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Strategic 
Framework
2025


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Vision, values 
and principles
People at Dogwood share a long-term vision of a 
B.C. that is democratized, decolonized and decar­
bonized. We envision healthy, connected commu­
nities where people from all walks of life respect 
and take care of each other, and the land, water 
and air we rely on. We want to see a redistribution 
of power, land and wealth that prioritizes the well­
being of everyday people and leads to Indigenous 
self-determination, sovereignty, and thriving 
Indigenous communities and cultures. We imagine 
a climate-resilient province beyond fossil fuels, 
powered by locally produced and controlled 
renewable energy; and an economy built not for 
corporate profit, but to support good jobs and 
robust public services. 
Our supporters, volunteers and staff value justice, 
a healthy environment, empowered communities 
and democracy. These shared values shape the 
beliefs that drive the organization.
This guiding framework tells the story of what 
Dogwood is here to do: what’s at stake, our 
understanding of power, what we hope to 
accomplish, our approach to making change, 
and how we want to show up as an organization. 
Mission
Dogwood brings people together to strengthen our democracy, 
uphold Indigenous rights and defend the climate, land and 
water that sustain life in B.C. 
We believe that:
•	 The people who live in B.C. should have 
more power over government decisions 
than corporations, industry lobbies or 
wealthy elites. 
•	 Climate change is an urgent, overarching 
threat to B.C.’s communities, ecosystems 
and economy. 
•	 Effective climate action requires supporting 
Indigenous leadership, changing colonial 
institutions and decolonizing our society 
through a redistribution of land, wealth 
and power.
•	 Non-Indigenous people have a responsi­
bility to repair colonial harm and injustice, 
return stolen land, and reconcile colonial 
laws with Indigenous laws and systems of 
government.
•	 Acting in solidarity with people dispro­
portionately affected by climate change 
and colonial injustice is both morally right 
and necessary to solve the overlapping 
crises we face.
•	 Struggles for justice and sustainability are 
interconnected, and require long-term 
cross-movement efforts to overcome 
oppression, shift public narratives and 
change our culture.
•	 Through collective action and community-
building, organized people have the 
power to change what’s possible in B.C.
	


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We focus on B.C. 
Our role
Dogwood is part of broader movements for social 
change and climate justice; we will never win alone. 
We are most effective when we collaborate with and 
lift up other groups, organizations and communities, 
while embracing our unique role in the movement 
ecosystem and playing to our strengths:
We inform, organize and 
activate everyday people 
as our core approach to 
making change.
We take a decolonial, 
justice-oriented, 
intersectional approach 
to climate action.
We expose and help people 
understand the true power 
dynamics at play in B.C.


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Approach and 
strategy
‘British Columbia’ began as a resource colony, 
laying the foundations for many of the social, eco­
nomic and environmental challenges we now face.
Today, life is increasingly uncertain and difficult 
in B.C., with disproportionate impacts on people 
who are already marginalized. Leaders on the far 
right are exploiting current conditions to deepen 
divisions for political gain. Meanwhile, wealthy 
and ruthless corporations out to extract maximum 
profit put people in danger, corrode our democracy 
and try to prevent, delay or roll back measures to 
protect us from the dangers of a changing climate.
Our job is to look for opportunities where organized 
people can counteract the power of corporations, 
industry lobbies and wealthy elites. We push for 
changes in law, policy, relationships and public 
sentiment that keep us safe from climate disasters, 
uphold Indigenous rights and sovereignty, and 
build towards a province where everyday people 
can thrive. 
Our approach is to build long-term strategic 
capacity that can be flexibly deployed to move 
towards our goals, act in line with our values and 
create the conditions that allow us to seize oppor­
tunities for accelerated change when they arise. 
Strategic capacity is the ability of an organization 
to adapt to changing power dynamics in ways that 
help it move closer to achieving its goals. Research 
shows that organizations that cultivate certain 
capabilities are better able to develop an indepen­
dent, committed and flexible base, and to engage 
this base strategically in changing circumstances. 
In this way, we can work towards our goals effec­
tively amid ever changing political and socioeco­
nomic conditions. 
To this end, we choose campaigns and projects 
that act as stepping-stones toward our long-term 
goals, and will build capacity, momentum and 
support. These campaigns target key government 
and corporate decision-makers either directly, or 
by targeting entities that influence them (otherwise 
known as secondary targets, or the pillars of support 
that are key to their power, eg. municipalities or 
regulators). 
Dogwood has three core strategies:
Be good neighbours. 
We build reciprocal relationships and organize 
communities in solidarity with Indigenous people 
defending their lands and rights from fossil fuel 
companies; advocate for Indigenous-led solutions 
that improve Indigenous people’s quality of life; 
and push colonial governments to uphold DRIPA 
and stop trying to impose Crown authority over 
Indigenous lands.
Support the foundations 
of a strong democracy. 
We build community, common purpose, and lead­
ership capacity through organizing and solidarity. 
This creates more engaged, active citizens who 
are prepared to participate in democracy and 
mobilize at key moments; counteracts corpo­
rate influence on governments; and curbs the 
impacts of isolation and polarization.
Move B.C. beyond gas. 
We build tactical alliances and strategic bases 
of support around winning stepping-stone 
campaigns that tackle the climate crisis. These 
progressively push provincial and corporate 
decision-makers (and/or one or more of their 
pillars of support) towards stopping pipeline and 
LNG terminal expansion, ending fracking and 
powering B.C. buildings with clean, affordable 
electricity.
credit: trevor leach


