CITY COUNCIL TOOLKIT:
DIVESTMENT EDITION
Why We Need To Divest
Divestment is a key strategy because it’s tangible: It moves American dollars away from the genocide machine and returns power to the people.
Use this guide to organize for a divestment resolution at your local city/town council. Demand that your city/town withdraws investments from corporations complicit in genocide, apartheid, and other human rights violations.
How To Win A City Council Divestment Campaign
1. Do Your Research.
Our campaign strategy is to make divestment mainstream. It’s crucial to avoid rushing a city council vote unless you’ve done the work to win. That said, you don’t necessarily need to know what your local government is invested in to demand an ethical investment policy.
The most important step is to find out who the decision makers are, and then research and powermap them. Who is your target on the city/town level who can make the decision to divest?
Find your research buddies and work through the following questions to get your bearings on your target:
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What is the city/town’s investment policy?
Does the city/town have a precedent for divestment? (i.e. South Africa, fossil fuel, tobacco)
Is your city’s investment portfolio invested in genocide?
Investment portfolios are public documents, so you should be able to get them from the city council’s website or from a friendly council member. Upload the investment portfolio to investigate.info to scan it for BDS targets.
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What power does the city/town council have to shape investments? Can they bring an amendment to the investment policy statement at any time?
Are different investment policies subject to different rules and procedures?
Is there an annual review of investments? If so, when?
What body makes decisions about investment policy? Is it the council, or a committee or a treasurer?
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Can you identify any friendly council members?
Do your policy goals align with any existing resolutions? If so, can you tie your arguments to these aligned policies?
Do any of the council members have aspirations to run for higher level office?
Are there related funding fights to which you could connect your campaign?
2. Learn From Campaign Wins.
Organizers have won campaigns by drafting and passing resolutions that relate to local conditions and narratives.
Once you know what you want to win, study the strategies of other effective campaigns:
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Israel bonds are unrestricted investments directly into the Israel government. They can’t be canceled, but they can be banned from investing in again. Break The Bonds campaigns are gaining traction across the country. Find out if your city or state is invested.
Win: Cuyahoga County, OH commits to no new Israel bonds, in a campaign led in part by a USCPR youth fellow.
Win: Summit County, Ohio allows a $2 million Israel bond to mature without reinvestment.
Win: Lucas County, Ohio pledges to not renew its $1.5 million in Israeli bonds.
Read more in our Israel Bonds FAQs.
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Divesting from companies that directly contract with the Israeli military, operate in illegal Israeli settlements, or otherwise enable genocide and violence can be an effective way to isolate more narrow campaign targets and redirect city funds.
Win: In December 2024, California’s Alameda County announced plans to fully divest $32 million in bonds from Caterpillar following a campaign led by Bay Area Divest! The broad-based collective of community organizations mobilized around Caterpillar for selling bulldozers and other destructive infrastructure to the Israeli government. These weapons of occupation and destruction are used to destroy Palestinian homes and communities in the West Bank and build illegal settlements therein.
Win: In January 2024, the city council of Hayward, CA voted to divest $1.6 million¹ from four companies on the BDS list: Caterpillar, Intel, Chevron, and Hyundai. This council was spurred into action by the Hayward Community Coalition, who were committed to breaking material ties between the city and Israeli apartheid, occupation, and genocide. Get the Hayward organizing toolkit.
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Win: We can learn from the successful Dissenters #BoeingArmsGenocide Chicago campaign of 2021 to end the city’s contract with Boeing’s HQ. Dissenters strategically targeted vulnerabilities in the contract and applied direct pressure on the City of Chicago, with the ultimate goals of canceling the EDGE tax incentive agreement between Boeing and the State of Illinois, and all State Investments and public dollars towards Boeing.
Because of the campaign, the city of Chicago refused to renew their contract with Boeing the next year.
Progress: In 2023, the “Not on Our Dime” Campaign in New York proposed a bill (A6943/S6992) with support by Assembly Member Zohran Mamdani and Senator Jabari Brisport to revoke charitable designation to offending organizations. The bill clarified that funding Israeli settlement activity (and any violations of the international treaties signed at Geneva on August 12, 1949) by New York state charities is illegal. As such, it would prohibit NY-based nonprofit organizations from abusing their nonprofit status to reinforce and further Israel’s illegal and inhumane settlement expansion.
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The BDS Movement now has a universal ethical investment policy to present to your city/town to prevent investments and procurement contracts with companies that are complicit in human rights violations anywhere.
Win: The City of Portland passed a resolution in 2017 to divest from all corporate securities and added specific companies to their Do-Not-Buy list maintained by the Socially Responsible Investment Committee, including Caterpillar and Wells Fargo.
