How does a 100-year-old civil rights organization stay relevant in an age of social media-fueled activism?
For the Pasadena branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) a strategic plan developed by Jericho Road Pasadena is helping to answer that question.
The plan was drafted last year by JRP volunteer Joe Fay to assess what impact the branch —which formed in 1919, 10 years after the national organization started —has on the community. To start, Fay, a marketing executive who’s held senior positions at a number of nonprofits, interviewed 20 stakeholders identified by the branch.
As part of a strategic plan, Fay produced a report known as an environmental scan, which aims to document how organizations meet community needs and list priorities to achieve them. The document concluded that while some stakeholders said the branch wasn’t as involved as other community organizations, “the NAACP Pasadena was recognized as having a great ‘brand’, a great history, and great potential.” This information indicated that more civic engagement is the best way to 
increase the NAACP’s community impact. The NAACP Pasadena President, Allen Edson, knew that his time as President/CEO of Remediation Services, uniting and organizing communities to clean up public parks in the Bay Area, would come in handy when encouraging more community activism in his hometown of Pasadena.
“Everyone knows the brand, but the organization struggled to identify what was uniquely helpful,” Fay said. “They want to find a place in world of Pasadena.”
The priorities that Fay and Allen identified through the strategic planning process are similar to those of the national organization, including education, jobs, healthcare, housing and civic engagement, the latter of which the organization has already begun to focus on. Allen hopes to inspire his neighborhood to change their perspective in order to inspire more innovation, saying “The minds are here, if there is more access, then you can manifest these ideas.”
One focus of the local branch is to expose the African American community to opportunities in the growing Pasadena tech and innovation sector.
“Pasadena is shaping itself into a version of Silicon Valley,” Edson says. The branch has been exposing students to local tech companies through an annual STEM crawl of Old Town Pasadena, visiting companies including Electronic Arts, iRobot and SupplyFrame.
“What we are working on now is a partnership with the faith-based community,” said Edson, who took the branch’s reigns in January.
The branch’s longer-term plan leading up to the national election includes voter registration in churches and hosting political forums. Edson also wants the branch to continue to play a vital role as a community resource, both as a meeting space and through its involvement in various initiatives.
“We have a lot of cross-over appeal to different groups: black, white, Latino, male, female,” Edson said. “Our history has allowed us to be diverse. We’re around a lot of different tables that other groups aren’t,” which makes [NAACP of Pasadena] a great organization to be involved with.
The NAACP Pasadena has a small staff and relies primarily on the 12 committees that address education, health, economic development and housing. Two specialized committees host an annual awards banquet and work on the NAACP’s Afro-Academic, Cultural, Technological and Scientific Olympics (ACT-SO), part of a high-profile national program.
Edson, an entrepreneur, says in a largely volunteer organization “getting people to lead is a challenge. That’s the toughest job I have.” He acknowledged that while many volunteers are successful professionals, “community-based work is whole different animal. That’s where the challenges come.” Allen encourages everyone to come by the office, which is open five days a week, and learn about ways to become more engaged in all of the amazing opportunities Pasadena has to offer. “Don’t wait for things to happen, be involved in making things happen,” suggests Edson.
The branch’s 2020 voter registration drive will be kicked off August 18 with “The Fannie Lou Hamer Story” a one-woman play about the voting and women’s rights activist starring Mzuri Maya Aimbaye. The play, presented by the NAACP and the Interdenominational Minsters Alliance, will be at the First AME Church, 1700 N. Raymond Ave. Tickets can be purchased at thefannielouhamerstory.com.
To learn more about the Pasadena NAACP, visit its website at naacppasadena.org.
Many thanks to JRP volunteer Jane Greenstein is a senior content strategist at Team One, a full-service advertising agency in Playa Vista as well as a freelance writer.