In this guide, you will learn to think about the engagement flow from your movement. We will explain how you can define the engagement flow, also called engagement ladder, for your movement.

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Engagement is a key goal for any nonprofit or activist organization, and having a solid engagement flow in place is essential for success. An engagement flow is a plan that outlines how you will engage with your audience, how you will build relationships with them, and how you will encourage them to take action.

An engagement flow, also called engagement ladder, is a way to categorise and segment the people involved in your action, from the most committed to the least committed.

Activist Engagement ladder #

Typical Steps #

A typical engagement ladder can be divided into seven stages: a person who has heard of you, someone who knows you, an individual who considers you, a person who takes action, someone who contributes, a potential leader, and a leader. However, depending on your specific organization and goal you can draw up a more fitting or several different engagement ladders (for example an additional donation engagement ladder).

1. Step 1: Person who has heard of you

   At the lowest rung, the public completes an easy action such as looking at your seeing an article or having a conversation with one of your activists/ volunteers. They realise your organisation and/ or actions exists and have a vague idea what you stand for.

2. Step 2: Person who knows you

   In the second phase the public becomes more aware of your organisation. They have a fairly good idea about your standpoints and has seen your organisation at least in a few different communications.

3. Step 3: Person who considers you

   In the third phase the public becomes a supporter of the cause. They actively search for more information about your organisation or action and start to consider whether or not they want to be associated with the cause. They will for example visit the website, get in contact or visit an information event.

4. Step 4: Person who takes action

   For the first action try to give your new volunteer a small task. For example if you organise an information evening let them welcome visitors, or when walking doors, let them go with an experienced volunteer. If they succeed, you can give them more responsibilities.

5. Step 5: Person who contributes

   When the volunteers is enthusiastic you can give them more and more responsibilities that align with their motivations and skills.

6. Step 6: Person who might lead

   If the volunteer shows potential for leading skills you can start to see them as a potential leader. Try to test this by giving this person small leading tasks like organising a bigger evenent or leading a small group people for a project.

7. Step 7: Person who leads

   The most trustworthy people with skills to lead and facilitate you can eventually make a leader. They will facilitate all the important processes in the group.

Moving people up the ladder #

For any campaign, it is not enough to engage people only at the rung where they currently stand (mobilizing). Good campaigning means also creating opportunities for them to move upward on the engagement ladder (organizing).

Moving up the ladder usually involves progressing through earlier stages. Before someone takes their first action, they typically need to: have heard of you, know you, and consider joining your cause. Sometimes this process happens quickly: within a single conversation, event, or meeting. In other cases, it can take months of exposure, trust-building, and reflection.

Creating space for gradual involvement benefits both the organization and the activist. It allows for time to build trust and shared understanding, opportunities to test collaboration, and a clearer sense of mutual expectations and capacities. Not everyone will (or should!) become a leader. A healthy campaign ecosystem includes many different levels of involvement.

Fitting communication #

Engagement at different steps of the ladder requires different forms of communication.

In the initial step of the engagement ladder, the focus is predominantly on communication, which is essentially a one-way street. Here, you as the organization disseminate information, while the public receives these communications. The objective is to persuade the public that their values and interests align with your cause. Through your communication efforts, you aim to attract potential activists to your cause.

In the latter half of the engagement ladder, the public evolves into active supporters, turning the relationship from a one-way street into a two-way interaction. The focus shifts from primarily communication to predominantly organizing skills. This is a phase of mutual discovery, where both parties learn about each other's strengths and weaknesses.

Donation Engagement Ladder #

In many campaigns, it can be useful to design a parallel engagement ladder specifically for fundraising. Financial supporters also move through stages of trust and commitment, and they too require differentiated engagement strategies. A typical donation ladder might look like this:

1. Prospective Donor

2. First-time Minor Donor

3. Recurring Minor Donor

4. First-time Major Donor

5. Recurring Major Donor

6. Lead Donor

Each stage requires a different form of engagement: for example prospective donors usually need compelling storytelling and credibility, while with first-time donors it's important to show appreciation to reinforce their decision. Major and lead donors often require personalized communication and a sense of shared long-term vision. Just as with activist engagement, the goal is not simply to extract resources, but to build relationships for sustainable support.

External resources #

• Circles of Commitment: A Model of Engagement by Michael Pulsford

• Engagement Pyramid by Mobilisation Lab

• The consumer decision journey by Mckinsey

Improve this page #

• Add external resources about this topic

• Priority on training people for own organisation or building movement power in itself?

• Difference between engagement ladders for people becoming activists and people just supporting in the forms of donations and the like.

• Every person should optimally go through all phases of the engagement ladder. Are there situations in which this is not ideal?

• different wording:

  • Person who has heard of you

  • Person who knows you

  • Follower

  • Supporter

  • Contributor

  • Owner

  • Leader