Polling Strategy to Reset a Short-Session Narrative
Organizing Manager, Sierra Club Oregon Chapter
Strengthening Coalition Coordination and Public Engagement for a First-in-the-Nation Climate Justice Initiative
Challenge
During the first funding cycle of the Portland Clean Energy Fund (PCEF)—a nationally recognized climate justice initiative generating more than $8.6 million in early grant opportunities—the coalition faced a significant communications and coordination challenge. Many frontline organizations and small businesses had limited awareness of the grant cycle, lacked clear guidance on eligibility, or struggled to navigate the application process.
At the same time, the PCEF coalition—including environmental justice groups, labor unions, and community-based organizations—needed stronger internal alignment to ensure that outreach efforts were accessible, multilingual, and equity-centered. Without a more cohesive strategy, the risk was clear: frontline communities could be left out of a groundbreaking climate investment intended specifically for them.
Solution
As the Sierra Club’s lead for PCEF coalition outreach, I helped build and implement a comprehensive, multilingual public education strategy rooted in environmental justice principles.
My work included:
Conducting one-on-one meetings with coalition partners to identify gaps in awareness, barriers to access, and the unique needs of culturally specific organizations.
Chairing and coordinating the coalition’s outreach workgroup, ensuring alignment across partners, establishing shared outreach goals, and creating systems to streamline communications.
Developing multilingual outreach materials—Spanish, Vietnamese, Russian, Polish, and Chinese—to ensure communities most impacted by climate and economic inequities had equal access to information.
Launching a Speakers Bureau, training volunteers and coalition partners to present PCEF grant information to nonprofits, faith communities, mutual aid groups, and small businesses.
Driving turnout to six informational webinars hosted by the PCEF committee, increasing first-time participation among organizations that had never engaged in climate funding before.
The effort blended coalition leadership, climate justice communications, and strategic outreach to build the early foundation for community trust and equitable access.
Results
The outreach strategy significantly expanded public awareness, multilingual access, and coalition capacity during PCEF’s first grant cycle. Dozens of frontline organizations that had never participated in climate funding processes gained new understanding of eligibility, application steps, and opportunities for long-term participation.
This work strengthened the implementation of one of the nation’s first large-scale climate justice funds, helping ensure that communities historically excluded from environmental investments could meaningfully access early grant opportunities. The coalition’s coordinated, multilingual outreach also set a precedent for future cycles—establishing PCEF as a model for equitable climate policy, community-driven investment, and transparent public engagement.
FAQs
How do you build effective coalition structures for climate or social-justice initiatives?
I focus on alignment, clarity, and shared purpose. Coalitions often struggle with fragmented communication, so I build systems, workgroups, and relationship-driven structures that allow partners to collaborate smoothly, share responsibility, and sustain momentum over time.
What makes multilingual outreach essential for climate and community funding programs?
Climate investments often fail unless communities most impacted by environmental injustice can access them. Multilingual materials, culturally informed messaging, and deliberate outreach ensure equity is built into the process, not added as an afterthought.
How do you get hard-to-reach or historically excluded groups to participate in public funding programs?
The key is trust. I use targeted relationship-building, partnerships with culturally specific organizations, accessible materials, and hands-on guidance (like Speakers Bureaus and community presentations) to bring people into processes that were not originally designed with them in mind.
Why is a centralized outreach strategy important for multi-organizational coalitions?
Without coordination, organizations duplicate effort, send mixed messages, or unintentionally leave gaps. I create shared plans, templates, and communication structures so every partner can contribute effectively while reinforcing the same core narrative.
How do you measure outreach success ?
Success includes increased awareness, higher engagement rates, multilingual participation, more equitable applicant pools, and stronger trust between community groups and public institutions. I build mechanisms to track these outcomes throughout the outreach cycle.
Can this type of outreach model be applied to non-climate programs?
Absolutely. The same strategies—multilingual education, accessible messaging, coalition alignment, and equity-centered outreach—apply to any initiative where communities need clear, trustworthy pathways into government programs or public funding.