Volunteers - Management - The Commons Social Change Library

Radical Human Resources Policies, Guides and Templates

RadHR providing radical, anti-oppressive approaches to human resources and operations. Access policies, guides and templates.

Build More Powerful Campaigns with Social Science

Watch this webinar to learn some of the essential takeaways to improve your organizing with insights from social science.

A young woman stands in front of a seated group of people. She is wearing a green tshirt that reads 'We are a powerful force for nature'

Building Organising Leadership During Election Mobilisation

Max Smith, co-director of the Community Organising Fellowship, reviews the Tools for Radical Democracy guide to electoral organising, and draws out some key considerations for deciding whether or how to engage in elections.

Policy Bank: Policy and Procedure Templates for Not for Profit Organisations

Are you working for a not for profit organisation and putting together policies and procedures? Here’s how to avoid reinventing the wheel by accessing the Policy Bank’s comprehensive list of templates.

Barnstorming to take Australia by storm

Barnstorms are large campaign events which activate volunteers and supporters to step up and convene actions. Anita Tang shares the model developed by the Bernie Sanders campaign with suggestions for the Australian context.

Barnstorming in the Australian Context

Insights from the ‘Barnstorming in the Australian Context’ workshop at FWD+Organise 2019. Includes information about what barnstorming is, tips for running them well, and examples from four Australian organisations.

blackboard with writing to do list no. 1 welcome new volunteers

New Volunteer Checklist

Volunteers are a crucial part of social change organisations, and getting new volunteers off to a good start is critical. This checklist and the prompting questions will help you set up an effective and welcoming volunteer orientation process.

Checklist for Affinity Groups

Checklist for affinity groups – looking out for each other and yourself when participating in a blockade or protest.

Texting campaigns guide

How to guide from Blueprints for Change about how use peer to peer texting (P2P) to deliver calls of action – includes best practice and case studies.

Online Organising: Working Together Remotely

Learn from groups that have remote teams and have developed ways to support them at a distance whilst maintaining a sense of purpose and togetherness.

A group of friends stand with arms around each other looking out across a valley.

Holding our groups together in hard times

When social change campaigns experience setbacks it’s understandable this can lead to difficulties in activist groups. Here are some tips and further resources for holding groups together in hard times.

Front cover of the Purpose Driven Campaigning summary.

Purpose Driven Campaigning: 40 key principles for Growing Social Movements

Australian Progress has prepared this 40-point summary of Pastor Rick Warren’s bestselling book The Purpose Driven Church.

Photograph of a group of people having a meeting.

Action group meetings

This tip sheet has been written to help you and your group work well together and achieve your objectives and highlights some group habits and actions that resilient community groups have relied on: effective meetings with an agreed agenda; clearly-defined roles; mindful decision-making; accountability; and inclusiveness.

Pt’chang Volunteers Manual

Resources for inducting new volunteers into a peacebuilding community project. Includes insights into how one voluntary group operated, consensus decision making, and internal conflict resolution processes.

Nonviolent Community Safety and Peacebuilding Handbook

Resource for activists engaged in work for peace including practical ways to intervene in violence, to transform conflict and to build peace.

Listen to Becky Bond on Big Organising

The big organising approach utilised in the Bernie Sanders campaign offers several valuable rules to scale up your efforts, empower members and supporters, and catch the fire of momentum. Hear from Becky Bond, co-author of Rules for Revolutionaries.

Diagram shows 5 arrows pointing to the target of Purpose: Symbols, Slogans, Stories, Specifics, Personalise.

Being Purpose Driven

Nothing precedes purpose. The starting point for every organisation or movement should be the question ‘Why do we exist’? A number of tips for focusing an organisation on vision and purpose. An excerpt from Purpose Driven Campaigning, based on Rick Warren’s Purpose Driven Church.

Diagram of the Circles of Commitment also known as the Ladder of Engagement. 5 concentric circles labelled from outside to inside: Community; Crowd; Congregation; Committed; Core.

Levels of Commitment from Community to Core

Rick Warren focuses on five ‘circles of commitment’ – community, crowd, congregation, committed and core, and argue that it’s important to recognise where your supporters fall in these categories, and develop processes to move them from the outside in. An excerpt from Purpose Driven Campaigning.

Photograph of people dressed in suits and bowler hats and brief cases walking together in front of a coal fired power station.

Affinity Groups for Non-Violent Direct Action

Affinity groups are a feature of many large scale non-violent actions. An affinity group is a small group of people (eg: 5-15) who have something in common who take action together. Groups could focus on a specific theme eg street medics or legal observers or more commonly it is a group of people that take action as a team.

Photograph of a sandwich board on pavement, it reads 'Awesome' with an arrow pointing to the right, and 'Less Awesome' with an arrow pointing to the left.

Tips on How to Give and Receive Feedback

Giving and receiving feedback is a core skill for people engaged in social change projects. These slides and related text outline what can maximise or minimise the effectiveness of feedback and useful phrases.

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