Campaigning
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Influencing long-term change through activism and advocacy is a fundamental part of the charity sector’s work, and has been for centuries.
But it isn’t easy. Advocacy is by nature a risky business with no guarantee of success. A charity campaign may play out over many years in complex and changing conditions. How do you even start to achieve your campaigning goals? How do you know if your campaign has made a difference?
We think charities can plan campaigns that make an impact, and can understand how their work has affected social change.
Find out how our insights could help you plan, monitor and assess your campaigns.
Key tools, resources and commentary on campaigning
Walking the Talk
Walking the Talk is our cross-sector partnership to help charities improve their diversity
How can you tell if your campaign is shifting the dial?
Now we have another general election around the corner, many charities will be gearing up to get their causes up the policy agenda. But in such a complex and ever-changing environment—where attitudes and the policy agenda are affected by a million different factors—how can campaigners know if their efforts are having an impact?
Measuring your campaigning impact: An introduction
NPC’s briefing paper following our event on how charities can measure the impact of their campaigning work.
Shifting the dial: How to take an impact-focused approach to your policy change campaigns
A practical guide to focusing on impact while planning, delivering and evaluating a campaign.
Closing in on change: Measuring the effectiveness of your campaign
Campaigning is a powerful tool for bringing about social change, but it is a risky pursuit for many charities, involving as it does the spending of often scarce time and money on activities for which success is far from guaranteed. Measuring the impact of your campaigning will raise your confidence in pursuing this course, as well as fulfilling your responsibility to assess whether—and how well—your strategy works.
Campaigning for change: In it for the long haul
The Quakers have been campaigning for centuries, and have been at the forefront of some of the most significant social reforms in history. Here Recording Clerk of Quakers in Britain Paul Parker shares what have they learned about what makes effective activism, and how they're working to increase their impact.
Campaigning coalitions: How to unlock effective activism
Campaigning has gained a new lease of life recently. But today’s challenges are too complex for any one organisation to tackle alone. Nick Martlew of Crisis Action argues why working in a coalition is a powerful way to campaign, and explains how to make collective action a success.
Charities must stay out of politics? No way.
The claims from the British Red Cross that the NHS is facing an ‘humanitarian crisis’ have sparked a new row about charities and ‘political’ campaigning. With experience in the political world, Patrick Murray understands where these concerns come from. But, he argues, the things that frustrate those in politics about charities are exactly the reason they're needed.
‘An echo chamber of worry’: How charities are responding to the Lobbying Act
Last week, NPC hosted a roundtable that asked whether charities are playing it safe with their campaigning activities in response to the Lobbying Act. Attendees included charity professionals, and campaigning and legal experts. Katie Boswell, who attended the event, summarises the insights and opinions of those present.
Campaigning for social change: The role of trustees
NPC’s briefing paper for trustees following our seminar on the role of charity trustees in campaigning.
Critical masses: Social campaigning, a guide for donors and funders
Social campaigning has led to some of the greatest social and political improvements in modern history: the abolition of slavery; the extension of suffrage; the banning of landmines; and debt cancellation for the poorest countries.
Campaigning in an era of major political shifts
Warren Buffett has contributed greatly to campaigns around women’s reproductive health. But as Trump and his party take control, will all of Buffett’s efforts be for naught? Is it a waste of money for philanthropists to invest in research and campaigns on issues that are subject to the whims of a shifting political landscape?
