An introduction to…… Running a campaign Each year hundreds – if not thousands – of campaigns create massive change to the world’s social, political, economic and environmental landscapes. But every year hundreds more campaigns flounder and fail. As passionate, enthusiastic people, campaigners are often so keen to get working on an issue that they don’t stop to take the time to go back to the basics of running a campaign – especially when it comes to effective planning. This guide will help you to plan and run your campaign as effectively as possible – creating the change you want to see. Many of the steps and processes we recommend you use are difficult to explain so this guide makes use of several examples. It will be up to you to make something similar but relevant for your campaign! Your starting point Broadly speaking, there are two starting points for a campaign: Filling a gap Sometimes you see a news stories or two and think “there should really be a campaign on that”. These campaigns are the most common of the two types, and make life a great deal easier in that you should have your target audience and at least some of your aims and objectives for the campaign. Starting from scratch Some people just want to help out with a big objective like ending poverty, but aren’t sure where to start or where they fit. This is a more difficult process as you need to go through a process called a ‘critical pathway’ to work out what you can do as part of the wider movement. Practical Action The Schumacher Centre for Technology and Development, Bourton on Dunsmore, Rugby CV23 9QZ, UK T +44 (0) 1926 634400 | F + 44 (0) 1926 634401 | E practicalaction@practicalaction.org.uk | W www.practicalaction.org Practical Action is the working name of Intermediate Technology Development Group | Registered Charity No 247257 An introduction to…… Target audience The next thing you need to think about is your target audience. To do this, ask yourself two questions: Who do you want to target with your campaign ? a decision maker who is supportive of your cause a decision maker who is not supportive of your cause the government as a whole the behaviour of the general population? Who is going to enable you to achieve the campaign? the support of a large group of the general population the media other organisations with a similar overall aim (e.g. anti-poverty groups) By answering each of these questions, you can better tailor your campaign. For example, if you’re really going to need press coverage, your campaign is going to need to include something mediafriendly like a visual stunt. If you’re main target is a single decision-maker, mass media support may not be as useful as garnering the support of as many of their constituents as possible which would require other tactics. Remember to consider how you target not only those who will support you but those who will not! A critical pathway If you are taking the “starting from scratch” route, the first thing you need to do is work out exactly what you want to achieve. To do this, we recommend going through a process called a ‘critical pathway’. Essentially this is starting with what you’d really like to do in an ideal world (e.g. “solve climate change” or “end poverty”). It’s unlikely that you’ll achieve this top-end ask, but it’s a great starting point. From there you work backwards, getting smaller in scale as you go, each time asking yourself “what needs to happen to achieve this?” A critical pathway is a very difficult thing to describe, so see below for an example of one created for a youth organisation working on climate change. You will see that the blue box is what they want to achieve (a “clean, just future for all”). Clearly one youth organisation isn’t going to achieve that alone. But the five boxes in red represent the different avenues which would achieve that goal if they all changed. The green boxes break the red ones down into smaller targets again, and the purple represent the realistic opportunities for the organisation to input into, and impact upon, the top-level target. Notice that not every campaign or organisation will target every path of change, it’s about choosing the ones that are realistic for you. Practical Action The Schumacher Centre for Technology and Development, Bourton on Dunsmore, Rugby CV23 9QZ, UK T +44 (0) 1926 634400 | F + 44 (0) 1926 634401 | E practicalaction@practicalaction.org.uk | W www.practicalaction.org Practical Action is the working name of Intermediate Technology Development Group | Registered Charity No 247257 An introduction to…… Practical Action The Schumacher Centre for Technology and Development, Bourton on Dunsmore, Rugby CV23 9QZ, UK T +44 (0) 1926 634400 | F + 44 (0) 1926 634401 | E practicalaction@practicalaction.org.uk | W www.practicalaction.org Practical Action is the working name of Intermediate Technology Development Group | Registered Charity No 247257 An introduction to…… Aims and objectives Once you have your critical pathway clear and you have a much clearer idea of what form your campaign is going to take, you then need to come up with a list of aims and objectives of your campaign. Aims and objectives are key to helping you to remember the specific things you want to achieve with your campaign, preventing your campaign from becoming very vague and ineffective. The aims of a campaign are the broad, qualitative ambitions. Objectives, on the other hand, are more specific, quantitative ambitions. Below is an example of a set of aims and objectives created for a youth climate change summit: Aims Unite people across the political and social spectrum under the themes of green jobs, skills and energy. Inspire young people to lead their campus/community into climate action. To build political capital i.e. an understanding and awareness amongst decision makers that the issue of climate change, green jobs and unemployment are intrinsically linked issues that young people are passionate about and want/expect change on. To create greater media and social awareness about positive youth engagement that includes but is wider than climate change. To begin to create a generation that is aware of the interconnectedness of issues, actions, consequences etc. To make young people in the UK feel that they are a part of a wider European Youth Climate Movement who are working together to effect change at a wider level. Objectives 1700 young people trained in public narrative 50% of attendees say this is the first time they’ve ever been to a climate-related event In a survey 3 months after Power Shift ‘11, 50% of attendees report getting involved in a campaign/project, or starting their own Have representation from each core political party involved in Power Shift A day of action that receives broadsheet and tabloid media coverage, along with local press, especially Manchester Attendees from each English region (e.g. South West, East Midlands) and devolved administration (Scotland, Wales, N. Ireland) of the UK, with at least 50% of attendees from outside of London To award bursaries to 20% of our delegates To break even financially Practical Action The Schumacher Centre for Technology and Development, Bourton on Dunsmore, Rugby CV23 9QZ, UK T +44 (0) 1926 634400 | F + 44 (0) 1926 634401 | E practicalaction@practicalaction.org.uk | W www.practicalaction.org Practical Action is the working name of Intermediate Technology Development Group | Registered Charity No 247257 An introduction to…… STOP! Think. Research. At this point it is useful to stop and think and research. Ask yourself the following three questions: 1. Is there another campaign or organisation out there doing the same thing as me? If so, could I just work to support that campaign instead of reinventing the wheel? 2. Is there a campaign or organisation that is doing something complementary or similar ? Could we team up to share resources and ideas to make both of our work more effective? 3. Are we best placed to do this? You may want to go an physically stop deep-sea oil drilling in the Arctic, but do you have the knowledge, time and resources to do this? Should you just leave this to Greenpeace? Probably. Messaging The next thing you need to do is think about how you message your issue and campaign. There are a few key tips to really effective messaging: Be funny! Humour appeals to everyone and will make your message stand out in a crowd. Be positive. The issue you are talking about may seem like (or be!) the end of the world, but many people will stick their heads in the sand if they are given a very doom-and-gloom message. Whatever the problem, you should make sure you also talk about the solution and how people can be a part of that. Have a killer fact. Something that will help people to understand the scale of the problem at hand. End with a clear ask. There’s nothing sadder than a campaign that wastes its energy on convincing people to take action on an issue and then giving them nothing to do! Always keep your audience in mind. Think about what appeals to them and then follow that theme. Practical Action The Schumacher Centre for Technology and Development, Bourton on Dunsmore, Rugby CV23 9QZ, UK T +44 (0) 1926 634400 | F + 44 (0) 1926 634401 | E practicalaction@practicalaction.org.uk | W www.practicalaction.org Practical Action is the working name of Intermediate Technology Development Group | Registered Charity No 247257
Practical Action,