilitated and the meeting content and execution is in alignment with the network’s purpose, values, directions, and operating agreements.

• Providing collegial/coaching support, including but not limited to in-person director meetings, statewide staff development sessions, regular consulting with local directors, staff, board members, or grassroots leaders, etc.

• Facilitating an understanding of and opportunities to engage with Faith In Action, nationally.

• Fostering a culture of celebration and honoring of network staff. 

• Facilitating an internal culture change process, including the work of undoing racism, that helps us create and live into new norms. These new organizational norms should embody the joint beliefs and values outlined above. 

• Hosting regular training for affiliate leadership base to ensure broad understanding of the role and goal of MCAN as a statewide network.

• Building a shared culture and calendar of statewide leadership development training for organizers and grassroots leaders which integrates local/state power-building through organizing.

• Building a shared political analysis and long-term strategic pathway to achieve our ultimate purpose of liberation for all and the statewide power to achieve it. This includes deepening MCAN’s shared analysis of all those acting in the wider movement for racial and economic justice to identify where, as a state, there is capacity, where capacity must be grown, where more coordination is needed, and where critical gaps exist. As a network, we will begin to fill identified critical gaps together.

• Coordinating statewide campaign development through the development of a core of affiliate grassroots leaders at a state level.