Young Uprisers

Oh the apathy of youth! I well remember when I was a student and my generation was slammed for being apathetic and I hear similar calls today. Any maybe it has always been this way? Each generation despairing of the next generation. But it was rubbish when I was a student and it is clearly […]

Campaigning using New Media

At the last few campaign training events that I have attended, there seems to be a constant theme emerging – we must make more use of new media. And there are campaigners scratching their heads as they muse over how they might use these new techniques to advance their campaigning. I must confess that my […]

Support for campaigners – better than ever

I well remember how it was when I got my first job as a campaigner for a charity. I was hugely excited at the prospect of having a campaigning job, but we were more or less thrown into the deep end and expected to pick it up as we went along. It was just the […]

ActionAid’s campaigning postcard

I have not always been the biggest fan of campaign postcards. There are some campaigning organisations for which the campaign postcard seems to be the only possible activity – with every newsletter or magazine there is another postcard waiting to be signed and sent off. But just before Christmas I received a campaign action from […]

Paul Newman – did he have The Right Ethos?

This time last year I wrote following the death of Anita Roddick – about whether she had The Right Ethos – which she clearly did have. Sadly, I’m writing today about Paul Newman who died last month – another individual who used their wealth and celebrity to try and make positive change in the world. […]

Why it’s important to have The Right Ethos

I often wonder whether people fully understand what our organisation means by the term “The Right Ethos”. And why our recruitment consultancy, which specialises with organisations that campaign, felt it important enough to use the term as its name. Recently we successfully placed a candidate who I felt epitomised the sort of candidates that we […]

Hope for campaigners

As a campaigner, I always take a special interest when people are recruited to the big campaigning leadership roles in our sector. Therefore I was interested to see Friends of the Earth (FoE) advertise for a new Director recently – who would they appoint to this key role? You probably know that they appointed Andy […]

The danger of co-option

I had just started my presentation on coping when you make a breakthrough on a campaign, when I was asked a killer question from the back of the room. This session was part of INTRAC’s advocacy training course. As ever the course was attended by an impressive array of campaigners from NGOs across the globe. […]

Surprising allies

Recently I did a session on the certificate in campaigning course. It is great to be involved in this initiative and be in the same room as a whole group of people who want to change the world. I am always interested to hear about the key issues raised in the subsequent discussion. Last time […]

Campaigning is just about stunts

I recently found myself talking to a chief executive of a leading UK charity, and I asked about her view of charities campaigning. Her response surprised me – she replied by saying, “oh, we won’t be doing much of that – campaigning is just about stunts.” Campaigning can certainly include stunts. I remember when Tony […]