Our Members

Wisconsin Citizen Action has 70,000 individual members.  They come from all over Wisconsin, from each of our ninety-nine state assembly districts, and from all walks of life.  They are rural and urban, young and old, lower, middle and upper income, male and female, multi-racial, and of different faiths and political persuasions. 45% are Democrats, 34% Republicans and 17% independents. 

Our members listen to us. We regularly communicate with our members, including quarterly newsletters, quarterly phone calls, monthly email alerts to 4,300 activists in our electronic network, periodic issue action alerts and regular voter guides and voting records around elections.  According to a November 2000 poll conducted by Lake, Snell, Perry and Associates for us, “WCA’s electoral communications program was highly successful, reaching AFL-CIO levels of recall, penetration and impact in the 2000 local and national elections.”  “Even after controlling for partisanship and a host of other demographic variables, we can say that more frequent WCA contact led to a greater likelihood of voting for [our endorsed] candidates in the legislative elections.”

Our members are activists.  Last year, Wisconsin Citizen Action collected and sent nearly 8,000 separate letters, postcards and telewires on our issues from our members to their elected officials.    38% of our members say they have written letters to public officials, 27% contributed money to candidates, 21% wrote a letter to the editor, and 14% have volunteered for a political campaign according to a Talmey-Drake poll from August 1996.

Our Affiliates

Wisconsin Citizen Action unites 200 dues-paying affiliates in the fight for a common agenda of social, economic and environmental justice.  Our affiliates include the state’s leading labor, senior citizen, environmental, community, religious, family farm, teacher, people of color, and Native American groups, including: AARP-Wisconsin, Wisconsin State AFL-CIO, Wisconsin Education Association Council, Wisconsin’s Environmental Decade, Coalition of WI Aging Groups, Wisconsin Council of Senior Citizens, Interfaith Conference of Greater Milwaukee, WI Farmers Union, Milwaukee NAACP, and the Menominee Indian Tribe of WI.   Wisconsin Citizen Action brings the full weight of our collective memberships to bear on the public policy process.

Wisconsin Citizen Action - What We Do

Grassroots Organizing - Wisconsin Citizen Action mobilizes individuals around issues and wins social change.  In 2001, we mobilized over 9,000 individuals to take action, from writing letters, to participating in rallies, press conferences, training sessions, and public meetings.  Our recent victories have included:

• Winning our 18-month battle to pass a real prescription drug benefits bill in Wisconsin. SeniorCare is the second most generous prescription drug benefits measure in the nation!

• Winning passage of the only campaign finance reform measure in the last seven years (Citizen’s Right to Know) and building significant support for full public funding of state Supreme Court elections (Impartial Justice).

• Helping win the Mining Moratorium, which protects our northwoods from environmental destruction caused by unsafe mining.

Increasing Voter Participation and Winning Elections - Wisconsin Citizen Action works to elect leaders at all levels of local, state and federal office who agree with our values and support our issues.  In 2000, Citizen Action ran the 4th largest direct voter contact operation for progressives in the state, raising and spending $139,336, sending out 188,879 pieces of mail in 10 separate races (and 30 separate pieces), delivering anywhere from a minimum of 4 to a maximum of 11 mail, phone and door contacts to 41,093 targeted Citizen Action-member households.

Educating the Public -  Through a field and phone canvass, we talk to over 150,000 Wisconsin households every year about issues.  In 2001, we generated 2,438 postcards, 1,690 letters and 3,843 “telewires” (personalized telegram-like letters to legislators) fromconcerned citizens.

Earning Media on our Issues - In 2001, we generated 26 Op-Ed pieces and 78 media stories with 201 placements on our issues, raising the profile of social change statewide.