DEVELOPING A CAMPAIGN STRATEGY Introduction

Every organisation – no matter its size, aim or budget - wants to be successful. That means setting goals, realising a vision for change and having an impact on peoples’ lives. 

The goals your organisation sets may be complex or challenging – from ending Internet censorship to protecting and freeing political prisoners to creating conditions for a society’s access to information. The journey from setting aims to actually achieving results that will have an impact on people's lives is a demanding one. 

While your organisation may undertake routine work toward its overall mandate, it is when it seeks to make a significant advance on a specific issue that it launches a campaign. 

A campaign is a series of coordinated actions, organised within a strategy that aims to achieve concrete objectives in a specific timeframe. 

In order to be successful in achieving change, a campaign needs to align with the overall framework of your organisation – its Vision and Mission: 

Vision: the image of an ideal future towards which your organisation wants to contribute with its work. For example, “The International Freedom of Expression Exchange (IFEX) strives for a world where freedom of expression is defended, respected and upheld.”

Mission: states what your organisation does to contribute to make its Vision a reality; it is its central purpose and raison d'être. For example, “As the leading global network defending and promoting freedom of expression, IFEX enhances its members’ work by creating distinct opportunities for capacity building, joint advocacy and increased visibility.”

It is from these conceptual terms of reference that your organisation has established its identity, developed its policies and hired its staff. The Vision and Mission are the organisation’s expressions of desire: what it wants to achieve and how it will achieve it. 

The campaign should also align with and figure into the organisation’s Strategic Plan – the outline of how a group makes its Mission operational. Thus, the issue chosen for a campaign should already be part of your organisation’s Mission and Strategic Plan. If it’s not, there is risk of setting out on a path leading to frustration and failure since this plan guides decision-making around the use of resources based on your organisation´s objectives. 

PLANNING: THE KEY TO SUCCESS

With the campaign intrinsically linked to your organisation’s Vision, Mission and Strategic plan, it becomes possible to begin planning a Campaign Strategy – that is, a defined set of goals, objectives, activities, and monitoring and evaluation tools that will enable your organisation to achieve change around the issue it is focused on within a given time period. 

The Campaign Strategy is the road map for the campaign. It ensures that all campaign activities work to achieve the campaign's overall objectives; it is also the reference point for evaluating the progress and success of the campaign. Having a Campaign Strategy is also effective for communicating plans to other stakeholders, including fundraisers and other financial decision-makers, in order to gain their participation and support. 

THE CAMPAIGN CYCLE

This section will map out a process for undertaking strategic campaign planning as part of the Campaigning Cycle (see Figure 1). The Campaigning Cycle helps an organisation, whatever its size, to develop a successful campaign and to become more strategic and efficient when designing and implementing campaigns.

As mentioned above, the campaign is framed within the Vision, Mission and Strategic Plan of the organisation. The Campaigning Cycle can be divided in three phases that each take into account the stakeholders involved and decisions that need to be made: 

Phase One: The issue and problem to be addressed by the campaign are decided; 
Phase Two: The strategy is designed and implemented; 
Phase Three: The outcomes of the campaign are evaluated and its results are analysed. 

Phase One: Define the Issue and Identify the Problem 
At this stage, the organisation decides on the focus of the campaign. Ideally representative members, board members, executive directors and senior managers are involved in this decision, perhaps with some input from outside specialists. 

Issue: In the first strategic decision, the organisation must define the issue the organisation will focus the campaign on. This decision needs to be based on careful analysis of both external and internal factors. 

Problem: There are many aspects to any one issue. For instance, the issue of Internet censorship includes the role of software providers collaborating with governments; the persecution and arrest of online journalists and bloggers; the banning of human rights-related websites, etc. To focus resources more strategically, organisations should select only one or two of the problems related to the larger issue. 

Issue: In the first strategic decision, the organisation must define the issue the organisation will focus the campaign on. This decision needs to be based on careful analysis of both external and internal factors.

