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Campaign Strategy: Training and Planning Tools

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Introduction

Training resources about campaign strategy for changemakers including workshop exercises, activities and templates to explore in a group setting. You can draw on these materials to put together training workshops and planning sessions. Remember to modify materials for your particular context.

This guides shares tools and activities which have been developed by many different trainers and strategists. Thank you to everyone who has made their work available for others to learn from. If you use materials please acknowledge the source and respect any licenses that apply.

This is a live list. If you have a resource to add please let us know.

Here are other training tools that may be of interest.

Training and Planning Tools

Campaign Strategy and Planning

Exercises and Activities

Choose a Target, Go Fossil Free, 350.org

  • Start planning your campaign
  • Learn what a good target is & how to choose the target of your campaign
  • Learn what campaign strategy and organising is

Time: 90 mins

Build your Strategy, Go Fossil Free, 350.org

  • Understand the key components of a good strategy
  • Have a clear vision of the difference between strategy and tactics
  • Identify your campaign target’s pillars of support, and your allies and opponents (and how to move them!)
  • Start building your own strategy!

Time: 90  mins

Campaign Planning 401: Tactics and Escalation, Powershift
Learning Objectives: Skills, Knowledge, and Attitude which learners should take away from this session.
● Learn the components of a strong tactic
● Understand how to plan escalating tactics in a campaign
● Know the difference between tactics and strategy
● Learn how to work backwards on a timeline to plan a campaign

Time: 120 mins

Campaign Plan, The Path of Most Resistance: A Step-by-Step Guide to Planning Nonviolent Campaigns,By Ivan Marovic, ICNC Press, see pgs 87-94
The group divides the campaign plan up into segments to work on then bring back together.
Time: 30 mins

Develop Campaign Strategy: Critical Path Analysis Process Guide, Daniel Hunter, James Whelan, Sam La Rocca
A process guide to be used in training workshops and planning sessions to develop campaign strategy.
Time: 90 mins

Strategic Needs Analysis Template, Organisational Strategy, Org Builders Toolkit, NEON, see pgs 13-16
What is your organisational need? This tool is designed to help you decide which areas of the strategy toolkit you need to focus on, and what timescale and process you should use to do so.
Time: 60 mins

Templates, Worksheets and Checklists

Problem & Issue Identification

Exercises and Activities

Problem/ Root tree analysis and solutions, Feminist Basket of Resources, see pgs 115 – 116
Help you strike at the root of a problem.
Time: 1-3 hours

Problem Tree Analysis: Problems, Causes and Consequences, Just Associates
This exercise is used to analyze the root causes of a problem and to identify the primary conse-quences. The tree provides a visual structure for the analysis.
Time: 1-2 hours

Problem Tree Analysis, The MSP Guide: How to design and facilitate multi-stakeholder partnerships
Create a structural analysis of the causes and effects of an issue or problem. Problem tree analysis (also called Situational analysis or just Problem analysis) helps to find solutions by mapping out the anatomy of cause and effect around an issue in a similar way to a Mind map, but with more structure. Problem tree analysis is bst carried out in a small focus group of about six to eight people using flip chart paper or an overhead transparency. It is important that factors can be added as the conversation progresses.

A Vision of the Problem, Organisational Strategy, Org Builders Toolkit, NEON, see pg 29
Doing strategy development can be very analytical, very ‘heady’ – it’s a lot of brain work. However, connecting to the problem often happens through our bodies, a gut feeling or rage in our hearts. A way to surface these feelings in a group is by inviting people to draw the problem as they see it. This can help get people out of their heads and into their feelings. As a process it doesn’t privilege those who’ve been educated to think in analytical terms – that’s not to say you won’t hear objections from people whose life experiences have encouraged them to believe and so say that they “can’t draw”. However, with a little gentle encouragement, often these people enjoy it the most. As your vision is often a world where your problem no longer exists, this process can also be used to identify your vision. It can be used for a group of individuals from multiple organisations attempting to identify a shared problem in a movement, or a group of people within a single organisation. Best of all, it’s quick!
Time: 30 – 60 mins

Checklist for Choosing an Issue, Midwest Academy/We Rise
Choosing an issue is one of the most difficult tasks. This activity helps a group define criteria for choosing an issue and use it to assess and explore strategic options. An organization should choose an issue that best furthers their values, credibility, opportunities and vision and results in impact on the problem.
Time: 2 – 3 hours

Problem Identification and Prioritization, WeRise Toolkit, JASS
Overview: This activity helps a group review problems in the community, and then using a set of criteria it has defined, determine which present the best avenues for action. Purpose: Choosing a priority issue from many pressing problems is not easy. It is a multi-step process involving analysis and negotiation within a group. Analysis is about asking why and probing for deeper truths. It is about weighing opportunities and challenges, looking closely at power dynamics and being honest about capacity. The poor choices that arise from inadequate analysis can be costly, an in politics, dangerous. This exercise helps a group to begin to identify and rank priority problems using a simple set of criteria. It can also help gain historical perspective on the problems and assess the impact of each problem from the points of view of those involved.
Time: 2 -3 hours

