Jonathan Ellis is Director of Policy and Development at the Refugee Council. 

He is also author of Campaigning for Success - how to cope when you achieve your campaign goal (NCVO 2007), is an external adviser on the Certificate in Campaigning and leads training sessions on INTRAC’s global advocacy courses. He is a member of NCVO’s Campaigning Effectiveness advisory group and is about to become a campaign coach for the Sheila McKechnie Foundation.
He was for five years the Director of the Empty Homes Agency, an independent national charity. He led the successful campaign for new legislation on empty homes, which resulted in major changes to the Housing Act 2004. Previously he had been a campaign manager for OXFAM, where he worked on a campaign with the Refugee Council and the Transport and General Workers’ Union, which led to the abolition of the asylum vouchers scheme.

He is a trustee of Dacorum Rent Aid (helping people to find a home) and the Bishop Simeon Trust (supporting education and HIV/AIDS projects in South Africa).

Born in South Africa, Jonathan was educated at Durham (BA Hons History), Loughborough (MBA) and Leicester (PGCE) universities.

To find out more about his book click Campaigning for Success

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May 2010 article

Which campaigner inspires you?

Who inspires you in your campaigning? Who do you look up to? Who motivates your campaigning?

I may have struggled to answer that question until recently when I attended the Sheila McKechnie Foundation campaigners’ conference and heard Kumi Naidoo speak about campaigning. Kumi was recently appointed the executive director of Greenpeace International and has an awesome campaigning background

He gave the key note speech at the SMK event and I could have listened to him all day. If you do one thing this year as part of your development I urge you either to hear him speak or read his writing.

There was so much to take from his speech. I was taken by him saying that the core principles of campaigning are still valid. He appealed to a sense of history for our current campaigning. History tells us that decent people must stand up and put their life on the line. In saying that, he added that he felt that campaigners put too much emphasis on the insider track. Food for thought.

He spoke of two tribes in campaigning – one internally focussed and one externally focussed – but his key message that struck a chord with me was that these two tribes need to work together. He pointed to the success of the landmine campaign that led to the Ottowa treaty, where the insider and outside campaign strategies had worked together.

He also said that the struggle was a marathon, not a sprint, and that we need to offer a lifetime of commitment. Maybe this is a message that we could take to our funders?

But above all his passion and his commitment shone through for me from his words. In all of our talk about professionalising campaigning, we must never lose sight of why we campaign. We must never lose sight of the injustice and the change we seek in our world. Yes, we should be professional – but professional with passion and spark – without that we will never achieve our goals in our lifetimes of struggle.

For more information about Kumi Naidoo:

http://www.greenpeace.org/international/about/how-is-greenpeace-structured/management/executive-director

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April 2010 article

Campaigning is all about failure?

Last month I did a session on INTRAC’s advocacy and policy influencing training course. I do enjoy getting involved with these sessions as they attract NGO delegates from across the world and you get a real sense that campaigning is a truly international language.

I had been asked to say a few words about running a campaign in terms of both success and failure, and I am always interested in how different groups will pick up and explore different elements from my presentation.

This time the group was keen to explore and discuss the issue of failure in campaigning. Maybe in an environment of tight finances and funders ever more focussed on impact,  there isn’t any room for failure and we just have to, as campaigners, get it right first time? Or is there still room to try things and fail?

I was struck by an email that I received from one of the delegates once he had returned to his home continent. He quoted me as saying:

'Campaigning is all about failure, learning from the failure and building on
the learning from the failure'.

Now I am not entirely sure that I used those words because campaigning is not all about failure – as success is also important, but campaigning is certainly about learning from that failure. As campaigners we need to have both the courage and space to try things, assess how they go, learn from this activity and try again.

For me campaigning has always been an art and not a science. Yes, you can attend training sessions and read books and case studies, but campaigning for me is all about an instinctive desire for change rooted in a curiosity, leading to an understanding, about the external environment.

Despite the internal and external pressures at the moment, do not be wary of trying new things. The advent of a new Parliament in the UK with a large number of new MPs after 6^th May gives us as campaigners a great opportunity to try new things, reflect from that activity and keep moving forwards.