Problem: There are many aspects to any one issue. For instance, the issue of Internet censorship includes the role of software providers collaborating with governments; the persecution and arrest of online journalists and bloggers; the banning of human rights-related websites, etc. To focus resources more strategically, organisations should select only one or two of the problems related to the larger issue (See What to Campaign on: Choosing Your Campaigning Issue).

Phase Two: Design and Implement the Strategy 
This stage covers the design and implementation of the campaign strategy, which includes setting the concrete objectives that the organisation aims itself to achieve in the timeframe of the campaign. In this stage, the organisation also needs to outline the activities and tools and resources it will employ to achieve these objectives:

• Strategy Design: Based on thorough internal and external analysis around the campaign problem, the organisation defines: the SMART objectives for the campaign (See Setting Campaign Objectives); the plan of action that will deliver those objectives (See Implementing your Campaign Strategy); and the monitoring, evaluation and impact assessment methodologies (See Monitoring and Evaluation and Assessing Impact) .
• Strategy Implementation: The organisation executes the campaign action plans and periodically monitors progress made toward achieving the objectives. Based on the evaluation and impact analysis, the organisation responds with adjustments to the strategy. (See Monitoring and Evaluationand Assessing Impact) .

Phase Three: Identify Changes to the Issue and the Problem and Assess Impact 
As the campaign comes to an end, the organisation needs to identify how the issue and problem have changed since the initiative got underway. Changes may be immediately visible - for example, a new law was passed that meets your campaigning objective, but the impact that comes from this change may take some time to be clear. For example, impacts may only be gauged by measuring an increase or decrease in the numbers of licenses awarded to independent media houses (covered by the law) in the months or years that follow. 

Identify Changes: The organisation undertakes to identify, analyse, and communicate the changes achieved and triggered by the campaign
Assess Impacts: The organisation assesses the impact of the changes on the problem and the issue over time. 

Note: to be effective and responsive, organisations should also systematically monitor and evaluate the implementation of the strategy and the achievement of campaigning objectives throughout all stages of the campaigning cycle. 

By following the Campaigning Cycle, your organisation can ensure that its campaign is strategic, impact-oriented and safeguarded against being purely activity-driven. Ultimately, the success of a campaign is in its ability to produce changes in norms or practices that are measurable. Success will also mean that the impact of these changes is central to your organisation's Mission and Vision. 

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Assessing Impact

As the campaign comes to an end, your organisation will need to evaluate the progress made and look at how the issues have changed since the beginning of your campaign. This should include documenting intended and unintended outcomes, as well as positive and negative changes. 

Some of these changes might be obvious, such as the passage of a new law that meets your campaigning objectives. However, other changes may not be immediately clear, and may require time before they can be fully assessed. For example, the impact of a new law governing media licences may only be evaluated over time by measuring the change in the numbers of licences awarded to independent media houses in the months or years following the enactment of the law. 

IDENTIFY CHANGES AND SHARE THEM WITH STAKEHOLDERS

Changes could be concrete, such as those that you identified at the beginning of the campaign in your SMART objectives (e.g. the passage of a new law) (see Setting Campaign Objectives). They could also be unexpected, such as an increase in the number of journalists covered by life insurance or the adoption of a minimum wage requirement for journalists. Both changes directly relate to the objective of improving the working conditions of journalists. 

Be sure to communicate to your stakeholders all of the campaign's initial outcomes. This will help to reinforce your relationships with those who were involved in the campaigning process. Communicating campaign achievements can also have a great motivational effect on your internal constituency, and can serve to strengthen your ties with external stakeholders, such as financial donors or other activists.

ASSESS IMPACT

Impact concerns long-term and sustainable effects in the lives of the campaign beneficiaries. Impact assessment answers the question, "How have the lives of the beneficiaries been influenced as a result of the changes achieved by the campaign?" 

Impact can be related to the changes achieved directly by the campaign, or to the unanticipated changes caused by events during the implementation of the campaign strategy. Impact can be positive or negative, and internal or external.

The objective of doing an impact assessment is to help you decide what actions your organisation should take to continue advancing towards your ultimate goal (e.g. the protection of freedom of expression), and to identify and improve on the tools your organisation needs to achieve this goal. 