Templates, Worksheets and Checklists

Goals

Exercises and Activities

Goals Tool and Grassroots Goals, Organisational Strategy, Org Builders Toolkit, NEON, see pgs 66-70
Steps to develop your goals with your core people.
Time: 2-4 hours

SMART Criteria: Setting Campaign Objectives (using Gandhi’s Salt March Campaign as example, The Path of Most Resistance: A Step by Step Guide to Planning Nonviolent Campaigns, Ivan Marovic, ICNC Press, see pgs 37-43
Activity and handout to practice how to set SMART goals for a campaign.
Time: 35 mins

Templates, Worksheets and Checklists

Context

Exercises and Activities

Contextual Analysis, WeRise Toolkit, JASS
Overview: This activity can be used for many purposes: informing strategy, mapping power dynamics in our social and political landscape, and laying groundwork for risk assessment and planning.
Purpose: Understanding the context in which we are located and its power dynamics provides is vital for us as activists. The following activity leads participants through a process called contextual analysis that creates an overview of power dynamics in a specific time and place. It will yield important insights for any process. Because certain contexts and political moments are more dangerous than others we also begin our work on Dealing with Threats, Risks and Safety with this activity as well. Being able to analyze these contexts and threats, assess risks and develop protection plans are important skills both for survival and empowerment.
Time: 3 – 4 hours

Mapping the Movement / Movement Ecology, Organisational Strategy, Org Builders Toolkit, NEON, see pgs 39-40
This tool is to help you understand your movement in more detail, based on the movement ecology model put forward by the Ayni Institute.
Time: 2- 3 hours

Friends, Foes and Forces: A SWOT Analysis Overview, WeRise Toolkit, JASS
A SWOT analysis enables a group to assess the internal and external factors that may hinder or facilitate your group’s advocacy strategy in order to refine your goals, objectives, and activities.
Purpose: An assessment of political forces for and against your advocacy is sometimes called a “Stakeholder Analysis”, a term which can be misleading because it suggests an even playing field. In practice, the playing field is very uneven, and advocacy requires navigation of different power dynamics. So a crucial element of this analysis is weighing who has more power, who has less and what kind of power the different actors use. The following tools can assist you in sizing up the forces.
Time: 3 hours

SWOT Analysis, The Path of Most Resistance: A Step-by-Step Guide to Planning Nonviolent Campaigns,By Ivan Marovic, ICNC Press, see pgs 19-22
To conduct with small group before each campaign begins.
Time: 60 mins

SWOT Analysis, Organisational Strategy, Org Builders Toolkit, NEON, see pgs 17-18
As well as mapping the external context, it is important to assess the internal context of your group/organisation. Your own strengths and weaknesses will shape the kinds of things you think are possible for your organisation to do. So it is important to make your strengths and weaknesses explicit, then build on your strengths and see where you may have to address some gaps.
Time – 2-3 hours

Pillars of Power Analysis, Beautiful Trouble
Identify the institutions that your target relies on for support so you can weaken or disrupt their power.

Templates, Worksheets and Checklists

Theory of Change

Exercises and Activities

Theory of Change Development, Organisational Strategy, Org Builders Toolkit, NEON, see pgs 49-50
In this exercise you will be creating a basic theory of change containing the following elements. We’ve provided some illustrative answers for an organisation tackling low pay for nurses as a basic example, as laid out in the chapter above and repeated here for ease of reference, but this is likely to be more complicated for your organisation if you’re tackling a more complex topic.
Time: Half a day to a full day

Theory of Change, Beautiful Trouble

Lay a solid foundation for a campaign by working backwards from long-term goals to identify the conditions that must be in place in order to achieve those goals, and why.
Divide the participants into three groups where groups will work on ‘If’ (campaign action), ‘Then’ (campaign goal), and ‘Because’ (reasons to attain goal).
Time: 45 mins

Templates, Worksheets and Checklists

Tactics and Actions

Exercises and Activities

Tactical Planning Session, The Path of Most Resistance: A Step-by-Step Guide to Planning Nonviolent Campaigns, ICNC Press, see pgs 104-107
Getting the group to list, plan and assign tasks for each tactic.
Time: 90 mins

198 Methods of Nonviolent Action (Handout), K Gandhi Institute for Nonviolence and Albert Einstein Institute (PDF – 66 pgs)
Inspired by Gene Sharp’s 198 Methods of Nonviolent Action, this dynamic resource provides the framework for facilitators, educators, and community members to lead an experiential activity that helps participants get to know one another, learn about different nonviolent strategies, and connect nonviolence theory to real world examples.
Objectives: Participants will teach other group members about the method(s) of nonviolent action that has been assigned to them. Participants will connect each method of nonviolent action to at least one real-world example.
Time: 20-120 minutes 

Cost Benefit Analysis, The Path of Most Resistance: A Step-by-Step Guide to Planning Nonviolent Campaigns, ICNC Press, see pgs 77-83
Group exercise to evaluate tactics. E.g. make people aware of the costs of different tactics.
Time: 30 mins

Campaign Planning 401: Tactics and Escalation
A 7 page training PDF by Powershift Network about learning the components of a strong tactic, understanding how to plan escalating tactics in a campaign, knowing the difference between tactics and strategy and learning how to work backwards on a timeline to plan a campaign.