So do cherish failure in campaigning. When I have done research on campaigning in the past, I have found that people were very happy to talk about their successes but less so their failures. But we have all made mistakes, I certainly have, and I think that we should cherish this failure (unless we keep on making the same mistakes!). But do you cherish your failure in campaigning?

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January 29th 2010 article

Using Opposition (part 3)

In my last blog I described a technique to utilise the opposition arguments against your campaign. 

Let’s take an example of this method being used in practice. I used to campaign against the scandal of empty homes at the Empty Homes Agency. And a few years ago we were campaigning for new powers to tackle empty homes. 

The key arguments against such new powers on empty homes were that owners should be free to do what-ever they wanted with their property, that these powers would undermine this freedom and that there was not a problem with homes being empty. 

Historically our key campaign message had been around tackling empty homes as a solution to tackling homelessness. That was the campaign message that motivated me. But it didn’t resonate with the owners of empty homes who we were trying to get on board. 

So we used the opposition matrix technique described in my last blog. And we began to change our campaign message having reflected on the opposition to our campaign. We began to address the concerns by talking about the impact that empty homes can have on neighbouring occupied property. A survey from Hometrack (June 2003) found that empty homes can devalue neighbouring property by as much as 18%. 

We also talked about empty homes attracting crime and vandalism in an area; the Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO) had referred to empty homes as being ‘honey pots for crime’. These were reasons to support our campaign on empty homes and specifically to address the concerns against our campaign. We found that these new messages resonated much more with our target audience and helped to us to attract new media coverage. 

This method was useful for us to think about our opponents’ concerns and use public messages that would address those concerns, as opposed to using our normal messages about the need to bring these homes back into use to help homeless people. 

I had learned a useful campaign lesson – it is often more important to use the campaign messages that resonate with your target audience than the messages that motivate you. This was hard for my ego but good for the campaign.

January 14th 2010 article

Using Opposition (part 2)

In my last blog I wrote about the importance of taking time to collect the arguments that are used against your campaign, and I suggested in your campaign planning team to list all of the arguments that you have heard used against your campaign.

So you list, on the left hand side of a page, all of the possible concerns that may be expressed about your campaign. What might be said by others about your campaign? And then list, on the other side of the page, the key reasons in support of your campaign. (See chart below)

The next step is to see whether at least one of the reasons for supporting your campaign provides an answer to each of the concerns – is there a reason to address each concern. Or are there outstanding concerns that your reasons do not address? 

As your campaign develops you should be able to identify which of the concerns feature highest with your target or your wider target audience. With that knowledge, you then need to ensure that your campaign message addresses that concern. In many respects this is a statement of the blindingly obvious, but as campaigners we are often guilty of just running with the messages that motivate us. I know that this is true for me! We are already motivated by our campaign as are, hopefully, our supporters. This technique is all about building wider support.

In my next blog I will explain how I sought to use this technique in one of my campaigns ....

January 7th 2010 article

Using Opposition (part 1)

A few weeks ago I was running a session for some community organisations on developing a campaign message. We had covered the key ground of highlighting the problem and the solution, as well as spending some time testing the message using the elevator test.

I have found this test to go down really well in campaign training - you act as though you have just stepped into an elevator and meet the person that you have spent weeks trying to speak to as part of your campaign - and you have 12-15 seconds to make your campaign pitch. It’s a bit of fun but also a great way to hone your campaign message).

Anyway we had covered some of the basics and the session seemed to be going well, when one of the participants lobbed in a question – “this was all well and good,” he said, “but how should you use what your opponents say about your issue? Or should you just ignore it?”

Good question – and it opened a good debate amongst the group. Opinion was split as to whether opposition should just be ignored and that you need to stay focussed on your campaign ask, or whether you should analyse any opposition and seek to use it in your campaign planning.

I must add that I used to be firmly in the former camp. When I started out campaigning, I had very little interest in what opposition there was to my campaigns. I knew what I was trying to achieve and put all of my energy into trying to build an alliance to achieve this campaign goal.  I had little time for thinking about any opposition to the campaign.

Then a few years ago, I went on a media course and as part of this course we were asked to brainstorm all of the arguments that we had heard used against your campaign.

