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How to plan highly effective campaigns
Many people are active organising campaign to achieve social change. But why do some succeed quick while others languish for years? Chris Rose provides tips and examples on how to plan an effective campaign strategy and what needs to be considered.
How to plan a campaign
Seasoned transport campaigner Christine Laurence developed this 19 page manual to integrate the suite of practical campaign planning tools she collected and developed. Christine’s report of her Churchill Scholarship is one of our more popular downloads.
Strategic questioning: An approach to creating personal and social change
Strategic questioning is the skill of asking the questions that will make a difference. It is a powerful tool for personal and social change. It is a tool for giving service to any issue … as it helps people discover their own strategies and ideas for...
The Evaluation Exchange
This 32-page issue of The Evaluation Exchange describes new developments in evaluating advocacy and policy change efforts that attempt to inform or influence public policy.
Comm-Org
Moderated and edited by Randy Stoecker, Comm-org’s mission is to link academics and activists, and theory and practice, toward the goal of improving community organizing and its related crafts. Terrific resources, case studies and links.
Sierra Club Training Academy
Would you like to become a more effective advocate on an issue? Ever wondered about the best way to organize a campaign? Would you like to increase your communication skills? If so there is a great resource available to you: The Sierra Club Grassroots Organizing...
Steve Chase’s blogspot: a well trained activist
news, views and resources from members of Antioch University New England’s Environmental Studies masters program concentration in Advocacy for Social Justice and Sustainability.
Soul of a citizen: living with conviction in challenging times
“Each year in my Citizen Advocacy and Social Movements class, students are looking for reasons to believe change is possible, that activism is worth the effort, and that ‘ordinary people’ like themselves can make a difference. I give copies of Soul to every new...
Mechanisms of change
We each have our own understandings and assumptions about how we’re most likely to achieve our campaign objective. These theories of change guide what we do and what we don’t do. How we spend our time and what we’re most strongly motivated to do. Often, our...
Powerful action groups: Resources for activist educators and facilitators
18 pages of our favourite resources on facilitation and activist education, collated for convenors of action groups
Ankle walk
Here’s a challenging exercise for practicing making decisions and communication, and deepen a group’s capacity to work more effectively together.
Critical path analysis
A critical path charts a sequence of outcomes or changes that are necessary between where we are (here and now) and the resolution of the problem we’re campaigning to solve. This tool helps campaigners to articulate their assumptions about how the intended...
Cutting the issue
It’s next to impossible to make a difference on a huge problem. How you ‘cut’ the problem into issues will influence your prospects of success, and the consequent impact. What parts of the problem (and the solution) are amenable to your...
Power mapping
An exercise to map who’s who to prioritise points of influence or change, and generate ideas for strategy: a great exercise to focus your campaign efforts.
The wave: Where we stand in relation to…
A great exercise to encourage people to recognise and empathise with different viewpoints relating to a social problem, developed by Christine Herzog of AWEA.
Theories of change
Encourages groups to articulate their beliefs about power and agency, and to work towards a match between their beliefs and actions.
Rating Scale: How well does your group empower its members?
A questionnaire for group members to complete and discuss.
Maximise-minimise learning
A powerful method for engaging participants in a process of becoming responsible learners, identifying strategies for maximising learning, and encouraging personal self-reflection.