Jim Cason served the FCNL community for seventeen years. As Associate General Secretary for Policy and Advocacy, he was responsible for directing the full range of FCNL’s strategic advocacy work. In this capacity, he worked with program staff to develop long-term change strategies that accomplish our particular legislative goals.
Among his activities, Jim has organized public events with members of Congress, led efforts to reach out beyond our existing base to draw new constituencies into FCNL’s lobbying work and nurtured focused, strategic grassroots lobbying in key states and Congressional districts.
Jim comes to FCNL after more than 30 years working for social change as an activist, journalist, non-profit leader, and lobbyist. For eight years, Jim was the U.S. correspondent in Washington, DC for La Jornada, Mexico’s second largest daily circulation newspaper. Jim also worked as a Senior Editor for AllAfrica.com, the largest distributor of news and information about Africa in the world, a leader in providing web-based international news.
Previously, Jim was a research and writing fellow for the MacArthur Foundation, examining the role of U.S. development assistance in southern Africa, and he did several stints as a consultant to the United Nations researching the role of U.S. corporations in southern Africa. He has worked as a journalist, editor, and non-profit financial consultant.
In the 1980s, Jim served as Associate Director of the Africa Fund, developing anti-apartheid campaign materials, communications strategies, and framing issues for the organization. Among other tasks, Jim helped organize lobbying to pass the Comprehensive Anti-Apartheid Act of 1986 and work with the creative artists behind the Sun City project and Filmmakers United Against Apartheid. He was the Africa Fund staff responsible for supervision of a weekly television program broadcast on more than 60 PBS stations and directed the development and implementation of communications strategies behind campaigns such as Unlock Apartheid’s Jails and the One Person, One Vote Campaign.
He has served on the board of several national Africa organizations and worked as an adviser to a number of specific campaigns.
He is a graduate of Earlham College.
jimcason@fcnl.org