AGO is a movement accelerator. We work with activists and funders to tell powerful stories, grow movements, and advance positive social change.
What we do
We help human rights and climate activists build community and audiences around their ideas.
Strategic communications
Strategy, branding, and campaigns that promote ideas, build audiences, and strengthen activist communities
Movement infrastructure
Collaborative, learn-by-doing approach to capacity building, coalition building, training, and coaching
Civic innovation
Pilot programs and fellowships, research, insights, and resources to shift power, strengthen civil society, and grow movements
How we do it
Investing in leaders and communities
Too often, those who do social good are expected to solve complex problems through sheer passion and grit. We want to change that.
Prioritizing communications
Marketing and communications are often sidelined as a low priority, or cut out of operational costs altogether.
Planning for the long term
“Overhead” and strategic planning are chronically underfunded, leaving organizations unable to pursue longer-term strategies and grow.
Creating space for new approaches
High-impact breakthroughs happen through experimentation and research, but there are few opportunities to field-test new ideas.
Our principles
Build with, not for
We approach every challenge with humility and curiosity. We build flexibility into our process so we can respond to what our local partners actually need and support their vision.
Learn by doing
We aren’t afraid to take a moonshot, a bank shot, or a big swing—even if we miss. We value big ideas, and believe that design thinking is a worthy approach to social, cultural, and other thorny problems.
Activism isn’t charity
Human rights, democracy building, and climate work are hard. They require resilience, ingenuity, and time. People doing this work should be valued and compensated.
Build systems, not stopgaps
Our aim is to support activist ecosystems with tools and resources that can help advance causes. We steer clear of one-off solutions with temporary impact.
Our differences make us smarter
Our cultural, generational, and professional differences make us better able to wrestle with difficult, complex problems.
Design to share
Many activists and nonprofits experience similar challenges, across locations and causes. Each solution and resource we create is designed to be useful to others—and shared.