How to campaign
Easy steps to campaigning success
1. Plan
Decide what you want to change and create clear and achievable aims, plans and objectives. Study your aims, study the environment and decide who needs to change their mind for your campaign to succeed.
2. Research
Make sure you know what information is already out there. Read up and record data from other voluntary organisations' research, Government reports, Freedom of information requests, Census data and articles in the media that will support (and counter) your aims and arguments.
Once you have got hold of all the readily available research and opinion, collect what is known as ‘primary evidence' - things like statistics and personal experience - that will point out the problems your campaign seeks to address. Both are powerful tools in putting together a compelling case.
3. Tell the world about it
Promoting your campaign to local media is usually a great way of gathering more support, raising awareness and reaching out to people. Good media coverage can help a campaign really take off.
It's not just about getting in the national newspapers or television and radio. Local newspapers sometimes support local campaigns and if you can get them on your side, your chance of success immediately increases. The following are also useful:
- Emails, letters, phone calls and texts - keep in touch with the right people
- The internet - check out marketing opportunities
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Social networking sites - people power is a good way to whip up a storm
4. Evaluate your campaign
Evaluating your campaign is a good idea for a number of reasons:
i) If your campaign was successful...you have a strong base on which to build further change and you can share your ideas with others about how to make a difference.
ii) If your campaign initially failed to achieve its aims...you are likely to have put together research, statistics, personal experience that can be used in other campaigns and you can learn what to do differently next time - we are all always learning.
To find out more about techniques and strategies for campaigning check out our Trailblazers' Campaigns Guide