When looking for potential corporate allies, don’t focus exclusively on corporate social responsibility leaders. A growing body of research suggests that the companies that are willing to team up with not-for-profits and grassroots organisations in advocacy campaigns, in particular boycotts, are typically not known for being socially responsible.42 You will indeed soon find out that the companies keener on working with you are those who do so as a publicity exercise or as an opportunity to gain protection against future challenges and actions. While this instrumental motive might put you off, research backed up by my own experience suggests that these companies, upon joining advocacy campaigns, often develop a genuine interest in the issue that you have proposed them to address.43 A defensive motive might soon turn into a genuine effort to be at the vanguard of social activism.
This is an important take-away that you should seriously consider. In your coalition-building efforts, always be ready to contact the second-worst offender before launching a campaign. You may want to say ‘either we are going to target you or the company worse than you. We believe you don’t what to be the one that it is targeted, and we would like to partner with you’. By the way, the very same strategy also works in campaigns targeting public authorities. Give them some healthy competition!
Having said that, let me caution you before you move to enter a corporate partnership. While you may gain from closer ties with companies, both managerially and financially, the risk of your campaign being co-opted by them must not be overlooked. This might prevent you from achieving your own mission and might tarnish your legitimacy. In other words, you must be careful in picking up the right corporate partners.
The second advantage of coalition-building is as a source of further ideas, resources and knowledge for your cause. A coalition is made up, by definition, of actors that differ in status, size, influence and resources. You and your core team may be joined by some non-profit groups, perhaps some experts and even a few companies. Each coalition member, whether a group or an individual, brings to the coalition community a different perspective and can pick up different tasks. Some might work on research, others on communication, others on a new website. Each plays a different role according to their expertise and resources.
It is vital from the beginning to agree on the rules governing co-operation between the members. In particular, it is a good idea to draw up a coalition action plan setting out:
a timeline for the lobbying action, and the steps that need to be followed;
the core members, often called the ‘steering committee’, which is generally entrusted to take decisions under self-imposed rules (e.g. voting rules, prerogatives, etc.);
who is responsible for which parts of the lobbying plan;
the contact person, i.e. the person representing the coalition to policymakers and the outside world;
the spokesperson, i.e. the person entrusted to speak to the media.
Whatever you do, you must ensure that when you draw up these rules, each group has a say in the process and gains full ownership of your action. To be worthwhile, a coalition needs reliable and committed members. As previously mentioned, it is particularly useful to count among them some members of your lobbying target. Politicians care when their constituents contact them because they, unlike the rest of the population, vote and determine not only their future political survival but also their ability to serve the greater good. You must, however, resist the temptation to include people who – although very influential – have not officially agreed to join your coalition. It might be tempting to exploit their popularity, but you may end up paying a price for it by losing control of your action. This situation can backfire and undermine your work, as well as that of the other coalition members. Avoid, avoid, avoid!
TIP 14 – Coalition Members’ Inventory
To tap into the full potential of your coalition, you must draft a members’ inventory. For each group member, this should include an indication of the number of active members, their contact lists, the communication channels they use (email, social network, mailing list, dedicated intranet) and how often they are in contact. The purpose of the inventory is to determine how many people can be reached through the coalition. This number matters both for internal reasons (more resources) and external ones (weight and representativeness of the action).
By combining networks, some of the people contacted might make a big contribution to the coalition and boost its reach. Some may want to act as ambassadors, others might host information meetings, others may collect signatures (in the case of a petition). Like the factsheet, the inventory must speak for your action. Make sure you come up with a neat, succinct and memorable document. It must carry clear headings/branding, use a neat font size and bullet points as well as box-outs. Don’t hesitate to ask a graphic designer to transform your Word document into an appealing double-sided sheet capable of drawing attention to your cause.
STEP 6: Who Pays?
‘You can’t expect to hit the jackpot if you don’t put a few nickels in the machine.’
Flip Wilson
You don’t need funding to become a citizen lobbyist. Indeed, while fundraising is usually essential to the overall running of a campaign, it is not a requirement for all citizen lobbying actions. Unlike professional lobbying, citizen lobbying actions chiefly rely on volunteers and low-budget solutions. Yet, while volunteering can work wonders, you might encounter some costs. Depending on the nature, scope and extent of the action, you might need to raise money from friends and family, and perhaps need some seed money to cover some of the costs you might encounter. Putting together a campaign plan, and estimating the costs for each element, will provide a clearer sense of your fundraising goal.
