# Intro to Relational Organizing The following principles of Relational Organizing should guide you as you engage in the organizer role: ### **Relationships are the building block of the organization.** [Research](https://opentextbc.ca/introductiontosociology/chapter/chapter21-social-movements-and-social-change/) has shown that the single greatest factor in determining whether someone will get involved and stay involved in a social movement is whether they have friends in the movement. An organizer’s job is to ensure every person who gets involved makes friends in our community so they can sustain over the long term. ### **Take a genuine interest in people.** Relational organizers face a paradox. We’re trying to organize people to build a powerful social movement. But if people feel that we’re only interested in them as pawns in our strategy, their motivation will fall apart. The solution is this: to succeed as an organizer, you need to take a genuine interest in the people you are organizing. You have to connect with the part of you that genuinely wants to get to know them and to see them grow as individuals by participating in the movement. ### **Communicate often, and not always about the campaign.** If every message you send someone has an ask, they’ll get tired of hearing from you. Make sure some of your conversations with your activists are mainly social. Ask lots of questions to keep the conversation going. It’s a good idea for your first message to a new activist to focus on starting a relationship. For instance, ask about their “animal rights story” or how they became interested in activism. --- # Agent Instructions: Querying This Documentation If you need additional information that is not directly available in this page, you can query the documentation dynamically by asking a question. Perform an HTTP GET request on the current page URL with the `ask` query parameter: ``` GET https://handbook.proanimal.org/for-organizers/organizer-guide/intro-to-relational-organizing.md?ask= ``` The question should be specific, self-contained, and written in natural language. The response will contain a direct answer to the question and relevant excerpts and sources from the documentation. Use this mechanism when the answer is not explicitly present in the current page, you need clarification or additional context, or you want to retrieve related documentation sections.