Public Interest Research Groups
Encyclopedia
The US Public Interest Research Group (also known as PIRG) is a political lobby non-profit organization
in the United States and Canada, composed of self-governing affiliates at the state and province level. Its fundraising arm is the Fund for Public Interest Research
("the Fund"). It is known to be one of the more prestigious non-profit lobbyist organizations amongst young professionals, having been founded by consumer advocate Ralph Nader
, and having once employed President Barack Obama
.
"U.S. PIRG is an advocate for the public interest. When consumers are cheated, or the voices of ordinary citizens are drowned out by special interest lobbyists, U.S. PIRG speaks up and takes action. We uncover threats to public health and well-being and fight to end them, using the time-tested tools of investigative research, media exposés, grassroots organizing, advocacy and litigation. U.S. PIRG's mission is to deliver persistent, result-oriented public interest activism that protects our health, encourages a fair, sustainable economy, and fosters responsive, democratic government".
in Washington, D.C. and was much different from the modern conception of PIRG. The State PIRGs emerged in the early 1970s on college campuses across the country.
MPIRG (Minnesota) was the first state PIRG to incorporate (on February 17, 1971), and today is one of the few to remain independent from USPIRG and the Fund. Following the lead of Minnesota, students in Oregon (OSPIRG) and then Massachusetts (MASSPIRG), and finally many other states and Canadian provinces incorporated chapters of PIRG. The PIRGs are responsible for many of the Bottle Bills (container-deposit legislation) across the country.
After students organized on college campuses for nearly 10 years, the different State PIRGs established the D.C. arm—U.S. PIRG—to advocate for change on the national level. Nearly simultaneously, the PIRGs founded the Fund For Public Interest Research (FFPIR), the fundraising and citizen outreach arm of the PIRGs. The Fund hires canvassers to go door-to-door or stand on street corners and fundraise for their respective organizations by signing up members and collecting donations (or membership dues). There are roughly 60 Fund canvass offices across the country.
The citizen membership of the PIRGs is largely built through fund raising door-to-door, or in high-traffic public areas. The Fund for Public Interest Research Group, the national canvassing organization created by the State PIRGs, works to build membership for several other national non-profit lobby groups, including: the State PIRGs, the State Environment groups, the Human Rights Campaign
and the Sierra Club
. Canvassers are often college students during the summer when the canvass operation is expanded, while canvassers generally have a more varied background in the few cities where there is a canvass during the non-summer months. Canvass offices vary drastically in size depending on location and time of year with the largest having between 75 and 100 employees during summer months.
The Fund and the telemarketing centers operate on behalf of all of the state PIRG and Environment groups (excepting MPIRG NHPIRG and NYPIRG). There are currently three telemarketing locations (Portland OR, Boston, MA and Sacramento, CA with the Los Angeles, CA telemarketing center having been shut down following a labor dispute). These call centers have a fluid workforce similar to the door and street canvass.
Finally, the individual state PIRGs apply for and receive grants from a variety of different non-profit foundations, along with receiving disbursals of funding from grants received federally. PIRGs avoid any funding directly from corporations, believing such funding would restrict their autonomy.
There is currently a unionizing effort with CWA local 7901 being carried out by the Portland telephone fundraisers. The union vote was held on October 11th and 12th, 2011 with a passing vote of 19-5.
by Columbia University
sociologist Dana Fisher, is based on an ethnographic study she did in a stratified random sample of Fund canvass offices during the summer of 2003. Fisher charges the corporatized fundraising model (of which the Fund is an example) with mistreating idealistic young people by using them as interchangeable parts and providing them with insufficient training; Fisher also believes that the outsourcing of grassroots organizing by groups like the Sierra Club and Greenpeace
to organizations like the Fund has led to the decay of grassroots infrastructure and opportunities for involvement on the left.
The Fund has created a website, Canvassing Works, to respond to some of the criticisms raised by the book. The site includes testimony by former Fund staff who have moved into leading roles in other progressive organizations and other progressive leaders, including U.S. Representative Jan Schakowsky
(D-IL), Sierra Club Executive Director Carl Pope
, Dr. Woody Holton
(Associate Professor of American history at the University of Richmond
), and Randy Hayes of the Rainforest Action Network
.
, the Toxics Action Center, Environmental Action, the National Environmental Law Center, Earth Tones, and the State Environment Groups. These groups remain affiliated with varying degrees of closeness. However, at least two PIRGs remain autonomous operations; MPIRG
(Minnesota PIRG) and NYPIRG, the latter supporting activities of U.S. PIRG while maintaing its independence and its governence by its student board.
