Rural Organizing Project

The Rural Organizing Project (ROP) is a statewide organization of locally-based groups that work to create communities accountable to a standard of human dignity: the belief in the equal worth of all people, the need for equal access to justice and the right to self-determination. Starting in 1992, ROP’s challenges to the anti-democratic right have earned ROP a national reputation for being an effective grassroots organization that takes on the hard issues.

We believe in 3 guiding principles:

1. Every human being matters
2. Every issue is interconnected
3. It’s all about transformational organizing

The catalyst for ROP was the Oregon Citizens Alliance’s outrageous Abnormal Behaviors Initiative, which targeted gay and lesbian Oregonians for legalized second-class citizenship. Oregonians in small towns across the state were mobilized, many for the first time, as basic tenets of the Constitution were at risk through this ballot initiative. ROP moved into this organizing opportunity to fill a niche the far right was trying to claim.

Today, ROP works with more than 85 member groups to organize on issues that impact human dignity and to advance inclusive democracy. We work with an organized grassroots base, not just a passive dues-paying membership. Our analysis is multi-issue, our activities are multi-tactic and we strategically coordinate our statewide organizing with key partners that counter the Right on every front in rural Oregon. Our staff are backed by hundreds of volunteer leaders and thousands of supporters spanning the 10th largest state in the nation.

Our mission is to strengthen the skills, resources, and vision of primary leadership in local autonomous human dignity groups with a goal of keeping such groups a vibrant source for a just democracy.