PCUN: Membership Tiers For Value & Revenue

Pineros Y Campesinos Unidos del Noroeste (PCUN) advocates for Oregon farmworkers and working Latinx families, working tirelessly to empower these communities to understand and take action against systematic exploitation and its harmful effects. Using a grant from the Progressive Multiplier Fund, they developed a project that would grow their unrestricted c4 revenue by increasing the payment of dues among their two membership tiers. 

The first membership tier was designed for PCUN’s legacy farmworkers, while the second tier expanded its reach, targeting Generation X, millennials, and Generation Z children of farmworkers who have immigrant roots. To market these two membership tiers, PCUN needed to educate organizers about them and the importance of generating unrestricted revenue.

Recognizing the difficulty of adding a financial ask into their organizing culture, PCUN carefully trained organizers so they would be prepared to explain the dues and their significance. They also experimented with including a membership ask as they phone banked for their membership convention and advocacy action. 

During the grant period, PCUN received nearly $30,000 in individual donations and membership dues to their c4 and had a total of 184 donors. As they look to the future, PCUN plans to deepen the integration of independent revenue generation into their work culture. With a second grant from Progressive Multiplier, they invest in staff development and training to support their expanding membership program. By weaving fundraising across their mission and including membership asks as part of every outreach effort, they hope to build on the success of this project. 

In 1985, Pineros Y Campesinos Unidos del Noroeste (PCUN) started as a union for farm workers, fighting to gain collective bargaining rights. That’s why 80 workers founded Pineros and Campesinos Unidos del Noroeste – to fight against exploitation and all of its effects. PCUN has advocated for Oregon farmworkers and working Latinx families, working tirelessly to empower these communities to understand and take action against systematic exploitation and its harmful effects.