Introduction
Is your campaign about people, or staff? Distributed, or centralised? This worksheet outlines six factors to think about when analysing how ‘open’ your campaigns are, from the participants of MobLab’s Open Campaigns Camp.
There are no set rules or definitions for open campaigns, but there are a number of different ways in which a campaign or organisation can be “open.”
Participants of Open Campaigns Camp surfaced these six questions to help guide your thinking about open campaigns and strategies.
The Chronicle of Philanthropy offered this guidance to readers when it republished the checklist:
Think of the elements and the corresponding volunteer involvement as levers organizers can pull depending on the campaign’s goals and needs. Some campaigns may blend organization-focused activities with grass-roots approaches.
Print them out, stick them by your desk, and use them to analyse the kinds of campaigns you’re building!
Consider the factors above when building or analysing your campaign. But don’t worry if you find that your campaign is on many varying points along the spectrums; this is designed to facilitate discussion, not serve as a list of must-haves.
6 Elements
How can you open up your campaign or strategy for wider ownership, leadership, and participation?
Here are six elements to consider:
Initiated by… (Staff ⟷ People)
- Who conceives of the campaign or project — staff, or individuals outside of the organisation?
Access (Read ⟷ Write)
- To what extent can people make unique contributions to a project’s strategy or design?
- Can participants influence its shape and trajectory (write) or is the strategy predetermined (read only)?
Decision Making (Centralized ⟷ Distributed)
- Do participants have agency in how to implement their project/campaign (distributed) or does the organization maintain overall control (centralized)?
Diversity of Activities (Consistent ⟷ Creative)
- Are tactics consistently applied everywhere, or is there space for local or individual creativity?
Acting as… (Individuals ⟷ Network)
- Are people acting completely on their own, or does the organisation facilitate connections with others?
- How much professional support do people / their ideas receive?
Duration (Moment ⟷ Sustained)
- Is this effort focused on a particular moment (e.g. day of action), or a longer sustained effort (e.g. community or local group organising)?
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Explore Further
- Key Resources from Mobilisation Lab
Reports, toolkits, templates and guides from Mobilisation Lab including campaign strategy, storytelling, digital campaigning, security and more. - Campaign Accelerator Toolkit
A toolkit to accelerate the planning process so we can get campaigns out the door faster to create more effective people powered campaigns. - Context Map Template
This Context Map template allows a team to foster a collective understanding of the overall context in which a campaign is happening. - The Campaign Canvas
From vision and strategy to storytelling and metrics, this template ensures you’ve touched on all the essentials of an effective campaign.