Since an impact assessment will evaluate the effects of the changes in the lives of the beneficiaries, beneficiaries should ideally be part of the impact assessment process to analyse whether the outcomes have had any effect (positive or negative) on them. You may decide to re-engage with the beneficiary group that helped your organisation analyse the campaign issue and problem (see What to campaign on). 

For instance, if a focus group of journalists helped your organisation identify that poor working conditions in their profession are an impediment to freedom of expression, it is best situated to analyse the effects of the outcome (e.g. a new law that permits the creation of journalists' unions). 

Impact assessment also allows you to analyse if the advances made during a campaign fulfil the overall mission and vision of your organisation. If the mandate of your organisation is to improve the overall freedom of expression situation for journalists in your country, you would assess whether the new law brought you closer to reaching your overarching goal.

THINGS TO CONSIDER WHEN ASSESSING IMPACT

Internal impact: Your campaign can have an impact on the internal workings of your organisation. For example, after having worked closely with a political party in order to advocate for a new law, your organisation might be identified with a political leaning, and thus lose the perception of political independence. You should implement internal feedback mechanisms and consider comments from key stakeholders such as donors, media, other NGOs, etc. in order to be aware of and avoid this kind of impact. 

Baseline studies: In some cases, it might be possible to find trusted sources that could indicate, for example, the percentage of journalists working for the mainstream media that do not have written contracts. The same source could undertake a study of the percentage change at the end of the campaign. However, keep in mind that establishing baselines can be a complicated and expensive exercise depending on the data that needs to be included. 

Other impact indicators: During the analysis of the campaign issue and problem, other indicators may become apparent that you could refer to when assessing the impact of the campaign. 

Adequate implementation: While doing an impact assessment, you should also measure whether the outcomes achieved are being adequately implemented. A law that was passed as a result of your campaign might not be properly financed or regulated; you might also find that the legal interpretation of the law's key elements vary from one judge to another. This will affect the overall impact of the law. 

Ad-hoc methodologies: Tools such as focus groups or baseline studies as mentioned above help to assess the impact of the expected outcomes. But since outcomes could also be unexpected, it is also necessary to include ad-hoc methodologies to assess impact.

IMPACT ASSESSMENT VERSUS MONITORING AND EVALUATION

Even though they may seem similar, monitoring and evaluation (M&E) and impact assessment are two different processes. M&E tells you what outcomes the campaign has achieved and what activities helped achieve those outcomes (see Monitoring and Evaluation). Impact assessment, on the other hand, informs you about the real effects of these outcomes. 

While you should assess impact at the closing of the campaign, impact assessment methodologies and tools need to be identified at the initial stages of the campaign strategy in the same way that you would have identified M&E methodologies and tools. 

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Implementing Your Campaign Strategy

When your organisation approves the campaign strategy, you are ready to put it into action. Without rigorous and effective campaign implementation, the most strategic of campaigns could fail to achieve their objectives and result in a lost opportunity.

CREATE A CAMPAIGN OPERATIONAL PLAN

A good idea before you start is to create a Campaign Operational Plan (COP). Include in the plan WHAT it is that the organisation wants to achieve (the objectives), HOW it is going to achieve it (the plan of action), WHO is responsible for each area (assignment of responsibilities), and WHICH tools will let you know if the campaign strategy is being implemented correctly - and if it is achieving the expected results (monitoring and evaluation). 

There are many ways to show this data in a COP. The following table is one suggestion:

This COP shows that implementing the campaign strategy has both external aspects (meetings with MPs) and internal aspects (hiring and training staff). In some circumstances, it is possible to achieve several outcomes in a single activity. For instance, including freelance journalists in lobby meetings to tell their personal stories will empower the journalists, as well as help to improve the attitude of those you are lobbying - by bringing them closer to the journalists, and illustrating how proper legislation would help.

IDENTIFY KEY DATES

When you draft the COP, identify internal and external key dates to ensure your activities have the greatest possible impact. Key dates for the journalists' rights bill might include national or international commemorative days, elections, when Parliament is open and closed, report launch dates, or when the contract of a key staff member comes to an end. 

