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...
Since March of last year I have been running a series of posts on my blog about the obstacles to campaigning. If campaigning is as simple as I try to make out, why is it often so difficult to campaign? I've suggested that there are a number of obstacles that...
My advice here – and it is pressure that many advocacy campaigners are up against to come up with their indicators – is the same as I offered to the bureaucratisation challenge. It is so important to show that you are committed to being held accountable and to showing...
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The final obstacle that I have observed is the internal pressure to develop key performance indicators for advocacy campaigns. Now don’t get me wrong – targets can be very important for advocacy campaigns at the right times of the campaigning cycle. But rigid targets...
No blog posts for a while as I have been working to launch my new book and online training course on campaigning I am really excited to have published my book - Campaigning for Change: an Essential Guide for Campaigning around the World, which offers a simple and...
I’ve just come back from running an advocacy workshop for the Red Cross in Nepal, and I know that I have written about this before, but I am yet further enthused that advocating or campaigning for change is one vital part of our common and shared humanity. Despite...
I think that it is so important first of all to show as an advocacy campaigner that you are committed to being held to accountable and that you want no special favours. But you want to work in an environment that encourages responsiveness and innovation and allows you...
Another trend that I have observed especially in larger organisations is an increasing bureaucratisation of advocacy campaigns, by which I mean the campaign is almost suffocated by internal requests for plans, updates and monitoring. Don’t get me wrong; the advocacy...
It can be very difficult to cope with this ‘marketising’ pressure on your campaign as very often this pressure will come from senior levels of the organisation. Yet there needs to be a continued focus on what the advocacy campaign is all about; the advocacy campaigner...
Some examples of this 'marketising' happening are: An internal pressure for headlines for the organisation irrespective of whether this is helpful for the advocacy campaign. There can be stages of an advocacy campaign where profile is not helpful if the ultimate goal...