Last month, we surveyed potential candidates who are working in the campaigning sector – you may well have taken part in it.
We asked them which area of work their organisation focussed on and what type of organisation would they ideally like to work for next.
Most popular type of organisation for their next role:
1 International development/justice
2 Social justice
3 Human Rights
4 Social welfare
5 Health
6 Environment
7 Housing/homelessness
8 Disability
9 Other
10 Animal welfare/Animal rights
But perhaps more interesting, is assessing where people are working at the moment and where they want to go next – this brings in a bit of supply and demand, which
shows which areas of campaigning are the most competitive to get into currently:
Most competitive areas:
1 Human Rights
2 Social welfare
3 Housing/homelessness
4 Social justice
5 International development/justice
6 Environment
7 Animal welfare/Animal rights
8 Disability
9 Other
10 Health
I’m surprised that Health has come so low down in terms of competitiveness, but I guess there a lot of campaigns working in this area. Human Rights being top is not a surprise. When we ask candidates where they want to work, top of the tree is human rights and international development. More people want to work international development than Human Rights, but as there are more jobs in development, then this make human rights more competitive.
I hope this is a useful guide for you and may explain why you may find some job hunting harder than others.
Head of Supporter Strategy and Engagement at Which?
Apart from your current organisation which other organisations that campaign do you admire?
I think WaterAid are brilliant. The emails they send out to their supporter network are always eye-catching and I’d be surprised if they don’t get a high action rate. I also really admire how they have managed to get the establishment to accept some of their issues but keep a radical edge. That takes some doing.
Back home in Cardiff the Save the Vulcan campaign is a masterclass in local campaigning, with everyone you could imagine backing the campaign. It’s a great iconic pub, if you are in the city go and even if you can’t make it, sign the petition. If you are a guy, I’m told the gents toilets are well worth a visit.
Who is the campaigner you most admire?
Clarence Wilcock – who took a stand against ID cards in the 1950’s leading to their demise. It saddens me they are making a comeback.
Vaclav Havel – the most tenacious campaigner against Communism in the Czech Republic (Czechoslovakia as was) he never let up even against horrendous pressure and the led his country to freedom. Most impressively of all he worked out when to stop, stood down and let someone else take over.
Is there a campaigning organisation that you would like to see the back of?
There are some with whom I profoundly disagree, even hate, but I wouldn’t seek to deny their right to exist. Top on the hate list are The BNP, for obvious reasons. I don’t have much time for Christian Voice and Migration Watch either – I think they do a great disservice to debate with ill considered improper contributions that purport to represent people they don’t.
What advice would you give someone starting their career in campaigning today?
Find something that irritates you and try and change it – suggest a better alternative and bring others into your campaign. DO NOT ignore local engagement.
What three things make a good campaigner?
Tenacity, Audacity and people skills.
Which of these three do you have most of?
I’d hope people skills, but you probably need to ask those I work and have worked with.
Which of these three do you think is missing most out of people who campaign or want to?
Audacity: I think campaigners are often far too risk averse, for fear of breaking CC9 and getting in trouble with Charity Commission.
Generally are organisations getting better at campaigning since you began your career? If so, what’s changed?
A lot more professional, with best practice being shared. To me it’s the best thing about the sector.I’m especially pleased that more and more people are including user involvement in their campaigning strategies. Quite simply, I think if the end users don’t inform and shape your work, what legitimacy does it have?
Robert Halfon is complaining about good and healthy organisations again – it’s like going back 20 years for me.
Back then I was at the University of Exeter with Robert. I was Deputy President of the student union, he was Chair of the Conservative Association. His focus was then the supposed closed shop of student unions.
Robert Halfon, who is now the Conservative MP for Harlow, told the Public
Administration Select Committee that the Charity Commission had made “arbitrary decisions” about how much lobbying charities were allowed to do.
“A charity should be about doing practical things,” he said. “Surely the
real test of whether something is a charity is what it does on the ground.”
Halfon said that there were too many very large “Tesco charities” that spent millions of pounds lobbying in Whitehall.
