“ IF POLITICS IS THE ART OF THE POSSIBLE, CAMPAIGNING IS THE ART AND SCIENCE OF CHANGING WHAT IS POSSIBLE.”

HOW TO USE THIS TOOLKITThe purpose of this toolkit is to inform you on all things campaigns, to inspire you to want to create your own and to empower you to be able to run your own campaigns.

Introduction to campaignsCampaigning can mean protesting, lobbying, signing a petition, activism, advocacy or policy work and there are many ways to do it. The official definition of campaigning is: ‘organised actions around a specific issue seeking to bring about changes in the policy and behaviours of institutions and/or specific public groups…the mobilising of forces by organisations and individuals to influence others in order to effect an identified and desired social, economic, environmental or political change,’ – NCVO, 2011.

Why should I do it?You can campaign to create awareness or change behaviours, to create policy changes and to use your skills for something worthwhile. Perhaps the biggest reason you should do it is because it works! Many of the privileges that are afforded to us today can be attributed to successful campaigns. It allows you to create a real change and really make a difference.

Campaigning tacticsThere are many tactics you can use for your campaign. It’s important to remember that not all tactics are suitable for every campaign, so you should choose ones that are relevant for yours. It is common for campaigners to view tactics of campaigning (such as protesting) as campaigning activity rather than as a tool. Using an ineffective tactic for our campaign may actually hinder the cause. When selecting the tactics to use for your campaign you should keep in mind that a good campaign is one that uses a minimum amount of effort and resources to achieve the desired aim. You should choose the tactics you’re going to employ once you have developed an effective strategy.

THINGS YOU CAN DO:• PROTEST• FLASH MOB• LETTER WRITING• POSTCARD CAMPAIGN

• LOBBY• STUNT • PETITION • HOLD A PUBLIC MEETING

• RALLY• HASHTAG

CAMPAIGN

VISION WITHOUT ACTION IS ONLY DREAMING, ACTION WITHOUT VISION IS ONLY PASSING TIME, BUT VISION WITH ACTION CAN CHANGE THE WORLD” NELSON MANDELA

The aims of this section are to get you thinking about defining the goals and the actions you’d need to take to help you achieve these. The following steps are based on the campaigns cycle:

The campaigns cycle is an effective tool in visualising the steps involved in campaigning. The idea is that you perpetuate around the cycle until the campaign has finished.

STEPS TO BUILDING YOUR TEAM6RECRUIT Convince students they should get involved

DELEGATE Be specific on the tasks you want doing

MOTIVATE Inspire your team and tell them they can be effective

RECORD Track the activity of your team

REMINDEven the most committed members may forget

REPORT Communicate regularly on your collective efforts & celebrate

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ANALYSIS

STRATEGYDEVELOPMENT

PLANNINGCAMPAIGN, DELIVERY &

MONITORING

EVALUATION

STEP ONE ANALYSING THE ISSUEDescribe the context of the campaign, explore the issue & gather evidence

• What is the issue & why is it a problem?

• Analysing the context- the internal and external environment

• What do you plan to do to tackle it?

• What is your timescale?

• Is it winnable & popular?

• Do you have the resources (money/ people) to be able to do it? We have funding set aside for campaigns so get in touch with us to discuss this.

Build a campaigns teamA strong and effective campaigns team is crucial to the success of your campaign. Having a good campaigns team means you can delegate tasks according to an individual’s skill set.

STEP TWO EXPLAIN THE BENEFITS

STEP THREE DEFINE THE PROBLEM AND THE SOLUTION

Find out if you’re really passionate about the issue

• What is the key purpose of the campaign?

• Why would it be good to do it?

• Who benefits if you win?• Why is it worthwhile?

Use the evidence to develop a solution

• What are the root causes of the problem?

• What is the solution to the problem?

• Tell anecdotes or personal stories

• What will change look like?

• What impact do you want to achieve?

• What are the key milestones?

• Conduct a PEST/SWOT analysis

PROBLEM TREE SOLUTION TREE

CONSEQUENCES OF THE PROBLEM

EFFECTS OF THE CHANGE

THE IDEAL VISION YOU WANT

TO CREATETHINGS THAT WOULD CHANGE THE

ROOT CAUSES

SMARTOBJECTIVE

THE PROBLEM YOU ARE TRYING

TO CHANGE

ROOT CAUSES OF THE PROBLEM

PROBLEM TREE Roots, trunk, branches! Start by writing the problem on the trunk of the tree, under the problem write the root causes of the problem, above the problem write the consequences of it on the branches.

SOLUTION TREE Roots, trunk, fruit! Think about what would change the root causes, use the trunk to write down your vision and the fruits of the tree are the effects of the change.

stands for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats. As a group, you should conduct a SWOT analysis for the campaign. You could think about:

stands for Political, Economic, Social and Technological and is useful for analysing your ability to influence or create change. It’s more effective to conduct a PEST analysis with issues specific or relevant to your campaign. This will help you weigh up your chances of success.

SWOT

PEST

STRENGTHS

• resource• expertise• skills• capacity

• people• funding• timing

WEAKNESSES• current environment• future trends

THREATS• stakeholders• rival campaigns

OPPORTUNITIES• the positioning of

the issue• growing the campaign

STEP FOUR EXPLAIN WHAT YOU WANT TO ACHIEVEDevelop a clear strategy for change and plan your campaign

• Have a clear defined aim

• Develop a campaign concept to frame the issue

• Explain what you want to achieve & how you’ll do this

• Fill out an action plan

• Use SMART targets- ensures your targets are realistic, measurable and time-specific

• Factor in risk and for things to go wrong

• Get allies and supporters involved: collaborate with local groups and national organisations

STAY SMARTSpecific: that the outcome is concrete, detailed, focused and well-defined

Measurable: to measure progress towards your outcomes and impact

Achievable: have short and medium-term outcomes to build towards a long-term impact.

