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How to Launch and Conduct a Campaign
For Organizations

Created by: Pat Veitch and Alita Wilson, Sierra Club

Source: Planning a Grassroots Campaign The Planet, May 1997, Volume 4, number 4

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A Plan, A Plan, Gotta Have a Plan
Organization Building Through Effective Campaign Planning

by Pat Veitch and Alita Wilson, Sierra Club

All effective action begins with being clear about your goals and developing a good written plan. Planning helps achieve your goals and can result in a stronger organization. Organization building and campaign planning are not parallel tracks within an organization; they are links in a chain. This year's campaign builds next year's organization. A stronger organization can undertake a larger campaign. A larger campaign can build a still stronger organization. Make sense?

As your chapter, group or committee sets about nailing down a work plan for 1998, we encourage you to use the Sierra Club's grassroots planning matrix. This approach to planning has been adapted and modified from the Midwest Academy's Direct Action Organizing Model by Club National Field Director Bob Bingaman for use in organizing the Club's highly effective Environmental Public Education Campaign. It is now a core component of the Sierra Club Training Academy curriculum. The matrix provides a step-by-step plan to help you set concrete conservation and organizational goals for the coming year.

Remember: A campaign that breaks an organization -- wearing out volunteers and staff and depleting its treasury so it's less vital at the end -- is a failure. We should always strive to come out of a campaign organizationally stronger than when we went into it.

The process to develop a plan using the following matrix must involve decision-makers and stakeholders essential to implementation of all aspects of the plan.

In a Sierra Club chapter setting, for example, the chapter chair, membership chair, treasurer, political chair and conservation chair and the key activists that are responsible for implementing the campaign need to be partners in the planning process.

Lastly, in addition to clipping this article, blowing it up and tacking it on the bulletin board for your chapter meeting, post the following concepts that define a strong, effective organization. It's critical that the goals, activities and tactics you build into your plan integrate, enhance and build upon each one of these concepts.

A strong, effective organization:

1. Is held together by values.
2. Is driven by a mission.
3. Is strengthened by asking, involving, informing and thanking its membership over and over again.
4. Reaches out and recruits from beyond its traditional circles.
5. Communicates consistently.
6. Supports and nurtures, like a family.
7. Attracts resources -- people and money.

Now you're ready to dive in. Good luck. If you need advice or assistance in making this planning matrix work for you, don't hesitate to contact us:

Office of Volunteer and Activist Services, activist.desk@sierraclub.org, or
(415)977-5597. You can also check out the May 1997 article "Creating Demand,
Taking Delivery."

Grassroots Campaign Planning Matrix

The M&Ms have been placed in the center of the table, and important players in your Sierra Club chapter or group are seated and enthusiastic. You're ready to get to work.

This step-by-step plan will take you through the process of defining your goals and making them become reality.

The Heart of the Matter

1. Campaign Goals and Issue Focus
What issue do you want to focus on this year? Determine your conservation goals around this issue. Remember; pick issues and goals that will help strengthen your chapter.

"It's natural to want to work on everything," says EPEC organizer Terry
Wold of the San Diego Chapter, "but the planning matrix helped us define and choose one issue on which we could have a measurable impact, and that brought in new activists and increased the visibility of the Sierra Club in our area."

The chapter designed a campaign around endangered species using library presentations and street theater to educate young people. The campaign also provided a direct link to the national Club's work on wildlife issues.

The Tale You'll Tell

2. Story
What story will you tell to define your issue? The story should resonate with the public. Define who are the villains, victims and heroes.

Atlantic Chapter activists planned their clean water campaign around a story that the public already knew: the decades-long practice by General Electric of polluting the Hudson River with PCBs. "The Hudson River is like a 'poster child' for all threatened American rivers," says Marion Trieste, associate representative in the Northeast Office. "We called attention to the villain and victims in a way that grabbed media attention."

Say What?
3. Message and theme
What is the key message you hope to deliver through your campaign? Which themes will you use to reinforce this message? The theme backs up the message by providing two to three arguments that provide clarification and substantive backup to the overall message.

The central message of your campaign should fit on a bumper strip or button. For example, in New Mexico, Club EPEC organizer Deb Hibbard coined the slogan "Save It, Don't Pave It" to draw attention to the campaign to save Petroglyph National Monument. The slogan was placed on billboards, balloons and flyers to bring high visibility to the campaign. "People care about saving the national monument," says Hibbard, "and this was a concise phrase that people responded to and remembered. It also drew the attention of the media."