I think he was wrong and misguided in the early 90s about student unions. He just didn’t like the word union and the political connotations behind it, that was – left-wing and militant. And as a student, he was a member of a Union – which was repugnant to him. He tried to take a case to the courts in Strasbourg. He lost of course – student unions are just communities of students which have chosen to call themselves unions. And an inclusive student union was a practical and healthy community.
In fact, in Exeter, they chose to call it a student Guild – which you would have thought was less militant and more cuddlier.
And I think he is wrong today. His current concern about charities campaigning. Again, it’s not really the principal of them campaigning, it’s more that they are campaigning against things that he doesn’t agree with. His party is part of the current government and he wants to see charities weakened so that they can’t be so critical.
In fact, I take the view that charities should campaign more to look to end or minimise the problem that they were set up to do. But some charities are not campaigning enough because of their concern of “biting the hand that feeds them” in terms of the funding from government they receive.
In 1992, virtually the last thing I did as a Student Union representative was to win the vote at a general meeting against Robert Halfon on automatic membership of all, to the student body.
I hope more of us who care about the charity campaigning sector will stand up and counter those who want to diminish the ability of charities to campaign and so lessen the chance of making our society or our world better.
Apart from your current organisation which other organisations that campaign do you admire?
Friends of the Earth – for their wide public reach and outsider advocacy stance
Oxfam – for their creative public presence and strong policy and lobbying
Wateraid – for their impressive evidence-based advocacy work
Who is the campaigner you most admire?
Shami Chakrabarti from Liberty. She combines a strategic approach with very clear media messages on challenging areas of debate.
Is there a campaigning organisation that you would like to see the back of?
Migration Watch – for their negative impact on the public debate about immigration.
What advice would you give someone starting their career in campaigning today?
Select the organisations carefully and check that they have advocacy work embedded in policy and programmes rather than just fundraising.
Work on an issue you feel passionately about.
Gain experience in a variety of organisations particularly in relation to ‘insider’ and ‘outsider’ advocacy and work out where you feel politically most comfortable.
Base all your campaigning work on a clear strategy and objectives.
What three things make a good campaigner?
Strategic mindCreativity and instinctAbility to communicate with a wide range of people
Which of these three do most campaigners have most of?
Creativity and instinct
Which of these three do you think is missing most out of people who campaign or want to?
Strategic mind
Generally are organisations getting better at campaigning since you began your career? If so, what’s changed?
Advocacy with Southern partners in the case of International Development Organisations has been strengthened over the last ten years. Issues around legitimacy still exist.
Coalition working has also improved the public understanding of campaigning
Working in coalitions has led to considerable learning for the organisations involved.
There has been a greater recognition of the need for advocacy and campaigning as a means for change across the voluntary sector.
If you weren’t a campaigner, what would you be?
Documentary maker
If you’re a campaigner with at least 3 years experience, and would like to tell us your views, answer the above questions and email a photo of you to jonathan@therightethos.co.uk
It is disappointing to say the least to read that of the 30 staff who are at most risk of redundancy at Mencap are those in the campaigns, policy and communications teams. If this happens, it looks like “the voice of learning disability” will become a little softer for a while.
This proposal would be heading in the opposite direction of many other charities and campaigning organisations who after a tough couple of years are in 2012 investing again growing in these areas. The marked increase in recruitment for campaigning and policy roles in the last quarter is producing a postive outlook at last for this sector for the rest of the year and hopefully beyond. And it doesn’f feel like it’s just a blip either.
The reason Mencap is looking to cut campaigns, policy and communications roles was reported in Third Sector as lost funding from local authority contracts. I would have thought a loss of funding from this source would have meant a reduction in the charitable side of Mencap’s work rather the their work in gaining justice and long term change for people with learning disability.
Much of my writing and training on campaigning over the last five years or so has been around the theme of successful campaigning and I have tried to use my time to encourage others on what is possible for them to campaign about.
But in recent months, I have begun to wonder if in fact by taking such a route I have ignored one of the biggest issues in ensuring effective campaigning – by which I mean spending time looking at the internal obstacles to effective campaigning.
