No-one living in the UK should be destitute. By destitute I mean having no job, no income, no benefits, no home, nothing. In the sixth largest economy in the world, no-one should be destitute. And if people are destitute, then just to survive they will be open to...
I've written a lot recently about the importance of passion in campaigning. And passion for a cause has been much on mind recently having just joined the trustee board of Voice of Domestic Workers. If you don't know about this charity they are well worth a look. They...
One area of work I have been thinking a lot about recently is how you can best support people to campaign once you have offered them some initial training on campaigning tools. Earlier this year I worked with the Czech-based INGO, People in Need (PIN) and their...
I’ve recently done a bit of work with Migrant Voice. If you don’t know them, they are well worthy of a look – and as the name suggests they are all about giving a voice to migrants. They were contacted last year by a group of international students, who had had their...
Last month I ran a workshop in Colombo for some community groups working to promote the rights of migrant workers both leaving and returning to Sri Lanka. What was starkly noticeable for me was their hunger for knowledge and practical advice to help their advocacy...
In the last few talks that I’ve given on campaigning in the UK voluntary sector, one theme has kept recurring – the need for passionate leadership. Speaking at UpRising national conference Now you may think that this is a statement of the obvious, but sometimes I do...
A New Year comes and I am trying out a new blog. I am fascinated at how many cases of injustice I come across in my work and how so often there is little or no change happening. My new blog injustice - but why? seeks to highlight such cases of injustice and asks why...
I recently ran an advocacy workshop in Pakistan. Having identified our priority issue, we then set about developing our message and working on the opposition messages on our issue. In two groups, we then began to develop a theory of change on our issue. I was...
A key challenge in the voluntary sector, where our mission is all about change and where campaigning is so vital to this mission, is how do we, in traditional organisational structures, allow this enabling environment for campaigning? One key answer to this challenge...
And there is one missing ingredient here – your theory of change. I remember doing a workshop in Sofia recently, and I did a session on the importance of having a theory of change. Later that day I was talking to a workshop participant; she told me that her heart had...
For me that is what campaigning is all about – that is what good looks like. It is not just about having a plan or providing regular updates. It is a living, breathing series of connected activities in the outside world all designed to build support and momentum for...
So in conclusion: you have your foundation of a clear message with compelling evidence for your campaign. You are then totally focussed on building support both internally and externally for your issue. You take every opportunity to: engage with your supporters; to...
And here are some more key areas of activity to help you build momentum for your campaign.... Public speaking: you accept every offer to speak in public on your issue. You see every external opportunity as a chance to enthuse more people and get them taking action to...
I’d like to suggest some key areas of activity to help you build momentum for your campaign. I haven’t been able to use all of these activities on all of my campaigns, but I have aspired to use them. So what are they? Supporters: you take your message out to your...
But then what do you do with this clear message and compelling evidence of the problem? Well I think you then look to build momentum and support for your campaign. Having secured your campaign foundation, you then look to get it rolling and build interest – and get...
To start off I think that a clear message is vital: embracing both a problem and a solution. Whenever I have been running a campaign, which has really been on a roll, there has been a very clear message or elevator pitch that not only my colleagues and I have been...
When I was at the Red Cross, I remember that they had a project on what a good local Red Cross area looked like; now while it is easy to ridicule such an initiative, I always thought that it was a compelling concept. To help you plan and build for the future what does...
One of my reflections having published my most recent book on campaigning last year is that I wonder if I should have added an extra chapter on what good looks like in campaigning? My 12 stage approach is designed to get people up and running in their campaigning, but...
Earlier this month the British Government announced that First Aid is going to be included in the school curriculum in England from 2020. This is huge news and could save thousands of lives in the future. But this breakthrough made me reflect that campaigning takes...
Last week the Sheila McKechnie Foundation (where I am an associate) launched a new report as the culmination of the Social Change project - Social Power: how civil society can 'Play Big' and truly create change. I've seen many of these reports come and go over the...
I'm just back from running a workshop in Thailand where we were seeking to review a global campaign and discuss next steps with 40 people present. How can you do meaningful planning with so many people? We used the World Cafe method - I've used this approach in a...
I've just finished two assignments in Bulgaria and Thailand. Both workshops worked really well and whilst they were focussed on totally different issues, I think that their common element was that the participants all had a burning desire to campaign for change. I've...
I’ve just come back from Sofia where I was running an advocacy workshop for the Romani Early Years Network (REYN), which has members supporting Roma communities in 11 countries across Europe. I was struck during the first session at their insistence that the people in...
Over the past month I have been running a series of workshops for small charities supporting refugees and migrants to help their volunteers and staff develop their confidence to speak with impact in public. I do think that the ability to speak with impact in public is...