Appleseed Network
National Appleseed's role is to organize, support and connect Appleseed centers. Appleseed provides start-up funding and staffing assistance, and recruits leadership to get new centers off the ground. Additionally, national Appleseed identifies, secures funding and organizes centers around national collaborative projects in its core issue areas: education, immigrant rights, financial access, health care and the continuing struggles of Hurricane Katrina evacuees.
The Appleseed centers function as independent organizations linked by the national network. Each center recruits its own leadership, raises its own sources of funding, and develops its own projects and strategies for reform. Although most center projects begin at the local level, almost all have national implications. Additionally, centers work actively with national Appleseed on collaborative projects, many of which grow out of local work in such areas as education, health care, and immigrant rights. Appleseed centers rely on a combination of staff and pro bono volunteers to conduct project work.