Various things can help you keep costs under control. Relying on pro bono advice is one of them. Given the rapid expansion of pro bono, it is becoming easier to identify not only lawyers, but also other professionals who could devote time to your cause. They do not necessarily have to join your core team or even entirely share your mission to give you some free advice. Lots of platforms match organisations seeking help with volunteers. They are active in many parts of the world and belong to the Global Pro Bono Network (see page 301).
ACTIVITY 7 – Look for Pro Bono Help
Identify a volunteering matching platform in your country. To do so, you may want to rely on the Global pro bono directory compiled by the Taproot Foundation.44 It lists more than 50 skill-sharing volunteering platforms in more than 40 countries around the world.
Even when you succeed in finding a dream team of pro bono volunteers to help with the most technical and expensive tasks, you may still encounter some costs. Even if your lawyers agree not to charge you, they can’t save you from other expenses such as filing fees, evidence collection, or transport to court.
The question, therefore, is how to finance your action.
Several opportunities are open to you, ranging from crowdfunding to fundraising via philanthropy. You can raise money online with a donation tool, fundraising events or selling branded merchandise. However, given the project-based nature of your action, the most promising and popular tool to fund citizen lobbying is crowdfunding. This is a way of funding a project or venture by raising financial contributions from a large number of people. It generally takes place via a generic fundraising platform, such as Kickstarter, Indiegogo or RocketHub, or a platform dedicated to civic initiatives, such as ioby and Citizenvestor (US), Spacehive (UK), Catarse (Brazil) and Goteo (Spain). Some civic crowdfunding platforms are even more specialised. Julia Salasky, a former associate at the international law firm Linklaters, found an innovative way to help communities channel their energy and finances in the UK through what she calls ‘the little guy who is brave enough to bring a case’. It is called Crowdjustice. It enables individuals, groups and communities to come together to fund legal action. Here, the funders are donors rather than investors, as is often the case in third-party funding litigation.
As civic
crowdfunding projects aim to serve the public good, as opposed to funding a commercial project, they are often closely linked with existing, offline relationships. The most frequent mistake is to believe that by simply posting your project online you can bring in money. You need to engage with the public by using many other communication tools if you are going to persuade them to fund you.
You may want to consider fundraising outside of these channels, as Indiegogo, Kickstarter or any of the successful crowdfunding websites will levy a fee (for instance, Kickstarter charges 5 per cent). Instead, you can set up your own crowdfunding structure by incorporating it into your webpage. You may want to do this if you run a successful website or blog, or are capable of attracting potential supporters to your own site. There are several ways in which you can promote a crowdfunding campaign, and these methods are particularly important when your project is being hosted on your own site, for instance, creating Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter accounts, pages or groups. These are key to the success of your campaign, but you need to regularly update them. Networks that you are already involved with are a good base from which to spread the word, and perhaps even to recruit people to help contribute to the project, if there are any openings.
Think too about recording a video and incorporating it into your website; this will help you promote the campaign by increasing the likelihood that it will be clicked on and shared by your followers.
Regardless of whether you go solo or rely on a pre-existing platform, there is some preparation to do before you kick off a crowdfunding campaign. One of the most important things to do is to establish the amount of money you need to raise to make the project a reality. In order to work out this vital figure, you should spend as much time as possible researching every aspect of the production of your project. Then – and only then – should you consider what benefits and bonuses might be available for supporters who pledge more than the standard amount. It is common practice in crowdfunding to incentivise/reward financial donations. In civic crowdfunding, unlike commercial crowdfunding, you are not expected to pay back in the same currency. You can confer titles on your most important supporters or invite them to public events like press conferences or meetings with decision-makers.
Don’t forget that civic crowdfunding platforms are not only about collecting money. The ease with which it is possible to attract financial support while at the same time growing your own community of followers is what makes crowdfunding so popular among citizen lobbyists.
TIP 15 – Don’t Be Afraid to Ask for Money
Don’t be afraid or ashamed to ask for money. You believe in what you’re doing and people will respond if you let your passion shine through. The more people you ask, the more they will give. Asking for money, like any other activity, requires some preparation and a few tips.
To make your case to a potential donor, you need to rely on your factsheet and show them:
what your issue is and why it matters
what your solution is and why it works
the evidence backing up your solution
how strategic and competent you are
who the beneficiaries of your action are, possibly via real-life stories
what you need to make it happen
how easy it is to contribute and make a difference.