If one of the main activities is lobbying, and your organisation does not have qualified staff, it is necessary to include the recruiting, induction and training schedule of new staff in the timetable. An accurate calendar will prevent delays that can directly affect the development of the plan of action and its expected outcomes. Scheduling activities strategically will benefit the campaign, and will avoid their competition with your organisation’s other activities and priorities.

DRAFT KEY MESSAGES

Also come up with key messages: the main ideas that your organisation wants to communicate to its audiences about the issue, the solution proposed, and the necessary actions required for reaching that solution. A key message is not the same as a slogan, although some key messages could easily be translated into one. Your organisation may decide it is most effective to communicate the key messages by using images, music, website banners, viral Internet videos, posters, reports, or a combination of these. Take into account the different audiences you will communicate with (mass media, NGOs, associates, donors and supporters, etc.) when deciding upon your key messages.

ASSIGN TASKS AND RESPONSIBILITIES

To effectively implement the COP, you need to make the necessary adjustments to your organisational structure. A fundamental first step is to assign tasks and responsibilities, as well as to define the decision-making process for the duration of the campaign. 

The person in charge of implementing the activities should develop a specific work plan that covers the different stages of each activity and which resources are required at each stage (such as materials, training, staffing, technology and budget). Work plans should be approved and reviewed periodically, taking into account your monitoring and evaluation tools.

MITIGATE AGAINST POTENTIAL CONFLICT

Putting your campaign into action requires a great deal of energy and involvement. It's only natural that some internal conflicts may arise. Within every organisation, different programmes and individuals have their own priorities that can compete for the organisation's resources (Director’s time, budget, staff, etc.) and support. Be aware of the possibility of conflicts and be prepared to manage them as they surface. 

For instance, the campaign may require the support of other departments in your organisation, like administration, fundraising or IT, that perhaps had little to do with the campaign up to this point. To mitigate against potential conflict, conduct an introductory meeting inviting all internal actors involved in implementing the campaign. The meeting provides the space for people to learn more about the campaign, to brainstorm about how the implementation process will influence their specific areas of work, and to focus on opportunities to build the capacity of the organisation as a whole for operationalising campaigns effectively.

USE YOUR MONITORING AND EVALUATION SYSTEMS

Finally, don't forget to implement the monitoring and evaluation systems you established in the strategy. Keep in mind two questions:

1. Is the strategy being implemented exactly as it was designed?
2. Are the results of the activities what was expected?

For instance, if one of the monitoring and evaluation systems established is to maintain periodic meetings with relevant actors, you should have defined who those actors are, who is in charge of coordinating the meetings, and when and where they will take place. 

If you are deviating from your strategy - i.e., because the organisation did not account for the estimated resources necessary, or because there have been significant changes to the environment related to the campaign - it is likely that your activities will not result in the intended outcomes, and, thus, your objectives will be in jeopardy. Also, the success of one activity does not guarantee the success of every activity. Keep focused on your objectives, constantly monitor and evaluate your implementation, and adapt your campaign strategy based on your findings. 

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Setting Campaign Objectives

Campaigns tackle very large and complicated issues. With them we try to improve journalists’ working conditions, bring governments to respect and promote freedom of expression, or stop the killing of journalists in conflict situations. None of these issues are going to be resolved from one day to the next. But, before we achieve our ultimate goals a number of steps need to happen within a campaign's particular time frame. These steps are our campaign objectives while the larger issue is ourcampaign goal. 

To effectively outline a campaign strategy and determine what the change being sought by a campaign will look like, it’s necessary to set campaign objectives. Campaign objectives help in the planning and design of activities that will achieve tangible outcomes. They are also essential in monitoring and evaluating the effectiveness of campaigning work (see Monitoring and Evaluation). 

Objectives have to be in line not only with the overall goal of the campaign, but also with an organisation’s resources and capacities. Campaign objectives need to beSpecific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant and Time-bound: they need to beSMART. 

Question: How SMART do campaign objectives need to be?
Answer: As SMART as possible. 