Progress: The City of New Orleans passed a resolution in 2023 (before it was then rescinded due to backlash) pledging to review investments and contracts according to the city’s values of inclusion and respecting human rights.
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If your city/town has a referendum policy, which would allow you to bypass council and elected officials and get divestment on a citywide ballot, then use it!
Win: In March 2025, Vermont-based Apartheid Free Communities Campaign, led by the Vermont Coalition for Palestinian Liberation, brought together Vermont’s progressive communities and organizations to demand that Vermont cities and towns pledge support to the Palestinian people and to the cause of ending apartheid and genocide. By leveraging Vermont’s unique Town Meeting Day format, the group encouraged communities to adopt non-binding ballot measures materially and morally opposing apartheid. They succeeded in getting ballot measures in nine Vermont towns, five of which passed. See the pledge.
They leveraged various tactics, including a campaign video, op-eds, an all-volunteer canvassing campaign, and more! You can learn more about this campaign by listening to this Electronic Intifada segment.Ongoing campaign: Pittsburgh’s ongoing Not on Our Dime campaign is actively working to get an Amendment to Pittsburgh’s Home Rule Charter on the ballot by means of a community referendum. The amendment would divest funds from governments engaged in genocide and apartheid, reinvest in arms reduction, and promote transparency measures for the city’s investment policies. The group has amassed over 21,400 signatures in support of putting the amendment up for a public vote, and is now facing legal attack by opposing Zionist groups.
Credit: Photograph by Gaza photojournalist hosny salah on Pixabay
3. Build A Strategy.
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Collaborate with like-minded organizations, advocacy groups, and community leaders to strengthen your campaign. Form coalitions or alliances to amplify your message and increase pressure on decision-makers.
If you are organizing with a coalition, coordinate messaging and talking points and set your political ‘bottom lines’ in advance. That way you can circulate clear guidance in preparation for public comment at Council meetings. And you can move together if you get pushback or suggestions to change the resolution. -
Whether you’re campaigning for a citywide referendum, disclosure, divestment, or an ethical investment policy, draft your proposal with concrete asks.
Offer alternative investment options that align with the city's or institution's values and objectives. Highlight socially responsible investment opportunities that promote justice and human rights.
Resources:
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Meet with decision-makers individually or as a group to present your case for divestment.
Provide them with research, evidence, and arguments supporting your position.
Emphasize the importance of aligning investment practices with ethical principles and human rights standards.
Review these city council talking points.
Consider this part of your coalition building. Your campaign is more likely to succeed if you have an inside champion who can tell you how to win over their peers. Stay in touch with your inside advocate and be prepared to support them in the case of disingenuous smear campaign backlash.
Now that you have a well-informed, targeted campaign strategy and the base building to pull it off, it’s time to mobilize your community into action.
4. Mobilize
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Action Alert: You can build your own action alert to pressure your elected officials to divest and circulate it widely in your community.
Create a letter writing campaign on Action Network, and list your city/town council member emails as your email targets.
Draft a short sample email message with your divestment demands.
Once you publish the form, share the link widely on flyers in your community, local online networks, group chats, social media, and more.
City Council Prep: Prepare a toolkit for the people you’re mobilizing to speak at the council meeting. Take a look at Hayward’s toolkit for inspiration.
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Leverage traditional and social media platforms to raise awareness about your divestment campaign and garner public support.
Write op-eds, letters to the editor, and press releases to communicate your message to a wider audience. Always reach out to local journalists before city council meetings, so they’re prepared to report on your story and have your contact information on hand for interviews and questions.
Resources:
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Educate your community on the issue through town halls, tabling local events, and organizing your own teach-ins. In St. Louis, organizers scheduled ten escalating days of action that focused on actions like:
Created postcards and delivered them to alders’ houses
Power hour: 40 folks showed up to call elected officials
2 days of canvassing: knocked on 1,000 doors in 2 days
Testimony day: got over 50 people to come testify
Outreach and tracking day: with a power hour, used a tracker where people could add what they were hearing from Councilmembers, emailing, etc.
Pack the meeting day: packed the meeting room full with over 100 people, including prep from an art build team that created beautiful signs.²
5. Celebrate Your Achievements!
When you win, don’t be modest! Blast media outreach to celebrate your achievement, and more importantly, to normalize divestment.
Your achievement could inspire others to launch their own campaign.
A standing tradition for successful campaigns is to leave behind a toolkit that reviews your strategy, lessons learned, and materials that will lighten the load for the next person. Here are some examples that have been shared with us:
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