In this chapter, we explain what a campaign strategy is. We show various examples of different types of campaign strategies that activists use, and we provide you with workshops to help you write your own.
With a good campaign strategy, your movement or campaign makes more impact. In the articles below, we help you define what exactly the change is that you want to achieve, and what steps you need to take to get there.
Before you can start to define your strategy, you need to get a group of likeminded people together and organise yourselves. After you have defined your strategy, we recommend you to browse through our list of tactics to get inspiration.
¶ Improve this page
Some potential new sub-pages:
- Responding to criticism/dealing with opposition
- Interventions: things your movement can change about society/in a community (see more in ‘types of strategies’)
- making a power map (as part of ‘stakeholders’ page?)
- problem analysis (a workshop style article?)
¶ Search keywords
People are searching for:
| Keywords | Monthly global searches* | Relevancy |
|---|---|---|
| strategy activism | 0 | high |
| activist strategy | 70 | medium |
| activist strategies | 160 | high |
| campaign strategy | 2.3K | high |
| forms of activism | 330 | high |
| types of activism | 1.3K | high |
| How to deal with opposition | 140 | high |
| responding to criticism | ||
| How to stand up to oppression | ||
| problem analysis | ||
| How to be an effective ally | ||
| How to run an effective campaign | ||
| How to make your activism more effective | ||
| power map | 1300 | |
| power mapping | 1000 |
*According to Semrush
¶ External resources
- Gene Sharp, The Politics of Nonviolent Action [Book].
- Strategy by The Change Agency
- Thwink: Root problem analysis
- Collection: Developing a Strategic Plan by Community Tool Box
- Developing Strategic and Action Plans by Community Tool Box
- Assessing Community Needs and Resources by Community Tool Box [collection of articles]
- Analyzing Community Problems and Solutions by Community Tool Box [collection of articles]
- Deciding Where to Start by Community Tool Box [collection of articles]
- Choosing and Adapting Community Interventions by Community Tool Box [collection of articles]
- Video: Root Cause Analysis
- How to Move from Vision to Action by Mary Joyce
- Choose Your Own Activism Strategy Adventure by Mary Joyce
- List of funds by Bond
- Campaign Strategy: Start Here by Commons Library
- Developing Strategic Campaigns: An ITF Manual for Trade Union Activists, Educators and Organisers by International Transport Workers' Union
- The People Power Manual by The Change Agency
¶ Dealing with opposition
- How to Respond to Opposition Tactics by Community Tool Box
- Overview of Opposition Tactics: Recognizing the Ten D's by Community Tool Box
- Dealing with Opposition [PDF]
- Handling Opposition
- Backfire Manual: Dealing With Injustice by Brian Martin
- Jail Solidarity and Supporting Prisoners by Commons Library
- Know Your Allies, Your Opponents and Everyone In Between by George Lakey
- When to Talk and When to Fight: The Strategic Choice Between Dialogue and Resistance by Rebecca Subar