Establishing a SMART Objective involves stating what will be achieved within the campaign’s timeline and what steps will take place in order to make this happen. For example, it is not enough to set as an objective: “To improve journalists’ working conditions”. However, that could be the broader goal of the campaign, which is supported by several strategic SMART objectives. 

Analysis of the campaign issue might indicate some of the steps necessary to achieving the broader goal. For example, with a goal of improving journalists’ working conditions it might be necessary to attain the recognition of journalists’ unions by the government; the establishment of compulsory work contracts between journalists and editors; and the setting of national minimum wages and working hours. A SMART objective will define the progress one aims to achieve on each of these more specific fronts. 

Thus, for the first campaign objective - the recognition of journalists’ unions - it is necessary to find out if there is legislation on the matter that needs to be approved by parliament, or if there are any other relevant legal procedures underway or requiring initiation, according to specific time-lines. The campaign team needs to be specific as to what outcomes will be achieved that are both relevant and realistic during the life of the campaign. A new bill may not get passed within the timeframe of a one-year campaign. But perhaps a declaration of support from members of parliament, or, a draft bill passed by the relevant parliamentary committee would be possible, as the first steps to getting new legislation on the issue. 

Thus, the specific objective would be: “To get a draft bill approved by the labour rights parliamentary committee, allowing journalists, including freelance journalists, to constitute unions”. 

Having specific, concrete objectives allows the campaign team to have greater focus and to identify areas where capacity-building might be needed – for example, around strengthening lobbying expertise – in order to achieve the objectives. Specific objectives also make it easier to convene relevant allies, such us other freedom of expression organisations or sympathetic members of parliament and labour organisations, around a defined aim. 

Furthermore, a set of specific objectives provides the benchmarks to measurewhether the campaign team is achieving its aims. Specific objectives contain within them milestones that will indicate if things are on track. It will be easy to check if the parliamentary committee has or has not approved the bill but it is also relevant to know why this has not happened or why it may have happened earlier than expected in the campaign. By measuring the progress of a campaign according to specific objectives, campaigners can better analyse the reasons behind success or failure and make adjustments to the overall strategy along the way. 

Vague but necessary objectives such as “raising awareness” need to be reformulated into measurable ones. This can be done, for example, by setting out to receive coverage of your issue through a targeted number of newspaper articles and TV or radio interviews at specific media outlets. Thus, campaigners can infer that through the readership and audience of these newspapers and broadcasters, the public´s awareness of the campaign issue has been raised. This and the reaction of the target audiences will tell you if you’re on the right track to reach this particular objective. 

Similar specific objectives can be set for other public outreach and awareness raising elements of a campaign, such as aiming for specific numbers of subscribers reached by a newsletter, new members signed up in a drive, or attendees at a speaking event or street theatre performance. 

Even if a campaign is ambitious and it’s uncertain whether it can be accomplished, the team needs to make sure it has established achievable objectives – you don’t want to set yourself up for impossible tasks. 

To assess your chances of achieving a campaign objective, you’ll need to analyse internal and external factors. 


Internal factors are those related to your organisation and your campaign team, such as in-house skills, human and financial resources and relationships with key stakeholders. These factors can make parliamentary lobbying or forming a coalition, easy tasks or monumental ones. It’s important to assess if your team is able to achieve its objectives with the resources it currently has or with those it can reasonably procure. 

External factors are those outside your organisation or team, such as economic or political conditions. Maybe it’s not the right political moment to introduce a draft bill because attention is focused on another issue, or perhaps an election is near and the topic of protecting media workers under a legal framework could become politicised in the campaign in a way that could benefit the cause. 

Campaign objectives also need to be relevant to the broader campaign goal. The best way to assess the relevance of a campaign objective is to check with those who will benefit from the campaign´s success - in this case, the journalists. It’s also necessary to consider your options from a strategic and long-term perspective to evaluate whether a certain direction will deliver what you’re seeking to achieve. 

Sometimes opportunities may present themselves in the course of the campaign that appear to be a gain although their outcomes may be different than initially imagined. It’s thus necessary to assess whether that apparent opportunity is actually relevant to the campaign goal itself. For example, in seeking recognition for a journalists’ union you may receive assurances that journalists could be brought into the general workers union. Despite this being easier to achieve, it would not ensure journalists the power they need to negotiate better working conditions, which was the original goal. 