So what are those obstacles? Why don’t more people and NGOs run campaigns? What do you think? On a long journey recently I tried to list the obstacles that I had either experienced or heard of.
I think that I could have stumbled upon a big issue here, and what I offer now is just work in progress – but what do you think? Have I missed any obstacles?
Lack of research
I have seen this happen so many times – people say we would love to campaign on an issue but we need more research. So the campaign stalls. While research is important, it can also be a huge reason for delay in starting a campaign.
Nervous leadership
Here the campaigners are ready, but the organisation’s leadership is nervous and the campaign stalls.
Resources
This is a classic. The argument goes – we would love to campaign but we need a full-time campaigns post. And that nothing is possible without such a post. Really?
Lack of shared values
This is a sad one. The obstacle to campaigning comes down to not having a shared value set within the organisation.
Lack of common understanding of advocacy campaigns
This is another classic. With almost all of the advocacy campaigns consultancy work that I have done over the past 5 years or so this issue comes up. The issue of a common definition within the organisation is so important. I often find myself saying I don’t care what your definition is, but I would like you to share the same one within the
organisation.
Lack of a theory of change
Have you seen this one? I know I have been guilty of this. So much effort goes into producing the research report and maybe getting some media coverage and then you just collapse exhausted with little idea of all this action happening so that something else happens. But without your theory of change at least sketched out, there is a good chance that your report will just be filed or thrown away and all momentum lost.
Individual agendas taking over
Here campaigning is undermined because individuals have their own agendas and seek opportunities to develop their agendas.
Internal disharmony
This is another sad one. Here the team or organisation is undermined by internal conflict. Sadly this can be a problem specially in small NGOs and it does so undermine effective campaigning.
Lack of a common goal
What is the point of your campaigning? Is it policy change? To recruit new supporters? To raise your profile? To raise money? What is your goal – effective campaigning needs focus and a clear goal. And agreement on the goal is so important.
We are too busy to campaign
Have I left the best until last? I see this so often – we are so busy delivering services to meet the need that we can’t campaign. So that nothing ever changes so that you stay busy. I just get excited by those smaller NGOs who can both deliver services but also embed their campaigning into the soul of their organisation. They do both activities because they know they need to do both – but one fits seamlessly into the other – they see these actions as being on one continuum.
So that’s my initial list. I am sure that I have missed loads. What do you think? It would be great to hear from you with other obstacles and we could then publish them in a fresh blog. And I will try next time to tentatively suggest some answers to these obstacles.
One of my recurrent themes for this blog over the years has been my fascination and amazement at the fact that the language of campaigning is truly international.
I recently put that theory to the test again by undertaking an assignment for Saferworld in Hargeisa, capital of Somaliland.
Over a five day period I ran a two day advocacy course followed by a three day train the trainers’ course so that the participants could take the training out to their communities and inspire advocacy action.
The audience was representatives from the three non-state actor platforms in Somaliland (SONSAF), Puntland (PUNSAA) and South and Central Somalia (SONSCENSA). These platforms consisted of member organisations ranging
from community groups to business associations.
On my trip out to Somaliland via Nairobi I did feel somewhat apprehensive. This was one of the most challenging environments for advocacy campaigning – would my messages resonate with them?
But my feelings of apprehension were soon swept away as a focus on problem and solution, evidence, messaging, allies, influence trees, using opposition and a theory of change seemed to work with them.
Even the elevator pitch – 15-30 seconds to convey your key campaign message – seemed to work although we struggled for a while with the Somali translation for elevator pitch.
Then the train the trainers section proved to be inspiring to me as the platforms began to construct their own training in their own words so that they could take the training out themselves.
But above all I was left with an overriding impression of passionate and committed people driven to promote the role of civil society in making a difference to people’s lives and futures and committed to using advocacy methods to achieve this change.
Advocacy campaigning really is an international language.
“Help for Heroes is non-political and non-critical, we simply want to help” – that’s suitable, but means that they don’t have the right ethos
Help for Heroes have just recently won an award for being the Most Admired Charity and this comment about being “non-political and non-critical” struck me and realised that with that attitude they will never be a client of The Right Ethos.