The organization that encompasses all PIRG, "Environment," and spin-off groups is known as PIN, or the Public Interest Network. This larger, umbrella organization plays a coordinating role.
The highest-profile PIRGs are MPIRG
(Minnesota PIRG), CALPIRG (California PIRG), MASSPIRG (Massachusetts PIRG), NYPIRG (New York PIRG), and OSPIRG (Oregon State PIRG). Outside the United States, PIRGs can also be found in Canadian provinces
, such as the Ontario Public Interest Research Group
, the Alberta Public Interest Research Group (APIRG) and the Nova Scotia Public Interest Research Group
. For a more complete list of PIRGs in Canada see pirg.ca . Canadian PIRGs operate on a different model than U.S. PIRGs. Canadian PIRGs are student run and the majority of their funding comes directly from students. Most, if not all, Canadian PIRG's operate on a consensus decision making model. Canadian PIRGs are independent of each other although some efforts have been made towards collaboration.
Non-profit organization
Nonprofit organization is neither a legal nor technical definition but generally refers to an organization that uses surplus revenues to achieve its goals, rather than distributing them as profit or dividends...
in the United States and Canada, composed of self-governing affiliates at the state and province level. Its fundraising arm is the Fund for Public Interest Research
Fund for Public Interest Research
The Fund for the Public Interest is a 501 non-profit organization that runs the public fundraising and membership operations canvassing for several political nonprofit organizations...
("the Fund"). It is known to be one of the more prestigious non-profit lobbyist organizations amongst young professionals, having been founded by consumer advocate Ralph Nader
Ralph Nader
Ralph Nader is an American political activist, as well as an author, lecturer, and attorney. Areas of particular concern to Nader include consumer protection, humanitarianism, environmentalism, and democratic government....
, and having once employed President Barack Obama
Barack Obama
Barack Hussein Obama II is the 44th and current President of the United States. He is the first African American to hold the office. Obama previously served as a United States Senator from Illinois, from January 2005 until he resigned following his victory in the 2008 presidential election.Born in...
.
Mission statement
U.S. PIRG is the National lobbying and grassroots arm of the State PIRGs, a Federation of Statewide Non-Profit, Non-Partisan public interest advocacy organizations."U.S. PIRG is an advocate for the public interest. When consumers are cheated, or the voices of ordinary citizens are drowned out by special interest lobbyists, U.S. PIRG speaks up and takes action. We uncover threats to public health and well-being and fight to end them, using the time-tested tools of investigative research, media exposés, grassroots organizing, advocacy and litigation. U.S. PIRG's mission is to deliver persistent, result-oriented public interest activism that protects our health, encourages a fair, sustainable economy, and fosters responsive, democratic government".
History
The first PIRG was a public interest law firm started by Ralph NaderRalph Nader
Ralph Nader is an American political activist, as well as an author, lecturer, and attorney. Areas of particular concern to Nader include consumer protection, humanitarianism, environmentalism, and democratic government....
in Washington, D.C. and was much different from the modern conception of PIRG. The State PIRGs emerged in the early 1970s on college campuses across the country.
MPIRG (Minnesota) was the first state PIRG to incorporate (on February 17, 1971), and today is one of the few to remain independent from USPIRG and the Fund. Following the lead of Minnesota, students in Oregon (OSPIRG) and then Massachusetts (MASSPIRG), and finally many other states and Canadian provinces incorporated chapters of PIRG. The PIRGs are responsible for many of the Bottle Bills (container-deposit legislation) across the country.
After students organized on college campuses for nearly 10 years, the different State PIRGs established the D.C. arm—U.S. PIRG—to advocate for change on the national level. Nearly simultaneously, the PIRGs founded the Fund For Public Interest Research (FFPIR), the fundraising and citizen outreach arm of the PIRGs. The Fund hires canvassers to go door-to-door or stand on street corners and fundraise for their respective organizations by signing up members and collecting donations (or membership dues). There are roughly 60 Fund canvass offices across the country.
