Why campaigning belongs in the boardroom

Campaigning is becoming harder. The Sheila McKechnie Foundation’s annual campaigner and changemaker survey presents a stark picture of the environment facing campaigners. More than two thirds of respondents, 69%, said things had got worse for campaigning over the past year, compared with 44% in 2016. Campaigners described a more polarised public and political environment, growing concerns about safety, hostile legislation, declining trust in institutions and persistent shortages of funding, time and capacity. 

Yet I was struck by the determination that sits alongside these challenges. Every respondent said it was legitimate for civil society organisations, including charities, to campaign for changes to policy, law, attitudes and behaviours. In 2016, 86% thought more campaigning would be needed in the following year. Today, 98% say civil society will need to campaign more in 2026. 

In other words, the harder campaigning becomes, the more campaigning is needed.  

At our recent seminar for trustees, supported by The Clothworkers’ Company, Katie Roberts CEO of the Sheila McKechnie Foundation, a charity that supports campaigners and strengthens civil society’s ability to create change, joined us to explore what campaigning in a changing political landscape means for trustees.  

My main takeaway was that a changing campaigning environment requires a change in how organisations approach campaigning. For trustees, that means neither ignoring risk nor allowing risk to become a reason for inaction. 

Campaigning is part of delivering your mission 

Campaigning can sometimes be treated as separate from a charity’s core work. But, as Katie argued during the event, campaigning is ultimately about achieving systemic and transformational change. It can seek to change policy and law, improve the way public services operate, or influence attitudes and behaviours.  

For many charities, it is an important way of addressing the underlying causes of the problems their services encounter every day. It could be a big national change or a more specific local one – depending on your charity’s mission. 

For me, this reinforces the importance of starting with purpose. Trustees should be asking: What change does our organisation exist to achieve? Who are we here to serve? Could campaigning work provide an effective route to contribute to the lasting change we want to see? 

The context is changing, so campaigning must evolve too

The Sheila McKechnie Foundation’s report suggests that the challenges facing campaigners are becoming more complex: chronic underfunding, shrinking teams, skills gaps and internal risk aversion are limiting organisations’ capacity to plan, innovate and sustain momentum in campaigning.  

One comment from Katie particularly stayed with me: when people are under pressure, they tend to revert to the ways they have always done things. But those familiar approaches may no longer be sufficient for the context in which charities are now operating. 

How can trustees support effective campaigning?

Trustees can help to break that cycle. They can give teams permission to try new approaches, learn from what happens and change course where necessary. Crucially, that permission must be reflected in plans, budgets and performance measures. 

One of the most useful parts of the event for me was hearing Katie translate the Sheila McKechnie Foundation’s three-year strategy into practical advice for trustees. It focuses on three areas where trustees can help create the right conditions for change: 

1. Collaboration and coalition working

Katie’s first challenge to trustees was to recognise that the scale and interconnected nature of social issues require organisations to work together. She encouraged trustees to consider who their organisation needs to collaborate with, and where it may need to let go of its brand, distinctiveness or visibility in pursuit of greater impact. 

This requires more than goodwill. The Foundation’s report finds that although 93% of respondents to the report wanted to collaborate more, 70% identified lack of time and 38% lack of funding as barriers. 

I think this raises important questions for trustees. Is collaboration genuinely reflected in organisational plans and budgets? Are teams being given the time to build relationships? Is the organisation prepared to contribute its particular strengths without always needing to lead or receive the greatest visibility? 

Sometimes achieving greater collective impact means giving up a degree of organisational control or recognition. Trustees can help create the confidence to make that choice. 

2. Innovation and adaptation

Trustees should also ask how their organisation’s campaigning is responding to changes in politics, technology and public engagement. Which tactics are still working? What needs to be tested? What skills, relationships and resources will the team need next? 

Katie noted that campaigns involving people with lived experience can be more effective, but meaningful involvement can take longer and requires proper resourcing, including recognising and covering the costs of people’s participation. 

Supporting innovation therefore means creating room for experimentation. Not every new approach will work, but organisations will struggle to adapt if teams feel they can only repeat tactics that have been approved and tested before.

3. Bridging and belonging

Finally, Katie highlighted bridging and belonging: bringing the conversation firmly back to people. Changing hearts and minds rarely happens by arguing someone into agreement. It depends on empathy, storytelling, common ground and relationships built over time. 

Belonging also begins inside organisations. With 43% of surveyed campaigners in the SMK’s report saying they sometimes or frequently worried about their personal safety, trustees need to ask whether staff, volunteers and people sharing lived experience feel safe, valued and properly supported. 

For me, one of the simplest but most powerful suggestions from the event was that trustees should speak directly to those involved in campaigning and ask: What is it like for you at the moment, and what do you need from us? 

Trustees do not need all the answers, but they must catalyse action.

Trustees do not need to have all the answers. But they do need to create the conditions for their organisations to collaborate bravely, adapt intelligently and look after the people doing the work. 

Campaigning is getting harder. Retreating from it will not make the need for change disappear. The question for trustees is not whether campaigning feels comfortable, but whether their organisations can fulfil their mission without it.