Take a Good Look at Yourself
4. Strengths and weaknesses
What are the current group or chapter strengths and weaknesses that will
impact the campaign? How will this project strengthen the Club?

"Our greatest strength was the enthusiasm of our volunteers and the ability of Judy Morgan, our clean air campaign coordinator, to break down the bigger projects into manageable tasks," says Bill Green, New Jersey Chapter vice chair. "We offered time-limited volunteer opportunities such as placing phone calls to local newspapers prior to an event," says Morgan. "We drew a lot of volunteers to the Club this way."

"Our greatest weakness was a lack of people willing to take on leadership roles," says David Ellenberger, New Hampshire Chapter staffer. "But a direct result of our campaign to preserve the White Mountain National Forest has been increased activism. The Club has received an incredible amount of media attention, and now people are calling us to ask how they can get involved. We recently held our chapter elections and had more candidates on the ballot than at any other time."

Who's Listening?
5. Primary public audiences
Who are the main audiences outside of the Club membership you want to reach?

The clean-air campaign in Colorado drew public support for the Environmental Protection Agency's proposed air-quality standards by reaching out to groups of people who care for those most vulnerable to air pollution -- children and the elderly. "Our primary audience was women in their 20s, 30s and 40s," says Brian Mohr, state EPEC organizer. "Our message and tactics focused on women's concern for the health of their children and aging parents. One of our most successful events brought media attention when five kids with asthma delivered our clean-air postcards in red wagons to the Colorado Association of Commerce and Industry, the representative of polluting industries in the state. Many of the volunteers we recruited to work on the clean-air campaign have become activists on our urban sprawl and voter education campaigns."

Which Side Are You On?
6. Allies and opponents
Who are your main allies and opponents in your campaign?

In Idaho, where the Club fought to halt the U.S. Air Force from building a bombing range that would destroy wildlife habitat and end recreation opportunities over several million acres, the campaign provided an opportunity to reach out to hunter and angler groups in the state and forge strong alliances.

"We were able to extend our radio ad campaign because a hunter/angler group we were working with offered to fund the ads," says Roger Singer, Northern Rockies Chapter staffer. "These new alliances really invigorated Club activists in the state."

Bull's Eye
7. Targets
What person or group of people has the power to grant your demands? What power do the Club and other organizations have over your target? What motivates or interests your target?

The '97 public education campaign in Michigan targeted Gov. John Engler for working with big business to roll back environmental regulations. "We sharpened our focus onto one important target -- John Engler -- and kept our eye on that target all year," says Mackinac Chapter Director Alison Horton.

What, When and How?
8. Tactics and timelines
What actions will you take to make your power felt by your targets and get your campaign story heard? What is your timeline?

Your tactics should always be aimed at your targets, so that your targets will take the necessary actions to grant you your demands. In the Midwest, the "Protecting Missouri's Rivers and Streams" campaign called attention to threatened waterways in the state. The highlight of the campaign was a 5-day, high-visibility canoe trip down the Missouri River to raise public awareness about problems caused by the Army Corps of Engineers.

"Careful planning of this event by using a timeline was the key to our success," says Ken Midkiff, Ozark Chapter staff. EPEC coordinator Rachel Locke and Teri Folsom, Ozark Chapter staff, along with Midkiff, spent many hours arranging campsites, meetings with local officials, press coverage, canoe rentals and transportation to and from the sites. "Our tactics really grabbed the attention of the media throughout the state," says Midkiff. "Day after day, we made the front page of local and statewide newspapers and drew
TV and radio news network coverage."

The Power of Connection
9. Tie-in to national campaigns
How does your campaign relate to the Club's national conservation priorities?

Our organization is most effective when we pool our resources and work together for the environment. The above campaigns brought together volunteers and staff from the local, regional and national levels. If your local campaign is connected to the Club's national efforts, the results can be powerful.

The M&Ms are gone and you have mapped out a campaign plan for the coming year. Make sure you write it down. A written campaign plan is to the organizer what a trail map is to the hiker. It's the guide to getting where you want to go without getting lost.