STEP 7: Communication and Media Plan
Every single citizen lobbying action, regardless of the chosen avenue, is a battle to win the hearts and minds of other people. You therefore need to communicate effectively and smartly about both the problem and your proposed solution. You want people to visit your website. You want to extend your reach beyond individual visitors and reach different audiences through media coverage. You want, in turn, to influence the public discussion around your issue and, more critically, you want to define the solution. And the existence of social and participatory media means you may also want to use your communication as an opportunity for co-creation and to strengthen your movement’s identity. Communication is therefore vital. It is generally – yet not always (think of inside lobbying) – about raising awareness of your issue in society. Sometimes, your communication may entail storytelling:45 crafting a compelling story about why your issue matters and how it relates to people, which your potential supporters can connect with in an immediate and meaningful way.
Citizen lobbying means communicating with at least three different audiences: decision-makers, the media and the general public. While communication to policymakers and the media requires targeted dissemination (i.e. you choose to communicate some information to key individuals), communication to the general public entails general dissemination. Remember that due to the ‘context collapse’ of our networked environment (see page 215), it is increasingly difficult to control who will be exposed to your message. Depending on your overall lobbying plan, you must work out not only whom to talk to, but also how and when. Sometimes you will also have to decide who speaks – the ‘messenger’. She/he might be a member of your core team (generally the spokesperson), a coalition member or somebody else, such as a celebrity.
In any event, your communications plan, which may encompass different media – generally a combination of targeted and general dissemination tools – must be in line with both your research findings and lobbying plan. It therefore builds on your factsheet and adapts that information to different audiences.
Communication of your issue and proposed action may take many forms, including dissemination via:
mainstream media via opinion pieces, letters, interviews or citations in articles;
unconventional media via blog posts, self-publishing websites (e.g. Medium, Facebook, LinkedIn), or videos (e.g. on YouTube);
paid advertisement, offline or online;
dedicated, network-based channels, such as a Facebook group page, mailing list, YouTube channel, etc.;
press releases;
education and dissemination materials, such as leaflets, posters, infographics, gadgets and even graffiti;
events, such as press conferences, workshops, hackathons and ‘unconferences’;
publication of your formal actions, such as complaints, court briefs or petitions.
One of the most successful ways to communicate about your cause is through infographics. These are charts or diagrams used to represent information or data, and may be tailored to difference audiences. As is often said, a good infographic is worth a thousand words.
When you merely want to raise awareness about your issue, you may prepare a few banners, images containing a catchy message.
Regardless of the medium chosen, every attempt at communicating about your issue must address these questions:
target: who is the target audience?
content: what information should be shared?
context: where will communication take place?
aim: why am I making this presentation?
design: how can I make the presentation work?
Every single factor must be considered as you frame your message. A message aimed at the general public demands plain language and easy-to-understand content; the same message targeted at a specific audience, such as a decision-maker, will need to be detailed, fact-based and more substantial. The former may be an advertisement, an infographic or a leaflet; the latter may be a policy report, a legislative amendment or an administrative complaint. In any event, you must be clear about the message that you want to convey, tailor the information to the audience and always conclude it with a call for action.
As you draw up your communications plan, you should establish a timeline for your outreach efforts. A well-planned media campaign requires staged releases of information over time. While generating your own publicity is vital at the beginning of your action, you might soon need the help of third parties, such as newspaper correspondents, TV journalists or bloggers, to get your issue packaged and conveyed to a wider public. Be ready to have all you need to communicate and handle your subsequent media relations.
B
y now you should have prepared all your communications content and be ready to get it out! It’s time to focus on some of the major communications steps below to help you hone your plan.
ACTIVITY 8 – Draw up a Communications Plan
Pick a combination of the various forms of dissemination that will best convey your message! Keep in mind who your communication targets are and the key information they need in order to act.
Branding
The first communications challenge for any lobbying campaign is to find an appropriate name (or branding). It must be catchy, snappy and memorable. How you brand your issue to the outside world plays a key role not only in how well it will ‘sell’ in the marketplace, but also on how your issue will be defined in the public debate. At different points in your campaign, the brand may be critical – from the initial contact-making phase, to coalition-building and the search for funding. It can build trust and enhance credibility.
The purpose of branding is captured in a model called the Role of Brand Cycle. In this model, the brand is embedded within a lobbying strategy, which in turn is embedded within the mission and values driving the action. Branding plays a variety of roles that, when performed well, link together in a virtuous cycle. A well-aligned identity and image position the group, sometimes a coalition, to build internal unity and trust among external actors. The resulting reputation then enhances the identity and image of the brand with which the cycle began.
Lobbying for Change Page 18