Learn How to Win

The Two Seasons of Politics

We believe real political power is the ability to force politicians to vote the way you want during the Legislative Season, and if they don't, making bad votes so politically painful that they either change course or eventually lose their seat.

That's why the Foundation offers two comprehensive full-day training schools: the Political Leadership School for the Legislative Season, and the Campaign Management School for the Election Season.

FACL schools are focused on results and deliver practical tools to succeed in both seasons of politics. Each school is an intensive 8.5-hour program designed to:

  • Give you the practical tools needed to create meaningful political change;
  • Show you how to grow your group and raise the money needed to fund your fights and campaigns;
  • Teach you how to pick the right fights and use your limited time, talent, and resources effectively; and
  • Guide you to become both feared and respected by the political class.

The Legislative Season

The Political Leadership School teaches the basics of how the political system works, how to grow your list of like-minded voters, and how to train and mobilize them to apply political pressure on your elected officials to stop bad legislation or pass good legislation.

The Political Leadership School curriculum centers around six modules:

  1. The Real Nature of Politics: How politics really works in America and how much power you can wield to effect change.

  2. Leadership: The most valuable skill in confrontational grassroots politics is the ability to lead others. Successful leaders do four things: Plan, Prepare, Act, and Evaluate. And we teach you how to do all four.

  3. Know Your Battles: We all have limited resources. None of us can afford to fight on every issue front we care about. So how do you pick the best fights to take on? This module teaches you how to pick the fights that will most advance your cause and make the best use of your limited time, talent, and resources.

  4. Outside Operations: This module teaches you the strategies and tools for organizing and mobilizing your fellow citizens to apply significant political pressure on elected officials to vote the way you want. That is the key to making real change, and it's within your power to do it.

  5. Inside Operations: How to develop a champion who is an uncompromising pit bull on your issues and will work for you inside an elected body to introduce your bills, shepherd them through the legislative process, and force roll call votes so you can expose those who vote against you - so you can use it against them during the Election Season, when you MUST prove to your elected officials there are consequences for their bad votes.

  6. Election Season: Fighting in the Legislative Season is only half the battle. This module teaches you why you must inflict political pain on at least one politician who voted wrong on your issues - and how to do it. Without it, every politician learns the same lesson: You can be safely ignored.

The Election Season

If you fail to inflict political pain during the Election Season on at least one politician who voted against you in the Legislative Season, you're sending a loud and clear message to every politician that you are politically impotent and can be safely ignored.

But inflicting pain on a hardcore Leftist is of little value. It is the self-proclaimed conservative politicians who vote wrong - or use the process to kill good legislation - who must first and foremost feel pain.

Why? Because the one thing politicians care about is getting re-elected. Unless you pose a threat to their re-election, they have no reason to vote the way you want them to.

The Campaign Management School teaches you everything you need to run a winning campaign - from building your team and managing operations, to crafting a battle plan, identifying your voters, getting them to the polls, and raising the money you need to win. This isn't theory - it's a practical, proven system for winning in the Election Season.

The Campaign Management School curriculum centers around six modules:

  1. The Real Nature of Politics: Before you can run a winning campaign, you need to understand how politics really works in America, how much power organized citizens can wield, and why the Election Season is the moment when that power is most decisive.

  2. The Core Elements of All Campaigns: Three major campaign tools are presented, including the Lincoln Four-Step, Campaign Planning (District Analysis), and the Leesburg Grid (the foundation for all campaign communications).

  3. The Purpose of Campaigns: Campaigns are not only about winning. A successful campaign identifies and mobilizes "our" people for the future. They also prove to the political class that we are not kidding, we are backed by numbers, and we will inflict "pain" in the Election Season. The strategic reasons for running a campaign are presented, as well as how to best pick the campaigns to expend energy on when you have choices.

  4. Campaign Communications: At the outset of a campaign, it's important to understand what you'll say about yourself and about your opponents. This module covers many communication tools, including building your website, writing press releases, responding to attacks, developing your mailings, digital ads, and many other communication tools.

  5. Building a Campaign: This module covers a number of topics, including who should be on the leadership team of your campaign and their core duties and responsibilities, how to manage a candidate, list building, operational security, and even how to tear down a campaign to maximize your gains and lay the foundation for future campaigns.

  6. The Foundation of Fundraising: Includes a proven, practical fundraising technique your candidate can put to use immediately - delivered in one of the most memorable presentations in the entire school curriculum.

To win, you MUST master both the Legislative and the Election Seasons.

Advanced Schools

For those who have attended a one-day FACL school, apply what they learned in the real world, and are ready to delve deeper, FACL offers invitation-only, three-day regional Advanced Schools for proven leaders.

Your Training Doesn't End When the School Does

After you attend your first FACL training, you'll gain ongoing support to put what you've learned into action - all at no cost to you:

  • Weekly Training Emails: Hard-fought lessons from real fights nationwide, showing how other grassroots leaders apply the training.
  • Email Archive: Hundreds of past training emails spanning over a decade, searchable by topic.
  • Over 60 Podcasts: Covering key topics and tools, plus invites to upcoming live sessions.
  • Follow-up Team: Group stalled? In a hot fight? Need a sounding board or some strategy help? We're eager to help doers. Our team is here to answer your questions, brainstorm with you, and support your application of the FACL model. We can also assist you in organizing and hosting your own FACL school.

Take the Next Step

Hosting a FACL training is one of the most effective political moves you can make for your community - and it's simpler than you think.

If you're ready to stop training politicians to ignore you and start building a team they fear, we're ready to help.

The political battles ahead will be decided by those who are trained, organized, and willing to act.

The question is: Will you be one of them?

Host a FACL School in Your Community Meet Our Trainers Attend a FACL Training

Want a taste of what you'll learn at a FACL training?

Watch this clip from FACL's most popular module, "The Real Nature of Politics."

Watch the Short Clip | Watch the Full Video

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