Funding
Student PIRG chapters are typically funded through either a waiveable or a mandatory student fee assessed to each student at the college or university. However, this funding system is controversial due to the political nature of PIRG work. Nationally there were several attempts to remove the PIRG chapters from college campuses, with several being removed, several being retained by majority vote of the student bodies, and many student PIRG chapters reinstated on the contingency that they would solicit their funds directly from individual students rather than by addenda to tuition. Student fees are used only to support Students PIRG chapters.Fund for Public Interest Research
State PIRGs are funded through three sources: door and street canvass revenues, tele-marketing revenues, and grant funding.The citizen membership of the PIRGs is largely built through fund raising door-to-door, or in high-traffic public areas. The Fund for Public Interest Research Group, the national canvassing organization created by the State PIRGs, works to build membership for several other national non-profit lobby groups, including: the State PIRGs, the State Environment groups, the Human Rights Campaign
Human Rights Campaign
The Human Rights Campaign is the United States' largest LGBT advocacy group and lobbying organization; according to the HRC, it has more than one million members and supporters...
and the Sierra Club
Sierra Club
The Sierra Club is the oldest, largest, and most influential grassroots environmental organization in the United States. It was founded on May 28, 1892, in San Francisco, California, by the conservationist and preservationist John Muir, who became its first president...
. Canvassers are often college students during the summer when the canvass operation is expanded, while canvassers generally have a more varied background in the few cities where there is a canvass during the non-summer months. Canvass offices vary drastically in size depending on location and time of year with the largest having between 75 and 100 employees during summer months.
The Fund and the telemarketing centers operate on behalf of all of the state PIRG and Environment groups (excepting MPIRG NHPIRG and NYPIRG). There are currently three telemarketing locations (Portland OR, Boston, MA and Sacramento, CA with the Los Angeles, CA telemarketing center having been shut down following a labor dispute). These call centers have a fluid workforce similar to the door and street canvass.
Finally, the individual state PIRGs apply for and receive grants from a variety of different non-profit foundations, along with receiving disbursals of funding from grants received federally. PIRGs avoid any funding directly from corporations, believing such funding would restrict their autonomy.
Labor
There have been labor issues surrounding student funding as well as street canvassing and tele-fundraising. Attempts have been made by campus staff, telephone outreach staff, and canvass staff to unionize. Each of these efforts have been successfully stopped by the PIRGs. Former employees allege that they were paid below minimum wage and required to work more than a 40 hour work week. PIRG does not dispute this, arguing that they are exempt from paying canvassers minimum wage. There is currently a class action lawsuit from former canvassers regarding this issue. As a a result of the on-going lawsuit Fund for Public Interest Research now pays it's canvassers a minimum wage hourly base pay in addition to any incentive pay they might earn from fundraising.There is currently a unionizing effort with CWA local 7901 being carried out by the Portland telephone fundraisers. The union vote was held on October 11th and 12th, 2011 with a passing vote of 19-5.
Criticism
The book Activism, Inc: How the Outsourcing of Grassroots Campaigns Is Strangling Progressive Politics in AmericaActivism, Inc.
Activism, Inc.: How the Outsourcing of Grassroots Campaigns Is Strangling Progressive Politics in America is a book by Columbia University sociologist Dana Fisher, based on an ethnographic study of Fund for Public Interest Research canvass offices during the summer of 2003...
by Columbia University
Columbia University
Columbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...
sociologist Dana Fisher, is based on an ethnographic study she did in a stratified random sample of Fund canvass offices during the summer of 2003. Fisher charges the corporatized fundraising model (of which the Fund is an example) with mistreating idealistic young people by using them as interchangeable parts and providing them with insufficient training; Fisher also believes that the outsourcing of grassroots organizing by groups like the Sierra Club and Greenpeace
Greenpeace
Greenpeace is a non-governmental environmental organization with offices in over forty countries and with an international coordinating body in Amsterdam, The Netherlands...
to organizations like the Fund has led to the decay of grassroots infrastructure and opportunities for involvement on the left.
The Fund has created a website, Canvassing Works, to respond to some of the criticisms raised by the book. The site includes testimony by former Fund staff who have moved into leading roles in other progressive organizations and other progressive leaders, including U.S. Representative Jan Schakowsky
Jan Schakowsky
Janice D. "Jan" Schakowsky is the U.S. Representative for , serving since 1999. She is a member of the Democratic Party.The district includes many of Chicago's northern suburbs, including Evanston, Skokie, Wilmette, Park Ridge, Des Plaines and Rosemont...
(D-IL), Sierra Club Executive Director Carl Pope
Carl Pope
Carl Pope is the former Executive Director of the Sierra Club, an American environmental organization founded by conservationist John Muir in 1892. Pope was appointed to his position as Executive Director in 1992, and served until January 20, 2010, when he was succeeded by Michael Brune...