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Theory of change
If we build organized communities, cultivate strategic and tactical 
alliances, work to shift public narratives and act in solidarity 
with people and groups on the frontlines of injustice, we will 
move closer to a decolonized, decarbonized and democratized 
B.C., because we will have built the strategic capacity to win 
meaningful stepping stone campaigns and created the condi­
tions to seize opportunities for transformative change.
Our focus on strategic capacity acknowledges that there are 
no silver bullets when it comes to the complex challenges and 
long-term social change work of the kind we are engaged in: 
“Power doesn’t give up power easily… Organizers are working in 
tremendous conditions of uncertainty. The organizations that 
[are] most successful at negotiating those power dynamics were 
not the movements that had the best strategic plan on day one. 
They were the movements that were best equipped to respond 
when that moment of challenge came.” 
— Hahrie Han, political scientist at Johns Hopkins University 
and author of How Organizations Develop Activists


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Build new strategic bases of support 
among key constituencies (eg. South 
Asian diaspora in the Lower Mainland).
Outcome: We have strengthened our 
capacity to identify strategically important 
constituencies and established the organi­
zational resources and structures needed 
to build and deploy power with these 
constituencies.
Nurture our base of supporters, volunteers 
and donors in order to reach our strategic 
and organizational goals. 
Outcome: We have strengthened our 
definitions, targeting, messaging and 
engagement opportunities across the full 
supporter journey, ensuring our base is 
activated and growing. 
Become a place where people of diverse 
identities, backgrounds and abilities want 
to work/participate, and feel safe doing so. 
Outcome: Our staff and volunteers are 
increasing in diversity and are nurtured 
with fully developed and resourced plans, 
policies and supports.
Grow and sustain a diverse base of funding 
for strategic and operational priorities that 
relies primarily on donations from indi­
vidual donors to maintain independence, 
accountability and integrity.
Outcome: Our individual donor base is able 
to fund the entirety of our staffing costs. 
Grant funding is diversified such that no 
single funder represents more than 15% 
of our total annual budget.
Priorities
Staff, with input from allies, supporters and our 
board, will choose issues, campaigns and activities 
year-over-year. Activities will be chosen based on 
external context and opportunities, and the extent 
to which they move us towards our long-term 3Ds 
and short-term campaign goals; build organizational 
capacity; advance our JEDI and solidarity goals; 
and are suited to our core strategies and move­
ment niche. Targets, strategies and tactics will be 
mapped out in annual and campaign plans
Dogwood strives to reflect its commitment to 
democracy, empowerment and justice in the way 
decisions are made at the organization, in the 
projects we choose to prioritize, and in the way our 
staffing and volunteer network are structured. The 
organization seeks to provide the best conditions 
for collaboration, shared leadership, equity, diversity, 
learning and adaptation.  
Accordingly, our key strategic 
priorities over the next 3 – 5 years are:
Lead or participate in stepping-stone 
campaigns that move B.C. beyond gas, 
advance Indigenous rights and strengthen 
democracy. 
Outcome: B.C. emissions are holding 
steady or falling, clean energy production is 
rising to meet the increasing electrification 
of communities, Indigenous-led climate 
solutions are resourced and growing, faith 
in democratic participation is improving, 
DRIPA is fully enacted.
Build reciprocal relationships with Indigenous 
and other communities disproportionately 
affected by climate change and colonial 
injustice.
Outcome: We have expanded our solidarity 
work while ensuring we can maintain long-
term, non-transactional relationships as 
needed, and we go where we are wanted. 


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In addition, we will continue to:
•	 Maintain the staffing, resources, tools and 
systems required for our core strategies; 
supported by fundraising, digital systems & 
data and administrative services.
•	 Maintain structures, policies and practices 
that strive to reward commitment and 
collaboration rather than competition, and 
allow everyone involved in the organization’s 
work to contribute to decision making.
•	 Deploy the tools and structures of a unionized 
workplace to enact democracy and equity.
•	 Prioritize discussions, learning, actions and 
experiments that strive to dismantle features 
of colonialism and white supremacy that are 
embedded in structures, culture and practices 
within the organization.
•	 Maintain a team of two to five leaders to 
share the executive role at the organization, 
in a structure that adapts over time to the 
operational needs of the organization.
•	 Maintain an adaptive structure of staff 
teams, organized by key functions, that 
allows for distributed decision making 
and creativity.
•	 Maintain a board of directors that holds 
Dogwood’s leadership accountable to the 
organization’s mission, values and strategies; 
oversees and evaluates the Executive Team; 
ensures sound fiscal and legal operation of 
the organization and supports sustainable 
fundraising efforts.
credit: mike graeme


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dogwoodbc.ca
Vancouver office
312 Main St, 2nd Floor
Vancouver, B.C.
 604-688-3578
Victoria office
864 Queens Ave.
Victoria, B.C.
 250-370-9930