Our programs

Green Corps offers two training programs. The Organizer Program is a one-year, paid training program that prepares participants for a career in environmental organizing. The Campaigner Program is a four-month crash course that combines classroom training with work on an environmental campaign and serves as an introduction to environmental advocacy and organizing.

Organizer Program

Determined to make a positive impact on issues like climate change and clean water but don’t know where to start? Green Corps offers a yearlong, paid training program that arms you with the knowledge and skills you need to kickstart your organizing career. Through a combination of classroom instruction and field experience you’ll learn how to recruit and train volunteers, develop strategic campaigns, build strong coalitions, organize events and gain media coverage. Upon graduating, you will have the foundation you need to launch a career in environmental organizing.

Here’s how it works:

Learn skills from environmental leaders

To make an impact, you need training. Our staff provides top-notch, unparalleled organizing and advocacy training on important topics including volunteer recruitment, campaign planning, public speaking and more. You’ll learn how to run campaigns that both inspire and build support. You will also receive ongoing mentorship from Green Corps staff and alumni and Public Interest Network staff throughout your year to assist with your campaign work and professional development.

Hands-on experience on real campaigns

Green Corps packs extensive experience into just one year. You will: 

  • work on at least three issue campaigns in three different locations, 

  • organize diverse communities, and 

  • run a canvass office that educates, fundraises and excites environmental supporters. 

You’ll also work on the most pressing environmental issues of the day—from saving our last wild places, to protecting our oceans, to reducing plastic pollution. Click here for field notes from the current class of Green Corps organizers.

Launch your organizing career

Upon graduating, you will have the skills needed to launch your own campaign or run your own organization. We connect graduates with organizing jobs in the environmental movement, and most Green Corps graduates find professional positions immediately.

Green Corps Organizer program year calendar

There are two components of the Green Corps year:

  • Training: Green Corps organizers attend eight weeks of classroom training to learn the theory and skills of environmental organizing

  • Campaigns: Green Corps organizers run three to five campaigns throughout the year to put their skills to work on pressing environmental issues

Here is an example of a year in the life of a Green Corps organizer:

AUGUST: SEPTEMBER: OCTOBER:
  • Three weeks of classroom training
  • Travel to fall campaign
  • Launch fall campaign
  • Launch recruitment campaign to find the next class of Green Corps
  • Fall campaign
  • One week of classroom training
  • Campus recruitment visit
  • Fundraising letters
NOVEMBER: DECEMBER: JANUARY:
  • Fall campaign
  • Culminating campaign events
  • Wrap up fall campaign
  • One week classroom training
  • Fundraising letters
  • Winter break
  • Travel to spring campaign location
  • Launch spring campaign
FEBURARY: MARCH: APRIL:
  • Spring campaign
  • One week of classroom training
  • Campus recruitment visit
  • Spring campaign
  • Organize a fundraising event to benefit Green Corps
  • Culminating campaign events
  • Wrap up spring campaign
  • Two weeks of training
  • Travel to summer canvass location
MAY: JUNE/JULY: AUGUST:
  • Launch summer canvass campaign
  • Summer canvass campaign
  • Wrap up summer canvass campaign
  • Green Corps graduation

Green Corps is an equal opportunity employer. Green Corps will consider for employment qualified applicants with criminal histories in a manner consistent with the Los Angeles Fair Chance Initiative for Hiring.

Campaigner Program

The Campaigner Program is a four-month crash course that combines classroom training and work on an environmental campaign and introduces you to environmental advocacy and organizing. This program will give you the skills and experience to tackle a problem in your own community or be an asset to any environmental organization. We consider top Campaigner Program graduates for additional training both within the Green Corps Organizer Program or for recommendation to the broader environmental and social change movement. 

Here’s how it works:

Get top-notch training and make an impact right away

To make an impact, you need training. The Campaigner Program begins with one week of intensive classroom training led by experienced trainers and covers topics including volunteer recruitment, campaign planning, public speaking, media outreach and more. Next, you will apply these skills as you work on a campaign that addresses one of the most pressing environmental issues of the day. 

For example, recently, a team of campaigners worked on a campaign with Environment America and MASSPIRG to protect our oceans. They helped mobilize more than 10,000 New Englanders to advocate for a new Marine Protected Area in the Gulf of Maine. It’s called Cashes Ledge, and it’s a critical habitat for the North Atlantic’s cod, whales and more. Campaigners recruited students, faculty, small businesses, scientists and everyday people to call on the Biden administration to permanently protect this threatened ecosystem. Click here to read updates from the current class of Green Corps campaigners.

Green Corps Campaigner program year calendar

Campaigns will last approximately four-months and there will be multiple start dates each year. After campaigns, we will help top candidates pursue opportunities for advancement within Green Corps and the broader social change movement.

Here is an example of a campaign timeline:

AUGUST: SEPTEMBER:
  • 1 week introductory training
  • Travel to campaign location
  • Launch campaign and recruit volunteers
  • Recruit volunteers
  • Execute primary campaign tactics
OCTOBER: NOVEMBER:
  • Train volunteer leaders
  • Discuss future professional opportunities
  • Culminating campaign events
  • Campaign wrap-up

Green Corps is an equal opportunity employer. Green Corps will consider for employment qualified applicants with criminal histories in a manner consistent with the Los Angeles Fair Chance Initiative for Hiring.