Have you ever done this exercise? It is a great thing to do in your campaign planning group – just spend a bit of time listing all of the arguments against your campaign. And if you do it in a group you will find that you will come up with a longer list of arguments as different people will have picked up on different points against your campaign

In my next blog I will describe how we were encouraged to use this list of arguments to help us strengthen our campaign message….

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October 2009 article

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 rubbish today. There is a huge amount of energy and creativity among young people. This fact was powerfully re-enforced to me when I was invited to speak at a session being held by the UpRising programme at the Young Foundation.

If you haven’t come across this programme it is well worth a look:
http://uprising.youngfoundation.org/

The official blurb is as follows:

“UpRising is a new leadership programme being developed by the Young Foundation to support and train a new generation of public leaders. UpRising identifies, recruits, develops and supports 19 to 25 year olds to enable them to play a greater role in politics and public decision-making.

The aim is to create a pool of talented young leaders from a range of backgrounds who can transform their communities for the better and take up positions of power in public institutions. UpRising was launched in 2008 and is being piloted in the East London boroughs of Barking and Dagenham, Newham and Tower Hamlets. It will then spread across London and into other major cities across the UK. The programme has cross-party support with Gordon Brown, David Cameron and Nick Clegg serving as its patrons.”

In reality this is true and so much more! I was so impressed by the uprisers that I met. What marked them all out was their individual campaign that they were running and their sheer passion for changing the world. It was an incredibly energising evening just to be in their company.

I was fortunate enough to attend their last graduation event, and it was very evident that all of the course participants had gained so much from this programme and from each other.

The Young Foundation has started something very special with this UpRising programme, and I hope that they are successful in rolling it out beyond East London – I think our country would gain massively from an UpRising programme in every part of the UK. We need to encourage these passionate young leaders who want to change the world!

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August 2009 article

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 heart just sinks when I hear such talk. For me campaigning is all about people inspiring people to get involved and take action. Successful campaigning is all about the human touch, and we will never be able to motivate campaigners by just relying on new media. 

Or at least that is what I used to think, but I hope that I am big enough to realise when I am wrong, and there has been one web site that has made me re-think my traditionalist outlook. 

I would urge you to visit this website:  http://www.hopenothate.org.uk/

This campaign is being led by Searchlight to counter racism and fascism with support as I understand from ‘Blue State Digital’, which was involved with Obama’s successful campaign last year. 

I registered a few months ago and I have been bowled over by their approach to new media campaigning. Their upbeat emails present a clever mix of campaigning asks and funding appeals, and they are excellent at giving you feedback on your actions using each action to build momentum for the next action. 

So if you share my traditionalist approach to campaigning, just check out this website and you will see an energising 21^st century approach to campaigning. And I for one now need to re-think my view on new media with its genuine potential to harness campaigning energy.

May 2009 article

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 way it was! My key way of learning was just to try things, dust myself down when they failed, learn from the experience and try again.

With this memory behind me, I spent a weekend recently helping to run a residential weekend for the winners of the Sheila McKechnie Foundation campaign awards. I found it inspiring to be in the company of these award winners.

In the past I have written about campaigning being all about having a burning passion to achieve change – and these award winners had this passion in abundance. What really struck me about the weekend was that all the participants wanted to be there and they were hungry to learn anything that might help them to drive their campaign forward. I was envious that they had a peer group of fellow campaigners and they had access to support to help them to develop their campaigning – I would have loved to have had such an opportunity!

If you are a campaigner and you don’t know about this Foundation, (I know that I am biased) but they are well worth a look – http://www.sheilamckechnie.org.uk/

They are particularly focussed on the next generation of campaigners and provide support through training, web resources and their campaign awards. The ’09 awards should be launched soon so watch out for that.

It does feel quite an exciting time to be a campaigner with this level of support available. When I started out, not that I’m bitter of course, there was nothing like the Foundation or indeed the NCVO’s campaigning effectiveness programme – see http://www.ncvo-vol.org.uk/campaigningeffectiveness/ - again well worth a look.

So if you are a campaigner with that burning desire to achieve change, do make sure that you make maximum use of these excellent resources and support.

January 2009 Article

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 Action Aid UK. At first it seemed as though it was just another postcard. But after a cursory glance it was more and it caught my attention.

