The Rcsinforest Action Network
RAN was founded in 1985 with the mission of prot ecting tropical rainforests and the human rights of people living in them. RAN used tools such as citizen protests, media, nonviolent civil disobedie nce, and publications to bring awareness to the issues and pressure governments, corporations, and lending institutions. RAN had about two dozen employees, all in the United States, organized in three departments: operations, development
(fundraising), and campaigns. RAN had a full-time media specialist who interacted with the news media and participated in campaign planning.
Within the campaigns department, RAN typically had a campaign manager for each …show more content…
We felt we could create more democracy in the marketplace than in the government.”
RAN’s Global Finance Campaign
Selecting a Target
In late 1999 RAN was concluding a successful 2-year campaign (led by Brune) targeting Home Depot, which had agreed to end by 2003 the sale of wood from endangered forests. For the Global Finance
Campaign, RAN planned to use a model similar to the one used for Home Depot—target a large, brand-oriented, U.S.-based multinational company that had a strong retail presence, was a leader in its industry, and had a key role in facilitating the destruction of old growth forests and supporting extractive industries. Because RAN was a small organization with the goal of shifting the practices of entire sectors, not just individual companies, it relied on the ripple effect of targeting a market leader.
One company stood out as the best target—
Citigroup, the world’s largest bank. Citigroup was the leading global, emerging market project finance bank, and developing country project finance bank.
Citigroup also had a key role in a number of specific projects that alarmed RAN, such as the Camisea pipeline in Peru (Citigroup was the financial …show more content…
In 2000 Citigroup had net income of $13.5 billion on revenues of $111.8 billion and had customers in over 100 countries and territories. Citigroup’s activities included global consumer banking, global corporate and investment banking, global investment management and private banking, and investment activities. Citigroup’s global consumer group offered banking, lending, investment services, and credit cards to customers in over 50 countries and tern- tories. The global consumer group reported core net income of $5.3 billion on $30.4 billion of revenues in 2000.
Citigroup had a public image and a brand to protect (in particular, its large consumer banking operation and credit card business), which made it an attractive target. Ilyse Hogue, RAN’s campaign manager for the Global Finance Campaign, said:
Citigroup had poured $100 million into its brand image, most recently on its “Live Richly” marketing campaign, which was predicated on the notion that “there is more to life than money.” We saw a company that was investing a lot in making the public believe that they