Action Network & Action Builder with Martha Grant

Martha Grant, Director of Product Strategy at Action Network and Action Builder, joins the show to talk about her path from campaign data apprentice to leading product for two of the labor and progressive movement's key organizing tools. She traces her start at an NOI (now Repower) data boot camp, five years doing data and tech work at AFSCME, and how that experience shaped her approach to building Action Builder in partnership with the AFL-CIO.

Martha breaks down the difference between the two tool sets: Action Network is a digital mobilization platform built for large-scale distributed actions and easy petition/email signups, while Action Builder is an organizing and relationship-tracking tool built around the "wall chart" concept familiar to labor organizers — a person-centered, color-coded way of visualizing where leaders, supporters, and undecideds stand across a campaign. She explains how the tool links user accounts directly to the people records organizers manage, keeps a free-form note on every contact, and is flexible enough to be repurposed for power-mapping employers, legislators, or other targets rather than just individual organizers.

The conversation also covers accessibility and pricing (free for AFL-CIO affiliates, sliding-scale pricing for other organizations, and always-free activist accounts), stories of small community groups moving from paper post-it maps to digital dashboards, and an upcoming "activity stream" feature for tracking campaign activity in real time. Martha closes with a reflection on staying hopeful and grounded in the day-to-day work of organizing, even amid difficult political news cycles.

Where to learn more: actionnetwork.org and actionbuilder.org 

SHOW NOTES

There were a few list serves that Martha mentioned at the top of the show, I’ve linked to them below, you may need to request access to enter them.

Data Ladies Alliance

Progress Files

Data Diversity

re:Power: New name with a long legacy, repower was previously Wellstone Action and absorbed into Wellstone Action was NOI (new organizing institute). Repower has a lot of great trainings and resources and Martha mentioned some of their data trainings as how she got started in data (back when it was under NOI).

Action Builder: Action builder was the toolset that Martha was talking about that was more about mapping relationships or could even potentially be used for power mapping.

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