It's time to congratulate yourselves and take a five-minute break. Now the fun begins.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Planning a Grassroots Campaign
The Planet, May 1997, Volume 4, number 4

By Alita Paine

We used to begin each campaign with a policy proposal, say, reauthorization of the Clean Water Act. Then we would work from our policy goals and eventually define our public education needs, campaign by campaign.

Now we begin with a media market, define our public education messages and themes, and create a foundation of public support and community dialogue for change. We then take delivery on that foundation through direct administrative action or legislative lobbying and advocacy.

As an example of this approach, in 1997 we will concentrate the bulk of our public education resources in 40 "Tier 1" media markets. In each of these sites, we will pursue education efforts on a local problem or issue that can be tied to our national themes and priorities.

The Sierra Club has adapted the following campaign planning guidelines from
the Midwest Academy's Direct Action Organizing model. The model consists of
10 categories, all of which must be taken into consideration in any
organizing effort.

The Sierra Club Planning Matrix

1.Issue Focus: What is the main issue focus of the campaign and how does it relate to the Sierra Club's national conservation priorities?

oExample: Protecting the natural heritage and water quality of Georgia's Okefenokee wildlife refuge. This issue is directly linked to the Club's water and wetlands priority.

2.Goals: When identifying your goals, ask yourself these questions: What are our long-term objectives? What is a victory? What do we want to accomplish? What are our political goals? What are our organizational goals? Goals must be clear, shared and communicated, well articulated and generally quantifiable.

You should also ask: How will this issue focus advance the conservation goals of our group/chapter?

oExample: Conservation goal: Halt DuPont's plans to strip-mine the trail ridge on the eastern side of the Okefenokee. Organizational goal: Build two new groups.

3.Central Message, Theme and Story: What is the key message you hope to deliver through this campaign?

oExample: Protect the Heritage of the Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge
-- For Our Families, For Our Future.

What are the key themes you will use to reinforce the message?

oExample: Need to protect water quality, the integrity of the Okefenokee ecosystem and preserve this important natural heritage.

What story will you tell to reinforce the message and themes?

oExample: Du Pont plans to strip-mine the trail ridge on the eastern side of the swamp. This ridge served as a natural dam trapping receding coastal waters to form the swamp 6,000 years ago. Du Pont's strip mine threatens to destroy the ecosystem of the Okefenokee.

4.Organizational Considerations: You should plan to come out of the campaign organizationally stronger than you went in. List the resources you bring to the campaign. In addition, list the specific ways you want your organization to be strengthened by the campaign.

oExample: More leaders, more experienced volunteer base, more political clout, more media visibility, new constituencies. Also list any weaknesses and/or internal problems that may prevent you from conducting a successful campaign. Come up with a plan to address those problems.

oTarget Audiences: A key element of your campaign should be strengthening the environmental constituency in your community. Which of the following key audiences will your campaign, its themes and its organizing tactics emphasize?

oWomen 20-45
oParents and others concerned about public health
oHunters and anglers
oFarmers
oYoung people and students
oPeople/communities of color
oWho else?

5.Allies/Opponents: Who cares about your issue enough to join you in your campaign effort? Who can you bring in to help? Who else is affected by the issue you are working on?

oExample: The Okefenokee Protection League. Also, who are your opponents?
What are their strengths and weaknesses? What will they do/spend to oppose you? How can you counter their strengths? oExample: Because Du Pont is a huge multinational corporation, it can be a good "bad guy."

6.Targets: A target is always a person (or group of people) who has the power to grant your demands, not an institution or elected body. You need to ask yourself what power you have over your target. Is that person a friend, an enemy or neutral? Who besides the Club has power over your target? What motivates or interests your target?

7.Tactics: Tactics are actions taken by your group that will bring the desired response from your target. For each target, list the tactics that each constituent group can best use to make its power felt. Tactics should be fun and demonstrate real power. Tactics can raise the morale of your members, get media coverage and demonstrate power directly to your target.

oExamples: Radio spots, rallies, tabling, literature drops, scorecards, street theater, letters to the editor and petition presentations.

8.Timelines: To finish off the planning process, make timelines and assign individual responsibilities for the campaign. Include all major campaign events, tactics and deadlines.

9.A Written Plan: There's an old organizing expression: "If it ain't written, it ain't a plan." Put your campaign strategy on paper. People need to see it, agree to it, and use it as a road map for their work. Having a plan on paper keeps you on course and provides you with the means to hold everyone accountable.