Campaigns, Coalition Building and Long-Range Planning

Campaigns

Clarify your goals and brainstorm strategies to create a campaign; discuss it, revise it, and evaluate it after it's done.

A campaign is a series of activities, or strategies, used to reach a group's goals. Campaigns are more likely to be successful if your entire group has an opportunity to be involved in the planning process. It is crucial that strategies and the means to accomplish them are consistent with your group's mission. Sometimes your first goal will be to simply bring the issue and the organization to the public eye, before any other campaigning can be effective. Other times a group forms around an issue that is already "hot" and the best strategy is to get to work immediately on ways to achieve a certain outcome. Clarifying the outcomes desired, the means to accomplish them, and the funds needed, are the first steps in developing a campaign.

You may wish to set aside a few hours to plan at a time other than your regular meeting. Using large newsprint and some markers, conduct a brainstorming session to identify your goals. Then come up with a list of strategies and tactics for achieving those goals. After you narrow down the list to a few goals, make a timeline. Include events beyond your control (holidays, election day, etc.), other actions and events you have planned, and all preparations and deadlines leading up to them. Adjust your timeline to make it realistic.

Pretend you are the opposition and hold a strategy session from their perspective. How would you effectively work against your own campaign? Identify weaknesses and adjust your own strategy accordingly. After the campaign, look back at your goals, tactics, and timeline and do a thorough group evaluation. Save this evaluation and review it when you plan a new campaign. Thinking and planning strategically can make the difference between ho-hum campaigns that get no attention, and dynamic, creative campaigns that excite people, build your organization, and create real change.

Coalition-Building

Use coalitions to create the people-power needed to achieve certain goals; evaluate whether or not particular coalitions will work for your group.

There are many advantages to achieving your group's goals through working with other organizations in a coalition. Often, a group's mission and goals can only be reached with the power of large numbers of people or organizations. A coalition can take several forms. One group can serve as the lead organization (setting policies, providing spokespeople) for the coalition, or all groups can participate equally, with decisions worked out together by group representatives.

Coalitions can speak with a voice much louder than any individual member group alone. They can develop long term connections and relationships which promote unity and prevent splits, as groups try to accomplish their other goals.

Coalitions may have disadvantages as well. Some member groups might benefit much more than others from the coalition. The coalition may not operate in a democratic way and may leave some groups out of the decision-making process. Member groups may lose control over their own programs and values by giving up power to others. This is a particular concern for groups of people who experience oppression and powerlessness in our society - women, people of color, working class or low income groups, youth, disabled people, etc. This should not discourage organizers from being involved in coalitions as long as these problems are addressed.

Long Range Planning

Use a long range plan to more effectively reach goals that will take awhile to reach.

It's rare for a group to have only short term goals that are achieved quickly. Usually a group's mission is broad, with several or many goals, and it needs some time to reach them. In such cases, a long range plan can help to gradually build support for what you want. Ask an established group for a copy of its long range plan to see how one is written. See the Resources section for a guide to long range planning.

1. Decide on or confirm the group's mission
2. Agree on what the group has done and is doing now
3. Identify medium and long term goals for the future (next year, 3 years, 5 years, longer)
4. Decide on strategies and tactics (specific tools such as petitioning or lobbying) to achieve those goals
5. Make sure the plan is carried out.

It is best to hold a one-day (or longer) meeting or set aside time at several regular group meetings to create a long range plan, using a process like the 5 steps listed above. Break down the plan into goals (Goal 1, Goal 2...) or by the work each committee or sub-group of your organization will be doing. Often the goals and committee projects will go together.

Follow-up (step 5) is crucial. The group can have a nicely written plan, but it is a recipe for failure if there is no one to oversee whether it is being followed or the goals being reached. Choose a person or committee to watch over the plan and set aside time at regular group meetings to measure actual success against your goals. Sometimes you may feel your group is spinning its wheels, but when you look back at the long range plan you may find a lot more success than you thought.