getting people engaged!

Getting people engaged, how to plan it and what should be

taken into account?

Maciej Muskat, Greenpeace Poland

If we don’t fight hard enough for the things we stand for

at some point we have to recognise that we don’t really stand for them.

- Paul Wellstone

1. Motivation not education

K.I.S.S.

Campaigns are needed because there is an urgent problem which has to be made public in order to be resolved.

Non-urgent problems may require education or information but they are unlikely to justify campaigns.

Analyze the forces

Why the change hasn’t happened already?

Who is involved?

Who is the ally, who is the opponent?

What is their position and power?

7. Construct a critical path

All issues are complex but your campaign must not be.

Your campaign has to be like visible line that runs through a complex picture, place or process. It cannot

be the 'whole picture'. Instead it has to be a way, a trail, stepping stones, a critical-path.

Each stage is a target or objective in itself - stick at each stage until it is achieved.

Start from where your audience is

How do they see what you want to save (or change)?

What is important for them?

E.g. - is the forest a biodiversity area or exercise place or just a volume of

timber?

Campaign against the unacceptable

Your campaign may be 'about an issue' but to engage people it will need to have a much more specific

'battlefront'.

Look at your issue. It will be full of shades of grey like an aerial photograph of a city. Zoom in on your chosen areas. Blow it up like a photo until there is just black and white - that is what to communicate.

Make real things happen: events not arguments

Some of the most powerful events are direct-actions, especially where these are non-violent and can be justified on moral and

'scientific' or 'economic' grounds.

But … there are many other powerful ways to campaign:

- well timed legal action, with drama in the courts.- expose - such as one of the film investigations .

Find the conflict in events - make the

newsCampaigns make news when they create change, make a

difference, or threaten to do so. (most significant changes are fiercely opposed)

-'No opposition' usually means, not much news.

- Campaigs are in essence about a struggle for power, and generally the redistribution of power through exerting

influence.

Find the conflict in events - make the

news„We must put the choice in front of Obama: either he’ll stop mouintaintop removal mining or he’ll have to send troopsand arrest us, day by day”

- Tim DeChristopher

Communicate in pictures

Forget 'addressing the issue, 'developing awareness' and 'reaching the public‘.

Be the director – create a storyboard.

Things that are real could include: • occupying a tree,• paying a surprise visit to key politician, • invading the nuclear plant.

Communicate in pictures

Communicate in pictures

Communicate in pictures

Communicate in pictures

Connecting campaign with fundraising

Goals:

- empower and involve major part

of population

- make the EU Commission finally

act

- stop the construction

Fundraising for a special cause/project

Fundraising for a special cause/project

Fundraising for a special cause/project

Finally: Don't send messages – talk

Campaigning is a conversation with society - a two way process like a phone call.

Communication occurs when your ideas get into the head of someone else and it is understood

Many campaigns fail because they are communicating only with their existing supporters, and not with the audiences who can

bring about change.

Don’t go only after coverage - your ears are as important as your mouth is.