It was very cleverly designed and on the front cover there was a space for a 5 pence piece and on this space there was an adhesive substance that would allow you to stick such a coin. The message was aimed at Tesco and highlighted the fact that a 5 pence increase on the price paid for a kilo of apples by Tesco could allow a fruit picker in South Africa to feed their family properly.

Action Aid’s supporters were being asked to put their hands in their pocket, put 5 pence on the card and send it to Tesco’s chief executive – or even better to hand it into their local Tesco store.

Now I know that this stunt is not original; I can remember debt campaigners taking similar action years ago. But this action request really resonated with me, and there and then I found a 5 pence piece, signed the card and sent it off.

I liked it because Action Aid presented a clear problem – the poor wages of fruit pickers. They then showed the solution – a 5 pence increase on the price paid for a kilo of apples. And they encouraged you to take action and to show your commitment by sending Tesco a 5 pence coin. Excellent!

I will follow this campaign with interest to see what result Action Aid gain from this card, and it shows me that there is still a place for a well thought-out postcard campaign action.   

September 2008 Article

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 Atkins, who had been previously Policy and Campaigns Director at Tearfund.  Now I haven’t had much contact with FoE and I have never met Andy; yet what really struck me about this appointment was the statement that FoE put out to announce Andy’s appointment. This is a big job and a complex leadership role, so it was refreshing to read in the statement the high value placed on Andy’s campaigning track record.

FoE cited Andy’s role in initiating Tearfund’s work on climate change and his role as a key organiser and spokesperson for Make Poverty History. They highlighted his ‘strong track record of campaigning on environmental and social justice issues.’ 

In our sector we rightly place much store on the importance of good management in our leaders, but we are also a campaigning sector. This is one element that makes our sector unique in this country. We need our leaders to be good managers but also to have campaigning spark. So it was so good to see FoE highlight Andy’s campaigning credentials.  

This appointment should give hope to all campaigners out there – you really can progress as a campaigner in our sector!

May 2008 Article

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. And the killer question? “Wasn’t I being co-opted by government?” 

It was a fair point. I had been talking about the time that I had been campaigning against empty homes in England. We had been pushing for new powers for local authorities to tackle the problem of empty homes and we had managed to persuade the Government to amend their own housing Bill. 

Once these powers had become law, there then started the long process of preparing for the implementation of these new powers. As a result my colleagues and I began to attend a series of meetings in Whitehall. 

I remember walking to one such meeting and one of my colleagues asking me, “do you think that we are having any impact here?” I immediately launched into a defence of our action and cited all of the meetings that we had attended. “Yes, but have we made any impact?” was my colleague’s direct reply.

And he was right. We had partly been seduced by the fact that we had been invited to meetings to which we had never had access before. This was an achievement – certainly for an NGO with less than 10 members of staff. But this was not an end in itself and we had confused access for influence 

When you make a breakthrough on a campaign, you need to decide whether you are going to get involved in the implementation of the issue or whether you do not want to be involved and then walk away. Either response has its merits – but you do need to decide. If you decide to engage with the government, or whoever your target is, you do need to keep that campaigning zeal.

I sometimes think that co-option is a deliberate policy of this government – and if it is deliberate, then it is a shrewd policy. Once you are on the inside you can think that you have achieved a result. The truth is that you have only just started to achieve a result. Just being at the table is not enough. You need to use this access to get the best result for your campaign. 

So when you get an invitation to a meeting – ask yourself – are we being co-opted and neutralised or can I use this opportunity to drive the campaign onwards? This is a killer question for a campaigner, so make sure that you keep asking yourself this question.

April 2008 Article

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 the key issue was the difference between marketing and single-issue campaigns, and this time the main focus was around how you can use allies in a campaign.

It is always good when you see a group of charities in one part of the voluntary sector coming together in a common cause; for example the children’s charities producing a joint letter on an issue of concern. Yet I am always left feeling that I rather would hope that they could agree on such issues.

What I think can have more impact is when you get organisations coming together with a common purpose but where is not an obvious connection between them – the so-called ‘surprising allies’. 

I know when Oxfam was campaigning on asylum issues in the UK several years ago, we began to make dramatic strides forward when we worked with the Refugee Council and the Transport and General Workers’ Union. This impact was further multiplied when we were able to bring in others like the Body Shop and the British Medical Association. This was a diverse group of organisations that hadn’t all worked together before; yet they were now united by a common campaigning cause. 

