Our team
CCL’s mission is brought to life every day by our powerful grassroots volunteer network, guided by our national staff and board members, and inspired by the vision of our founder.
Our volunteers
CCL volunteers are essential to our organization’s mission. In partnership with staff, they make change happen by working in their communities and with their lawmakers.
Our volunteers are organized into 350+ chapters across all 50 states. They share a common goal of addressing climate change, and they all come from different backgrounds and walks of life.
Learn more about the diversity of CCL’s volunteers and how we’re building a welcoming organization where everyone belongs.
See what our volunteers have been up to lately
Celebrating clean power and community outreach on Sun Day
Many CCL chapters conducted outreach on Sun Day, a nationwide day of action celebrating and educating people about the power of clean energy.
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Reflections on Community at CCL’s 4th Annual Inclusion Conference
CCL Inclusion Fellow Phalika Oum reflects on CCL's 4th annual virtual Inclusion Conference, “Rooted in Care, Growing in Community."
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Part social, part productive: CCL summer get-togethers
CCL volunteers found connection and camaraderie at social events this summer, from chapter picnics to postcard writing parties.
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Leadership
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Governing boards
Citizens’ Climate is structured as Citizens’ Climate Education, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, and Citizens’ Climate Lobby, a 501(c)(4) lobbying organization. The work of both organizations is conducted by a shared staff, with oversight from distinct governing boards. Board members have the option to serve on either or both boards.
CCE Board Officers
CCL Board Officers
Board Members
Founder’s story
Marshall Saunders
1939 – 2019
Citizens’ Climate Lobby Founder Marshall Saunders attended his first meeting as a citizen lobbyist on Capitol Hill in 1994. He left with a better understanding of the power that a well-organized, properly trained group of citizens could wield to make the world a better place.
After learning about the urgency of climate change in 2006, he began giving talks to audiences about climate change and the personal choices people could make to reduce their carbon footprint. He started to realize, however, that those personal choices were being dwarfed by the policy choices being made by lawmakers in Washington.
During one presentation at a senior citizens center, a concerned woman asked him: “What should we do?”
“What’s needed is thousands of ordinary people organized, lobbying their members of Congress with one voice, one message, and lobbying in a relentless, unstoppable, yet friendly and respectful way.”
The woman asked, “Why don’t you do that?” and by 2007, the first chapter of Citizens’ Climate Lobby was founded.
Marshall exemplified the notion of being the change you wish to see in the world. Always kind, always generous, and leading with love, he took it a step further, empowering tens of thousands to be the change. As Marshall told CCL volunteers in 2013:
Are you ready to solve climate change?
Volunteers like you are working together for national climate action. Join today to be one of them!