Realistic: that you have the resources; time, money, skills, to get it done

Time-bound: set deadlines for when your outcomes need to be achieved

For example:

‘We want anonymous marking at the university’ is not SMART.

‘ We want 65% of targeted courses running an anonymous marking system by the end of the academic year 2014/2015’ is SMART.

Since the first three steps have already been given a lot of focus, it’d be useful to touch upon impact here. It can be useful to first have in mind the impact you want your campaign to achieve, then to list the actions you’d need to take to achieve the impact, and then realistically plan the finer details.

The Good Campaigns Guide (NCVO, 2005) defines ‘impact’ as: ‘Significant or lasting changes in people’s lives, brought about by a given action, or series of actions’. It goes on to explain: ‘This definition is important because it identifies the ultimate goal of campaigning in relation to changes in people’s lives. Changes in institutional policies and practice, for example, should be seen as means to that end, not ends in themselves. Effective campaigning is about impact not action, results not effort, outcomes not outputs.’

THERE ARE FOUR KEY STAGES TO CAMPAIGN PLANNING:

ANALYSIS IMPACTPLANNING ACTION

Resources, finances, people

Actions you will take Effort generated by your activity

Energy: changes resulting from the outpurts

Change: in people’s lives or in govt. policy

INPUTS OUTCOMESACTIVITIES OUTPUTS IMPACT

The diagram shows related processes. Again it is useful to work backwards and start with the impact first and then the outcomes, outputs, activities and inputs. You should be able to write down in one sentence what your desired impact or main goal will be. This will form your campaign aim.

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Key questions for campaign planning:1) How do I know if I’ve picked the right issue?

Is it winnable, popular, and relevant?

2) What will change look like? How do we know when we have won?

3) Who are the key players in the campaign? Who will support you, who will oppose you?

4) How will people respond? What is the general opinion on the issue?

5) What resources do I need? Do I have the people, time and money I need?

Why is planning important?Planning is important as it ensures that your campaign is focused and effective. Campaigners are often keen to seize opportunities and follow their gut instincts without planning properly. This can lead to ineffective campaigning or the end goal not being achieved. It’s important to plan but don’t spend too much time doing it. View your plan as a working document which you can continuously edit.

PLANNING A SUCCESSFUL CAMPAIGN

STEP FIVEKNOW YOUR AUDIENCE

Gather information on your target audience

• Do you know how to reach them?

• If it’s a firm: do you understand their governance?

• Talk to your audience about the issue to gather opinions (GOAT & GOAL) - Go Out And Talk & Go Out And Listen

STEP SIX CHOOSE YOUR ACTIONS Choose what you’re going to do & go do it!

• Brainstorm ideas of activities & tactics

• Choose actions which will reach your audience

• Make sure your actions fit your purpose

• Assign activities to team members according to skills & experience

• Buddy up where possible

• Pitch the message to your target audience

ACTIONTalk about how you are going to make this change happen and what they can do to help you?

VISIONINGIllustrate that it is possible for their experience to change? Talk about how this would benefit them? What would need to happen to make this come about? Who makes the decision about the issue?

INJUSTICE INJECTIONIllustrate how their experience is unfair or wrong. Comparisons are often a good way to do this. Showing them that there is an alternative to their experience.

EXPERIENCEWhat is the person’s experience of this issue? How does the campaign affect them?

THE APATHY STAIRCASEYou can use the apathy staircase to inspire action from your audience when engaging them about your campaign.

ANGER: you can use anger to help overcome apathy by conveying your anger about a certain issue to people and allowing them to be angry about it too. The key to motivating your audience into taking action is by engaging with their emotions: anger, fear, hope, inspiration.

HOPE: anger without hope of a solution creates frustration. By presenting a realistic plan to resolve the injustice, anger can be transformed into hope and action.

ACTION: is the way to create change. Once people are hopeful, you must show them how their actions will contribute to making change. You could do this by describing the power of collective action.

SAY A-HA! STEP SEVEN MONITOR & EVALUATE• Monitor to ensure you’re on track• Evaluate the impact you made• Celebrate your successes

• Learn from your failures• Communicate what happened

EVALUATING YOUR IMPACTIt may seem burdensome, but monitoring and evaluating the impact during and after the campaign can ensure that you achieve the end goal in an effective manner. Monitoring is about assessing what you are currently doing against the agreed actions you’d planned and make sure you are meeting your deadlines. Evaluating is about reflecting on the lessons you learnt once the campaign has finished. When you develop your strategy, you should build in time to meet and evaluate.

1. Unclear aims and objectives

2. Activity planning happening before (or without) setting an aim

3. Lack of evidence

4. Going it alone

5. Targeting the wrong decision maker

6. Messages that people don’t care about

7. Forgetting to monitor and evaluate

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Key evaluation questions to ask:• What are we doing well and

what should we continue doing?

• What are we doing ‘okay’ or badly and what can we improve?

• What was supposed to happen, what actually happened and why were they different?

• In what ways has our understanding about the situation deepened or changed?

• What did you learn from the experience that you’d do differently for future campaigns?

DEADLY SINS OF CAMPAIGNING:7If you’re feeling inspired and want to run a campaign, drop an e-mail to: sucampaigns@bath.ac.uk, outline your idea and we’ll take it from there!