I've recently started doing some work exploring how adding a campaigning twist to leadership can enhance a leader. What do I mean by a campaigning twist? Well, for a long time I have been intrigued at the inter-relationship between campaigning and leadership. And I...
I have just put a new webinar on my site on 1832 and all that. Well, to be a bit clearer, it's about the development of Parliamentary Democracy in the UK. This short webinar offers a simple introduction to this important topic not just for campaigners. It was...
Over the last two months I have seen a dramatic surge in demand for my online campaigning courses. I like to think it is all those people at home around the world at the moment, using this time to sharpen up their campaigning skills. As we emerge out of the global...
Last month I saw my book sales reach 400! I was amazed, and even more so by that fact that it continues to sell around the world. When I wrote Campaigning for Change: an Essential Guide for Campaigning around the World, I realised that it would appeal to a small,...
'Your stuff is so simple'. This was the stark feedback from a colleague recently, who had just read my book: Campaigning for Change - an Essential Guide for Campaigning around the World. I am not sure that this statement was made as a compliment, but I took it as...
Working as I do on a variety of contracts around the world, it doesn't always start well! This was certainly the case for me in a recent assignment in Serbia. I was running a workshop for Roma community group leaders to introduce a simple approach to advocacy....
I am now entering my fourth year of working independently to help charities and NGOs to campaign for change around the world. One thing though that has challenged me during this time is what to call myself. The conventional description for the way that I am working is...
Last month I had the opportunity of running advocacy workshops for the Open Society Foundations in Georgia and Ukraine. My aim was to support parents who wanted to advocate for changes to support children better with conditions like autism. The campaigning passion of...
Since 2007, I have had the good fortune to be asked to run a session on the Certificate in Campaigning. This superb course, now on its 20th intake, is run by the National Council for Voluntary Organisations (NCVO). It aims to offer campaign training for people working...
There's a lot of talk at the moment in the UK charity sector about the importance of valuing the challenge from lived experience in both service delivery and campaigning. While people may be talking about it, there is one new report which is both compelling and...
I have thought a lot recently about what drives and motivates campaigns. When I look back on my campaigning, I know that it was when I had time with people who had lived experience of the campaigning issue that I really felt a sense of drive and purpose for the...
Having written in my last post about how you can overcome the language barrier, I faced a new challenge the other day on a webinar. I was due to run a webinar introducing a simple approach to advocacy for NGOs across Ukraine. There hadn’t had too much contact with the...
I've written before about how campaigning and challenging injustice shows our common humanity. Across the world I have met people wanting to campaign for change. I am interested in how to break through the language barrier to support them. My first experience of...
Last month I attended a meeting hosted by Women for Refugee Women and NACCOM to explore the possibility of a new campaign to end destitution. I wasn't too sure how I felt as I travelled to the meeting. While I was optimistic and hopeful, I was also slightly wary...
My last two blog posts have been about destitution, and whilst being a bleak issue, they have made the case for a new national campaign to end destitution. But don’t please get the idea that I think nothing is happening to tackle this issue. There is the great...
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...
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...