, Dr. Woody Holton
Woody Holton
Abner Linwood "Woody" Holton, III is an Associate Professor of History at the University of Richmond in Virginia and is a member of the Richmond Research Institute.-Life:He is a graduate of the University of Virginia and received his PhD from Duke University....
(Associate Professor of American history at the University of Richmond
University of Richmond
The University of Richmond is a selective, private, nonsectarian, liberal arts university located on the border of the city of Richmond and Henrico County, Virginia. The University of Richmond is a primarily undergraduate, residential university with approximately 4,000 undergraduate and graduate...
), and Randy Hayes of the Rainforest Action Network
Rainforest Action Network
Rainforest Action Network is an environmental organization based in San Francisco, California, USA. The organization was founded by Randy "Hurricane" Hayes and Mike Roselle in 1985, with the financial help of Fund for Wild Nature....
.
State (and other) PIRGs
Some State PIRGs are independent state-based lobby groups, but the vast majority belong to a federal network known as U.S. PIRG. The state PIRGs have also been responsible for creating a number of other public interest non-profits including, but not limited to, Green CorpsGreen Corps
Green Corps, the field school for environmental organizing, is a non-profit organization that trains future environmental and social change activists. In its year-long, paid program, 35 recent college graduates go through a program involving direct field work on critical environmental campaigns...
, the Toxics Action Center, Environmental Action, the National Environmental Law Center, Earth Tones, and the State Environment Groups. These groups remain affiliated with varying degrees of closeness. However, at least two PIRGs remain autonomous operations; MPIRG
Minnesota Public Interest Research Group
The Minnesota Public Interest Research Group describes itself as "a grassroots, non-partisan, nonprofit, student-directed organization that empowers and trains students and engages the community to take collective action in the public interest throughout the state of Minnesota." - History :MPIRG...
(Minnesota PIRG) and NYPIRG, the latter supporting activities of U.S. PIRG while maintaing its independence and its governence by its student board.
The organization that encompasses all PIRG, "Environment," and spin-off groups is known as PIN, or the Public Interest Network. This larger, umbrella organization plays a coordinating role.
The highest-profile PIRGs are MPIRG
Minnesota Public Interest Research Group
The Minnesota Public Interest Research Group describes itself as "a grassroots, non-partisan, nonprofit, student-directed organization that empowers and trains students and engages the community to take collective action in the public interest throughout the state of Minnesota." - History :MPIRG...
(Minnesota PIRG), CALPIRG (California PIRG), MASSPIRG (Massachusetts PIRG), NYPIRG (New York PIRG), and OSPIRG (Oregon State PIRG). Outside the United States, PIRGs can also be found in Canadian provinces
Provinces and territories of Canada
The provinces and territories of Canada combine to make up the world's second-largest country by area. There are ten provinces and three territories...
, such as the Ontario Public Interest Research Group
Ontario Public Interest Research Group
Ontario Public Interest Research Group is a campus-based student activist non-profit organization based in Ontario, Canada.OPIRG is broken into eleven distinct chapters, and serves as a hub organization, allowing the organizing committees of the local chapters to exchange ideas, better educate...
, the Alberta Public Interest Research Group (APIRG) and the Nova Scotia Public Interest Research Group
NSPIRG
NSPIRG is a student activist organization with a focus on environmental and social justice issues. It is funded by students at Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia, and functions as a referendum-mandated society of the Dalhousie Student Union...
. For a more complete list of PIRGs in Canada see pirg.ca . Canadian PIRGs operate on a different model than U.S. PIRGs. Canadian PIRGs are student run and the majority of their funding comes directly from students. Most, if not all, Canadian PIRG's operate on a consensus decision making model. Canadian PIRGs are independent of each other although some efforts have been made towards collaboration.
See also
- Fund for Public Interest ResearchFund for Public Interest ResearchThe Fund for the Public Interest is a 501 non-profit organization that runs the public fundraising and membership operations canvassing for several political nonprofit organizations...
- Grassroots Campaigns, Inc.Grassroots Campaigns, Inc.Grassroots Campaigns is an independent organization that does strategic consulting, fund raising for humanitarian and progressive causes and political organizations. GC employs thousands of workers to solicit donations in neighborhoods and in high-traffic public venues to build support for...
- The California Public Interest Research Group (CALPIRG)