The evolution of the DC Action Lab collective 

Our story

DC Action Lab was founded in 2013 as a worker-owned collective of experienced organizers. Over the past eight years, we were behind the scenes and working around the clock planning some of the largest mass mobilizations in recent history like Families Belong Together and the People's Climate March or executing strategic direct action campaigns such as No Muslim Ban Ever, Cancel Kavanaugh and Jane Fonda’s Firedrill Fridays. 

In 2021, the company shifted its focus away from production and logistics and adopted a new pace and philosophy. Our mission remains centered around providing our movement partners with the nuts and bolts support they need, whether it’s managing short and long-term projects, running broad coalitions, building up their staff's skills or designing a campaign from start to finish.

In this first year of our evolution, we’ve already managed multiple advocacy coalitions, run multilingual, multiracial stakeholder engagement processes, established numerous strategic plans and trained hundreds of activists. We are equally skilled at diving headfirst into rapid-response movement moments at the drop of a hat, or setting up sound processes and workflows for long-term projects and consultancies.

DC Action Lab prioritizes working with organizations that are dedicated to long-haul organizing and are led by and serving directly impacted communities. We believe in transformative, not transactional working relationships with our clients and the communities they organize with. Reach out to us to get in touch and set up an initial consultation.

Our Story

We can handle all your facilitation needs virtually and in-person, from multi-day staff retreats to debriefs, or simply a meeting where you need to make some important decisions. 

Facilitation

Whether it’s a routine strategic planning process or you are embarking on a serious organizational shift, we can work with you to survey stakeholders, vision as a group and set feasible metrics.

Planning and visioning

We have a strong training portfolio and can offer small or mid-sized group sessions to mass, 500+ participant trainings on campaign strategy, decision-making, facilitation, de-escalation and direct action. 

Trainings and popular education

Have a new project and need added capacity on your team to set it into motion? We offer holistic project management from writing up the first work plan to the final point of evaluation and assessment. 

Project management

We’ve managed and coordinated a number of organizing and advocacy coalitions, creating group agreements, shared budgets, securing funding, setting up decision-making protocols and assembling committees. 

Coalitions and tables

If you’re looking for other services and aren’t sure that we offer them, [contact us anyway](https://dcactionlab.com/contact). If it’s beyond our scope, we can recommend other trusted consultants.

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Offerings

We tailor our work and proposals to each of our client’s specific needs. Please fill out the form below to schedule a complimentary consultation and get started.

Let's work together!

Contact DC Action Lab

Thank you for reaching out to DC Action Lab. We usually respond to urgent requests within 24 hours and all other requests within 72 hours. We’ll be in touch soon.

Thank you!

We are a woman and immigrant owned company sharing our expertise in rapid response planning, project management and campaign strategy with progressive and left movements.

We are DC Action Lab.

We bring years of experience in developing and implementing innovative campaigns that build long-term grassroots power. Whether you need support setting goals and timelines, planning escalating tactics on a sharp turn-around or complete, long-term campaign management, DC Action Lab is ready to help.

Campaign strategy

We can quickly set up the infrastructure to manage projects from start to finish at your organization. We are skilled at building out workflows and team structures, project documentation and tracking, developing stakeholder engagement processes and conducting holistic evaluations. 


Project management and evaluation

We bring expertise in participatory planning, task management and conflict resolution to our coalition management work. From setting group agreements to establishing structure and decision-making protocols, we can take the work off your shoulders to allow for you to be fully present. 

Coalition management

DC Action Lab provides a wide range of training and facilitation services to the movement. We’ve led virtual and in-person staff retreats and multi-year strategic planning processes. We offer a variety of training options including campaign planning, facilitation and agenda-setting, de-escalation and direct action to scale up your organizational capacity for key movement moments.


Training and facilitation

What we offer

We build with multiracial, diverse immigrant communities and organizers, including border communities, refugees, asylum-seekers, and movement lawyers. 

Immigrant justice

center

We proudly support Black, indigenous and people of color led movements building community power, from state and local campaigns against surveillance and policing to resisting the Muslim ban on a national level.

Racial justice

We prioritize working with organizations that are explicitly feminist in their values, multi-issue in their advocacy, and led by queer, trans and directly impacted communities.

Gender justice

Who we serve

Amnesty International

DC Justice Lab

ASISTA

Green Latinos

Rainforest Action Network

Action Center on Race and the Economy

Auburn

Women's March

Moving Toward Justice

Defund Hate

Asian Law Caucus

US Campaign for Palestinian Rights

No Muslim Ban Ever.

UndocuBlack Network

National Immigration Law Center

Just Futures Law logo

Just Futures Law

DC Jobs with Justice

Immigration Hub

CAIR-CA

Palestine Legal

Stand.Earth

Clients we've worked with

I've worked on multiple different campaigns and projects that Noor has supported, and each time she's contributed her impeccably organized project management and creative and engaging facilitation skills. Whether it's safely mobilizing people for direct actions with impact or thoughtfully navigating complex retreat conversations, Noor is a meticulous planner who always has the foresight to make sure you feel prepared for any situation and who sets clear goals and a roadmap for the work and gets it all done with calm, care and precision. She is a gift to so many of our movements.

We had the pleasure of working with Noor to facilitate both our strategic planning process and our staff retreat. In the midst of a pandemic, with so many variables at play, it was calming to have such a thoughtful & intentional facilitator leading us. Noor was able to lay out structures & timelines that worked, without the anxieties & pressures that normally occupy these processes. That support was priceless."

Noor developed a series of creative and dynamic facilitation trainings. We actively use her tools and they have made a profound difference in our professional growth as a team and organization.   

Noor is a DC-based organizer with a passion for campaign strategy and a knack for organizational planning. Born and raised in Islamabad, Pakistan, Noor moved to the United States in 2008. Her experience in college working on popular education programs on structural and institutional racism with the African American Policy Forum were formative in developing a global, intersectional approach to her work. 

Noor organized against US lethal drone strikes with families in Yemen and Pakistan before working at Amnesty International as a field organizer and then as a campaigner on police accountability, criminal justice and ending gun violence. 

At DC Action Lab, Noor’s portfolio has included the No Muslim Ban Ever Campaign, mobilizations and strategy for The Women’s March and supporting immigrant advocacy organizations such as UndocuBlack Network, National Immigration Law Center and the Immigration Hub.  Noor is currently the co-chair of the transformative justice hub, Collective Action for Safe Spaces.

Principal

Noor Mir

Who we are

We tailor our work and proposals to each of our client’s specific needs. Please contact us to schedule a complimentary consultation and get started.