Engagement Pyramid: Visualise the different ways a person might get involved with your Campaign

Introduction

Use this tool to visualise the different ways a person might get involved with your campaign, from the lower commitment activity of observing and endorsing to taking up active leadership.

The Engagement Pyramid is a tool that enables us to map how people can engage at different levels of “depth” in our campaign — and recognise that more people are likely to engage when the level of commitment required is lower.

You can also use the pyramid to work through how you might “level up” people and to ensure that you’re adequately catering to people who are willing to commit in different ways. Try not to get too caught up in the specific categorisations; you can use those as helpful prompts, but what a low-, medium-, or high-level of commitment for one organisation or campaign is could be very different for another.

It has been adapted from Gideon Rosenblatt’s Engagement Pyramid: Six Levels of Connecting People and Social Change.

Levels of Engagement

Levels

1. Observing
2. Following
3. Endorsing
4. Contributing
5. Owning
6. Leading

Actions

1. Observing
   Interested in cause; aware of org/campaign: Learning more via friend, DD, media, social media
   Visits website / soc media; attends an event
2. Following
   Agrees to receive info; Provides contact info or subscribes
   Reading and watching your communications
3. Endorsing
   Single-step or straightforward actions with low risk / investment
   Signs petition, makes one-time / small donation, shares content
4. Contributing
   Multi-Step Assignments / Actions representing significant contribution of time, money, or social capital
   Joins group, attends event, makes large donation
5. Owning
   Ongoing, Collaborative Actions: Major investments of time, money, and social capital often blur; your org/campaign = source of passion
   Publishing about your campaign, public speaking, deep volunteer involvement
6. Leading
   Leads Others: Engaged becomes the engager; Focuses on training others; Easily confused with staff
   Organising others, recruiting donors, serving on board

Sample Metrics

1. Observing
   Website traffic
   Social mentions
   Media impressions
   Polling (awareness)
   
   
2. Following
   Email subscribers (active within last year)
   FB/Twitter followers
   People indicating they want to volunteer with you
3. Endorsing
   One time donors
   Petition signers
   People sharing
   Participating in volunteer welcome program
4. Contributing
   Regular donors
   Regular vols/activists
   Content creators
5. Owning
   Fundraising leaders
   Lead volunteers
   NVDA action-takers
6. Leading
   Group/community leaders
   Recruited by leaders

Download Resources

Detailed Engagement Pyramid A4

YOUR Engagement Pyramid Worksheet A4

Watch Video

The Engagement Pyramid by Global Platforms

Gideon Rosenblatt’s Engagement Pyramid is a model that can help with thinking strategically about entry points and varying levels of commitment of movement members.

Note

See the original version of this tool by Gideon Rosenblatt. The Mobilisation Lab made some modifications to the Engagement Pyramid as part of The Campaign Accelerator Toolkit. This is a practical guide by Mobilisation Lab for planning campaign projects. It includes visual templates, methods and exercises.

Explore Further

• Circles of Commitment: A Model of Engagement
• Accessibility: Introduction to Thinking about Events and Engagement
• How to Recruit more People: Lessons from Rukiya in 350 Kenya
• Efficacy is Essential for Taking Action
• Digital Organising Tools to Reach and Recruit Supporters
• Campaign Strategy: Start Here
• Key Resources from Mobilisation Lab