All of the organisations we work with are critical. And most of them get involved in the political debate to a greater or lesser extent. Personally, I’m glad they do. Because the aspirations of our client organisations are, I believe, higher. They work to change our world or our society for the better. They campaign for justice.
There’s certainly a place for charities who simply want to help out. And I wouldn’t be sniffy about them. They can provide a valuable safety net. Or provide activities that you wouldn’t expect to be paid for out of our taxes.
My award for Most Admired Charity 2011 would go to one that campaigns and is critical and often supports political behaviour to gain permanent change.
To show that we don’t wish any bad will, many of the Christmas cards sent out by The Right Ethos this year are in aid of Help for Heroes.
Whilst Campaign Coordinator at Amnesty International
Who is the campaigner you admire the most?
The campaigner I admire the most is Sarah Duthie. She is a campaigner at Greenpeace.
Apart from your current organisation which other organisation that campaigns do you currently admire?
‘War on Want’- They seem to campaign on very topical issues and they have the most updated campaign calendar: the messages they send through are original and it urges you to take action.
What advice would you give to someone starting their career in campaign today?
I would urge them to remind themselves that we campaign in order to foster change and not just to raise awareness on issues – i would also advice them to spend enough time planning their campaign strategies and always evaluate the work at different stages of the campaign development.
What 3 things make a good campaigner?
Good preparation and planning of the campaign strategy.Creativity and boldness in decision making.Ability to deliver the campaign message in such a way that it is simple, catchy, using as few words as possible.
Which of these three things do campaigners have most of?
Campaigners have all of the above things to a lesser or greater extent – campaigning is both an art and a science, so campaigners tend to be creative and also good at creating thorough plans and effective strategies.
Which of the 3 is missing the most…
Most campaigners are not paying enough attention to the preparation and planning process – as they tend to apply strategies that have proved successful in previous campaigns but they don’t necessarily work for all campaigns.
Are organisations getting better at campaigning….
There are more campaigning tools out there now and new information tech has helped those organisation that know how to use them effectively to become better at campaigning.
If you weren’t a campaigner what would you be?
I would be a painter or a musician – I would find another way to channel my artistic abilities.
Lizzie is freelance campaigner. She was previously Campaigns Manager at Help the Aged and has worked for the Methodist Church, People & Planet and Christian Aid. Apart from your current organisation which other organisations that campaign do you admire?
Shelter, Christian Aid, RNID and YWCA.
Who is the campaigner you most admire?
Guy Hughes of Crisis Action and People & Planet. Guy was a fantastic campaigner who was tragically killed in an accident in 2006. I worked with Guy at People & Planet and he was a huge influence on my development as a campaigner – especially the need to think about levers of power and influence. The Sheila McKechnie Foundation has a award for young campaigners in his memory.
Is there a campaigning organisation that you would like to see the back of?
The BNP
What advice would you give someone starting their career in campaigning today?
Being someone who’s easy to get on with and who delivers goes a long way. Make as many contacts as you can and keep in touch with people. Think of opportunities for collaborative working.
What three things make a good campaigner?
Drive and tenacity, strategic thinking and strong networking skills.
Which of these three do you have most of?
I can be a good networker and enjoy spotting opportunities to work with others.
Which of these three do you think is missing most out of people who campaign or want to?
The ability to always be thinking strategically at where you want to achieve change and looking at the balance of power, appropriately targeting your chosen audience at key times, where you can have most impact. Campaigners, including myself, often have so many demands, you can lose sight of your key objectives.
Generally are organisations getting better at campaigning since you began your career? If so, what’s changed?
More organisations are campaigning and there is a more crowded market. The public has a greater understanding of campaigning but is also more savvy about campaigning techniques. However, despite the increasing number of organisations who have campaign supporters, it is the same few organisations who are are able to genuinely mobilise large numbers of people to demonstrate.
If you weren’t a campaigner, what would you be?
A journalist.
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