Planning an effective campaign

So you’ve got your aim, strategy and impact, what more is there to think about? Well, just a few things.

We want to help you avoid rushing into a series of activities which have very little bearing on what you want to achieve.

If you go down this route, you may as well wander through London in no particular direction with a placard on which is written ‘down with this sort of thing’.

A little more planning and you’ll be there, and you may even decide that humourous placards form a key part of an effective campaign…

Deciding on campaign actions

Once you have defined your outcomes, you can move on to listing two or three outputs that will achieve your outcomes. You may already have done this through creating a Theory of Change.

For example, your impact may be to make students feel less stressed around assignment deadlines and one of your outcomes would be to keep the university facilities open later. One of your outputs to achieve this outcome would be getting 1000 students to email the Vice-Chancellor or Principal.

• insider – campaigning that works with targets through established channels (lobbying, public meetings, consultations);
   
• outsider – pressure exerted on targets through means outside of established channels (demonstrations, direct action, social media)

Keep in mind that the distinction between insider and outsider campaigning is fluid and changeable. Some tactics can be both inside and outside established channels, and many campaigns involve both. Whatever tactics you choose, your decision should be based on your aim and strategy.

When should I chain myself to a railing?

If your campaign aims to amend a specific clause of college or university policy and you have established a good working relationship with the Principal or Vice-Chancellor, beginning your campaign with an occupation may not be the most effective tactic.

However, if you cannot persuade your targets through argument alone, demonstrating the level of support behind your cause and applying pressure through less established channels of influence may well tip the balance of success in your favour.

Influencing

How do you know who to target? Who holds power and where do you focus your campaign?

An influence map is a helpful way of illustrating this. Plot each of the stakeholders in your campaign on a graph such as the one below, according to how helpful their views are and how much power they have over enacting the change you seek.

From NUS’ Hidden Course Costs campaign
Aim: to remove all hidden course costs, by ensuring institutions absorb all essential costs; are fully transparent on all costs; and provide means-tested support where this is unfeasible.

Once you have an understanding of your stakeholders and their position in relation to your campaign, you can then use the map to work out who to influence.

Analyse the power of your stakeholders using a table like the one below. Think about what alliances you can make…

Friends	Foes	Floaters
Local NGO student activist group NUS Other students’ unions Campus/college newspaper B Students	Vice-Chancellor/Principal Campus/college newspaper A University Council Local newspaper A	Local MP Local newspaper B

Power has many faces – ensure you know who holds power, and what forms of power you hold, so you know to target and how to campaign. Power can be:

• visible – operating through laws, institutions and decision-making
• hidden – operating behind the scenes to set the public and political agenda
• invisible – operating to shape norms, beliefs, ideas and behaviour

Power can also be positive

• power with – collective strength when people work together through alliances
• power to – the capacity to shape your life and change wider society
• power within – individuals’ sense of self-worth, confidence and identity

Press and media

Ensure you have a communications strategy built into your campaign from the beginning and your off and online communications are integrated. Some things to consider:

• your target’s current views – the value and belief frameworks they use
• how your issue is perceived by other audiences
• your organisation’s credibility
• whether your target has the resources to make a difference.

Research your audience and your targets. Where do they get their news? What communications do they use? Ensure you have a clear idea about what you’re asking your audience to do.

Ask yourself why your issue is important now – what is your story? Personal stories and testimonies can often be really effective in gaining people’s attention. Think about what is most likely to be taken up by each news outlet.

Consider citizen journalism and social media – bypass traditional channels and be creative – empower your supporters to make films and do interviews and post them online! Or you could generate interest in your issue around an action on Twitter, for example using a hashtag for a twobby of MPs

Lobbying

Influencing local or national government can be hugely instrumental in helping you win your campaign. MPs, councillors, Peers or civil servants will be subject to lobbying from numerous interests including those opposed to your campaign aim. Find out who you need to influence and do some research on them…

A good place to start with lobbying may be your local MP, use the website http://www.theyworkforyou.com/ to do some research on them, and/or the Parliament website to find out about what is going on in the House of Commons and House of Lords, plus how the system works - http://www.parliament.uk

Have clear asks in mind and target your messaging according to what you know about them – their party politics, portfolio and/or interests and voting history.

If the MP is in the government they may not be able to criticise policy but could raise your issue, whereas a backbench MP could table a Parliamentary Question.

Develop a work plan

Ensure you develop a timeline of tasks to detail your strategy in workplan everyone can agree on:

Outcome 1 to achieve Objective 1
Task	Resource needed	Who	Deadline

Monitoring

Without monitoring or evaluation, you can’t check whether you’re on track to reach your objectives and make an impact. But what is the difference between monitoring & evaluation?

• monitoring should be about tracking progress to your intended outcomes
• evaluation is about reflecting on and assessing your progress, usually at the end

You can use your impact chain or Theory of Change outcome map to develop simple indicators to monitor impact. Monitoring needs to happen from the beginning of your campaign – your strategy should be a working document.

To consider:

• measure what is important, not what is easy
• keep it simple and user-friendly
• link your measures to action

This simple table enables you to detail an outcome, an output and your impact, a target which will let you know you have reached them, and an indicator of progress.

You can then note down how you will collect data.

Outputs	Indicator (if any)	Target	How to create the data
Outcomes	Indicator (if any)	Target	How to create the data
Impact	Indicator	Target	How to create the data