So when you are planning your campaign, do look to gain support from your own sector – this is a helpful foundation for a good campaign. But then think about others whom you could bring in to support your campaign. Who are the surprising allies on your campaign?

March 2008 Article

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 Blair was proposing to reform the House of Lords, and his preferred route seemed to be, at the time, an appointed second chamber. As a result of that decision, Charter 88 arranged a brilliant photo shoot on Palace Green with loads of people in robes all with masks of Tony Blair. Yes it was a stunt – but what a powerful way to challenge a policy decision.

Yet campaigning is so much more than stunts. Whenever I have done campaign training within an organisation, I have always started by asking people how they define campaigning. When you pose this question you will always get a wide array of answers, and that is not a problem – campaigning is firmly an art and not a science. What I think is important is not that there is one universal answer to this question, but that the organisation has a common definition that everyone signs up to.

For me campaigning is about having a burning desire to achieve a policy or practice change. Once you have identified the problem and the solution, a campaigner then assesses the political environment and decides which campaigning tool (or tools) to use to drive the campaign forward. These tools can include media work, lobbying, supporter action, work with allies and even stunts. The critical point is that the choice of tool is made in the context of both the political environment and the goal of the campaign.

So campaigning stunts will always have their place – but let’s start with that burning desire to achieve change – and the rest should then follow!

December 2007 Article

Another postcard?

I am a member of more campaigning organisations than is probably good for my health. 

One trend that I have noticed, which is really welcome, is an improvement in communications between these organisations and their campaigners. From small to large organisations, there has been real investment made in developing communications with their supporters, who are prepared to take campaigning actions. So I now receive a steady stream of newsletters and updates – all tailored around campaigning. Excellent. 

Yet there is another trend that I have noticed which is not quite so welcome – the irrepressible campaigning postcard. While it has been great to see more voluntary organisations embrace campaigning as one of their key activities, sometimes this enthusiasm for campaigning seems to manifest itself in a campaigning postcard. 

I just cannot believe that the world needs as many campaigning postcards as I seem to receive month in month out. For some organisations the regular newsletter or update just has to be accompanied by a campaigning postcard. You know the type – a pre-printed postcard, where you sign your name, add your address and send to the chosen campaign target. 

For me campaigning is all about having a burning desire to achieve a particular change. You work out the problem and develop a clear solution. You then assess the political environment, analyse who has the power to implement your change and consider the different influences on your target. You then develop a campaign plan and use the most appropriate methods – media, lobbying, allies, or supporter action – to develop momentum on your campaign. 

I find it hard to believe that, having undertaken the above exercise, that the answer is always a campaign postcard. There may well be stages on a campaign where a mass generated postcard may have some impact. Yet one would need to be clear on the reasons for such a postcard, and not say a personal letter or other activity. 

I am not against campaigning postcards per se – I just see them as one campaigning tool. And just because you have a quarterly newsletter it does not mean that you have to have a quarterly action. Campaigning is about timely action – not regular action to meet printing schedules. It is ok to send a campaigning update without an action – if there is not a need at that time for an action, and if you explain your thinking to your supporters. 

So here is a challenge to campaigning organisations – keep up the great communications with your supporters, but let’s see fewer campaign postcards. Let’s ensure that our campaigns are sensitive to their political environment, that we explain our campaign strategy to our supporters, and that we ask them to take action when it is right for the campaign in a manner that is helpful. And if we did that, I reckon we might see less postcards! 

October 2007 Article

Marketing campaigns - is it really campaigning?

Have you ever wondered where marketing campaigns fit in with campaigning on single issues? 

By the term marketing campaign I mean campaigns like Oxfam's 'I'm in' and the NSPCC's Full Stop Campaign. Such marketing campaigns have been great for awareness raising and recruitment. The success of such campaigns is clear.
 
I have run a number of training sessions recently on running single-issue campaigns and there is often confusion about where such campaigns fit in with broader marketing-type campaigns. 

Well for a start I think that there is a clear difference between such campaigning. A single-issue campaign has a clear goal of achieving a policy or practice change such as the campaign to end hunting with dogs or for a Children’s Commissioner. A broader marketing campaign is about raising awareness, recruiting supporters and possibly also raising money. 

