Getting your campaign started

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What is campaigning?

The UK Government now recognises campaigning as:

a range of activities by organisations ‘to influence others in order to effect an identified and desired social, economic, environmental or political change’.

Reference: HM Treasury, Cabinet Office The future role of the third sector in social and economic regeneration (2007) p17

Here are some steps to take when starting your campaign:

Describe the context of the campaign

This will help you focus your thinking, your planning and your campaign:

• What is the issue? 
• Why is it a problem?
• What will you do to address it?
• What is the timescale?
• How will you measure success?

Define the problem and the solution

You need to be able to define the problem if you want people to care about it:

• Who is affected?
• Tell people’s stories if you can
• Why should it be resolved?

Explain the benefits

• What evidence do you have?
• Why is your organisation the one to solve it?
• How will you solve it?
• ­List the actions you’ll take.

Explain what you want to achieve

You need to define exactly what you want from the campaign. With fundraising this is easy: ‘we want to raise £10,000’. It is measurable and you know when your campaign has succeeded. When you are campaigning to change the law, this can be a complex process, but the outcome has to be clear.

In other areas of campaigning it is more difficult. You may want to change behaviour or the way people feel about an issue. Define your outcome in a way which you can measure. 

You may want to assess the current situation (for example 10 per cent of residents agree healthy eating is important) then measure movement from there towards your campaign objective (for example 80 per cent agree). That way you can tell how well your campaign is progressing – and when it has succeeded!

This can be difficult. People sometimes resist being measured. You may have to take this into account. Just remember, if you’re going to change the world, you need to be able to tell when you have done it.

Know your audience

Try to gather all the information you can about the target audience(s). Think about their level of awareness, their attitudes, their demographics etc. What arguments, messages and images will work best for them?

You might be tempted to be vague (‘the general public’) or to guess (‘people think…’). You may guess right, but you may not. Be practical and find out everything you can about the people you need to reach. What are their values?

Even simple research is better than just guessing. Ask members of your target audience about the issue and the solutions. The better you know your audience, the better you can persuade them.

Choose your actions

Campaign actions could include:

• public meetings
• advocacy
• lobbying
• petitioning
• media activity (including advertising)
• demonstrations and more...

Choose actions which help you reach your audience. Make sure your actions fit your purpose. Don’t produce thousands of paper flyers for an anti-littering campaign. If you want to empower young people, get them to join in and drive the campaign.

Source: Published with permission from the Directory of Social Change.

Have your say

Does your organisation run campaigns on a regular basis? Which have been the most succesful and why did they work so well.  Where have you had problems?

Have your say on the Campaigning and lobbying forum.