Harnessing Our Power to End Political Violence (Presentation Slides), 22nd Century Initiative, Hardy Merriman, Horizons Project, HOPE PV FET Facilitators Guide
Goals:

  • Build understanding of the contours of political violence, especially in our own contexts
  • Awaken imagination about how we might assertively respond in the face of threats or acts of political violence
  • Explore concepts that can help us identify and undermine political violence
  • Practice tools and approaches you can use at home right now or in a moment of crisis
  • Connect with others who are also working to interrupt political violence
  • Celebrate the ways our communities have creatively resisted political violence

Action Security and De-escalation, Choose Democracy
* How to make actions safer before, during and after an action;
* De-escalation with people on our side and opposition.
Time: 120 mins

Checklist for Planning Citizen Mobilization, WeRise Toolkit, JASS
Overview: Mobilizing community members is a vital part of advancing our agendas and rights and in holding decision-makers accountable. This checklist helps an organization think through the type, timing, capacity and focus of its citizen mobilization given its goals and context.
Purpose: This activity assists groups in developing strategies for citizen mobilization as part of an overall strategy to make change. It builds on power analysis and strategy development already completed, and enables planning on how and when to include mobilizations as a part of that strategy. Citizen mobilization can come in many forms and with many goals so it is important to think through what you are trying to achieve, what your capacity is and what kind of mobilization makes the most sense.
Time: 2-3 hours

Commons Library Creative Action Design (Video)
Holly Hammond, Director of the Commons Social Change Library, shares some useful resources for developing creative activist tactics. Tools include the Tactics Star (Beyond the Choir) and Action Star (Beautiful Trouble). 

Templates, Worksheets and Checklists

Tactics Calendars / Timelines

Stakeholder Mapping

Exercises and Activities

Spectrum of Allies Instruction Sheet – Groupwork Handout, 30 mins, The Path of Most Resistance: A Step-by-Step Guide to Planning Nonviolent Campaigns, ICNC, see pgs 52 – 54 (also available in other languages)
Step by step exercise and handout.
Time: 30 mins

Spectrum of Allies – Training from 350.org
A strategy tool to examine the range of social forces and groups, spread across a spectrum, from those who are the most dedicated opponents to those who are the most active supporters. This tool can uncover how tactics need to be planned in relation to whether or not they attract key allies; encourage more optimistic mobilisation efforts through a realization that it is not necessary to win over everyone to our point of view; and assess where a group needs to do more research related to allies. Group size: 5-50+ people
Time: 15-30 minutes

Spectrum of Allies, War Resisters’ International, 2014

  • To understand who our allies and opponents are.
  • To learn that tactics need to be planned in relation to how much they do or don’t attract key allies and move people towards being active allies.
  • To encourage more optimistic mobilisation efforts through a realisation that it is not necessary to win over the opposition to our point of view.
  • To invite people into the fascinating complexity of strategising.

Time: 30 mins

Spectrum of Allies Training Tool, Training for Change, PDFs in English and Spanish

  • To uncover how tactics need to be planned in relation to whether they attract key allies;
  • To invite people into the fascinating complexity of strategizing;
  • To encourage more optimistic mobilization efforts through a realization that it is not necessary to win over the opposition to our point of view;
  • To assess where a group needs to do more research related to allies.

Moving your Allies, Training for Change
This exercise is meant as a follow-up to the Spectrum of Allies exercise. We develop arguments and one specific request to move a given constituency one wedge over to our side. We then roleplay the interaction.

How to Be Real: Accomplices, Allies and Anti-Oppression Created by: Power Shift Network members – New York Communities for Change, RYSE Youth Council and 350 DC
Explore allyship framework and provide tangible tools to leverage privilege in a way that builds supportive coalition for those being oppressed. Includes an interactive “Privilege Walk” activity.
Time: 90 mins

Power Mapping, Beautiful Trouble
Map the power dynamics at play to identify your primary target, secondary target, allies and opponents.

Templates, Worksheets and Checklists

Campaign Debrief and Reflections

Exercises and Activities

Debrief, Beautiful Trouble
An engaging debrief creates opportunities for deeper understanding and lasting learning, improving comprehension, drawing out insights or lessons, and helping participants integrate what they’ve learned. 
Time: 15 to 60 mins

High Moment Team Reflection: Growing Individual and Team Strengths, 350.org
Group reflection on campaign achievement.
Time: 45 minutes

Campaign Debrief Sample Agenda, Plan to Win
Tips and agenda for a facilitator to lead a group through a campaign debrief.

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  • Organisation: Commons Library
  • Location: Australia
  • Release Date: 2025

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