I think that single issue campaigns should recognise the value of such marketing campaigns. Just look at the profile of the Full Stop campaign – quite awesome. They can create an awareness and an environment for change. 

Within such marketing campaigns there is a huge potential to run campaigns on specific issues. 

I would not argue against running a broader marketing campaign. They can help to create a very positive environment. But they're not an end in themselves. I would urge organisations that consider running a marketing campaign to think as well about the issues that they have a burning desire to change. Then they should try use the interest generated by the marketing campaign to channel into a specific issue campaign.  

A marketing campaign is not a campaign as I understand the term. A campaign is about achieving policy or practice change. An organisation that just runs a marketing campaign is not really campaigning, but it has a great opportunity so to do.  

Marketing campaigns can be a great launch pad for a campaign on a specific issue. I think that the test for any marketing campaign is what change has it created for its beneficiaries – if no change was sought then that is a wasted opportunity. So don’t dismiss such marketing campaigns – but I urge all campaigners to capitalise on their campaigning potential.

August 2007 Article:

Is campaigning a global activity?

Is campaigning a global activity? Can campaigning ideas be shared across the globe? Recently I had the chance to find out as I led a day at the International NGOs Training and Research Centre’s (INTRAC) summer school on advocacy.

In the room that day were an impressive array of campaigners from across Europe, Asia and Africa. They were united by two things: their ability to speak English and their burning desire to campaign to change something.

I had been asked to lead a day on my book, which looks at how you cope once you have achieved a breakthrough on a campaign. I had done similar sessions in the UK, but this was my first international audience. Would my ideas resonate with them? 

I started with a degree of trepidation. I talked about how very often a breakthrough comes and campaigners aren’t ready for it – that was certainly true for me. How you need to plan for success and even after you have made a breakthrough you need to keep making the case for change. I talked about how relationships with your target, especially if it is the government, will change, as will your relationships with the media and your allies. We also covered the prospect of being campaigned against.

These messages had all come from my own learning from campaigning and the mistakes that I had made as well as the case study campaigns that I had interviewed for the book.

Slowly across the room I could see the delegates engaging with these issues. The lessons that I had reflected upon in a UK perspective seemed to echo with campaigning across the continents. ‘We had never thought about planning for success’ said one delegate. I had to confess that it had never occurred to me either until I had been caught out by not doing so.

This day had a profound impact on me. Yes, there are cultural, social and political differences in campaigning around the globe, but there are some key principles, which seem to apply wherever you are based. Campaigning truly is a global language.

Campaigning is all about failure

Last month I did a session on INTRAC’s advocacy and policy influencing training course. I do enjoy getting involved with these sessions as they attract NGO delegates from across the world and you get a real sense that campaigning is a truly international language.

I had been asked to say a few words about running a campaign in terms of both success and failure, and I am always interested in how different groups will pick up and explore different elements from my presentation.

This time the group was keen to explore and discuss the issue of failure in campaigning. Maybe in an environment of tight finances and funders ever more focussed on impact,  there isn’t any room for failure and we just have to, as campaigners, get it right first time? Or is there still room to try things and fail?

I was struck by an email that I received from one of the delegates once he had returned to his home continent. He quoted me as saying:

'Campaigning is all about failure, learning from the failure and building on
the learning from the failure'.

Now I am not entirely sure that I used those words because campaigning is not all about failure – as success is also important, but campaigning is certainly about learning from that failure. As campaigners we need to have both the courage and space to try things, assess how they go, learn from this activity and try again.

For me campaigning has always been an art and not a science. Yes, you can attend training sessions and read books and case studies, but campaigning for me is all about an instinctive desire for change rooted in a curiosity, leading to an understanding, about the external environment.

Despite the internal and external pressures at the moment, do not be wary of trying new things. The advent of a new Parliament in the UK with a large number of new MPs after 6^th May gives us as campaigners a great opportunity to try new things, reflect from that activity and keep moving forwards.

So do cherish failure in campaigning. When I have done research on campaigning in the past, I have found that people were very happy to talk about their successes but less so their failures. But we have all made mistakes, I certainly have, and I think that we should cherish this failure (unless we keep on making the same mistakes!). But do you cherish your failure in campaigning?