Looking for articles, books, case studies, tips about social change and activism? You’ve found the right place – The Commons Social Change Library.
The “8-Fold Path” is a list of eight operating principles for building a progressive people’s movement in the 21st century. It is used by all the members of the OPEN Network, which includes organisations around the world like GetUp (Australia), MoveOn (United States), and Campact (Germany).
Methodology and results of an experiment run by GetUp on the effect of banner images on email click rates.
Methodology and results of GetUp’s use of ‘list quality’ to improve testing and predictions.
Advice that can easily be adapted to your needs whether it’s meeting with an MP (or Senator) yourself or helping your members do it.
Methodology and results of experiments run by GetUp in digital fundraising.
The media can be a powerful mode of communication which can have a big impact on the success or failure of our initiatives. But how do we ensure our communications are strategic and don’t just end up being more noise?
Activists are often so focused on problems – it’s important to take in wins, whether big or small, to sustain us through the struggle. This article includes reminders of what we can celebrate, how, and why it is so important.
Trying to get your campaign moving fast and need your thoughts in one place? This is a simple template for designing an advocacy campaign that should help.
Writing opinion pieces for the media is a powerful way of shifting the public conversation. Here are some great tips to get you started.
A summary of Bill Moyer’s Movement Action Plan. He describes eight stages through which social movements normally progress over a period of years and decades. It provides organizers with a map of the long road of successful movements.
Joel Dignam reviews Jane McAlevey’s No Shortcuts: Organising for Power in the Gilded Age. McAlevey outlines a critique of most contemporary union campaigning, using case studies and other analysis to argue for a deeper more rigorous approach to organising.
Anita Tang reflects on meeting Daniel Hunter and reading his book Strategy and Soul. She shares insights from his work which can contribute to strategic and soulful campaigning.
This tool will guide your team through a power mapping analysis to inform your campaign strategy with a thorough picture of the players, and their power. It runs step by step through a collaborative exercise where your team can all contribute to visual map of power holders and power relationships affecting your issue and campaign.
From time to time, you may need to respond to a difficult situation on your organisation’s social media networks. Keep this crisis checklist on hand to ensure that you can deal with any problems that arise quickly and effectively.
Evaluating the impact of advocacy campaigns can seem impossible. Here are three handy guides that can help you undertake effective monitoring and evaluation of your advocacy and campaigning.
A clear Facebook comments policy is central to making sure everyone is aware of how they are expected to behave when engaging in your community’s online conversation. Take some inspiration from this example written by Jessie Mawson for Amnesty International Australia.
A short guide with tips, examples and a template to help you master the basics of writing an effective media release.
For volunteers or staff to be driven to do their work, it must be motivational, both ‘extrinsically’ and ‘intrinsically’. However, we often the intrinsic elements of the work. Read on to learn about how to design tasks to make them more intrinsically motivational. Your staff and volunteers will benefit!
Social media is a powerful tool for creating change. Your tweets and Facebook posts have the potential to raise awareness of your cause, to get people talking, and to inspire your community to action. Not sure if your online activity is helping to maximise your impact? This how-to guide will help you ensure that your […]
Learn from research conducted by the Asylum Seeker Resouce Centre on what language/messaging is most effective in getting others to shift their ideas on people seeking asylum.