If the campaign objectives are established and understood in the first place it will be much easier to determine whether a potential opportunity that arises is relevant to your campaign goal. 

Like campaign plans, the campaign objectives need to be time-bound, meaning a target date must be set by when specific objectives will be achieved. 

If campaign plans and resources run from January 2014 to December 2015, you’ll need to be specific as to when the objectives will be accomplished within this period. This is important because it will help in scheduling the campaign implementation plans. As well, by monitoring and evaluating the external and internal factors that occur during the campaign, it will also be possible to determine whether you’re achieving success within the imagined timeframe. 

Making campaign objectives SMART at the very outset of the campaign strategy-building process will enable you to set targets that are possible to realize. They will focus your campaign team around recognised and understood goals and empower you in the process to stay on target, meet deadlines, and come together to evaluate and reassess progress along the way. They can also help your organisation use human and financial resources efficiently and most importantly, to create effective and lasting social change. 

So, what does a SMART objective look like? 
“By the end of the parliamentary calendar year 2015, the Labour Rights Parliament Committee will have discussed and approved a draft bill granting union rights to all journalists, including freelance journalists”. 

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Monitoring and Evaluation

A terrorist attack, an unexpected election result, a corruption scandal, a natural disaster, the departure of a key person in the team, a funding cut - these are events that could surely affect a campaign strategy at any time. Some of these situations can be planned for, others cannot. But preparing for how to cope with emergencies and the unknown is possible. By monitoring and evaluating, campaigners will be on the ready to identify situations with possible challenges and opportunities, to react and to adapt strategies without losing focus and the chance for impact. 

During the life of a campaign many things can happen that might have an effect, whatever big or small, on its course. Developments outside of one’s control can make the campaigning objectives obsolete or the main actors irrelevant; they can bring new challenges and new allies. To ensure that these factors can be identified and that a campaigning plan can be adapted with speed and accuracy, monitoring and evaluating should be an integral part of the overall campaigning strategy. 

What is monitoring and what is evaluating? 
Monitoring is a continuous process of gathering and recording internal and external data. Evaluating is a periodic process of reviewing monitoring data and drawing conclusions from it. 

Good monitoring is based on systematic and clear approach that is tied to the objectives of the campaign. For example, if one objective of a campaign for reforming media law is reaching a targeted number of members of the public through media coverage then campaigners should be tracking and filing all related media reports.  If the specific ‘SMART Objective’ was to reach the target audience through one article every two months in one of the four major newspapers and to have an interview with the organisation’s executive director on World Press Freedom Day then one would evaluate those reports by analysing the number of articles achieved and their texts to see if the coverage was favourable to the campaign message. In evaluating, the campaign team members would discuss how the approach (with respect to media) worked and what could be improved. 

Similarly, one could assess the success of a press conference (one of the activities under the campaign) by analysing relevant data that has been collected through the monitoring process, such as:

• copy of the event press release (was the message on target?)
• text of the invitation to the press conference
• list of all the people and institutions invited, including their contact details
• documentation around how the invitation was sent and to whom it was addressed
• recorded number of responses; from where, how many attended; who attended (e.g. the director of an institution was invited but they sent their policy coordinator)
• media clippings and broadcast coverage of the event /issue
• reactions of target audiences or stakeholders (such local politicians, a foreign embassy) including analysis of the form of stakeholder response: public (press releases, public declarations) or private (letters to the organisation)
• reactions of the organisation’s partners or members (emails of compliant or congratulation, requests for materials or for setting meetings).

If the attendance was disappointing or the event receiving plenty of media coverage and was thus a success that should be repeated, all this information will be useful in understanding why. Gathering this data, and even recording it in a table or matrix for analysis later will allow campaigners to avoid future mistakes, improve on successes and establish a baseline for what works best. 

When and how to monitor and evaluate 
It is important that as the design of a campaign strategy is underway, the methodology for monitoring and evaluating is identified too. Thus, at every step of the campaigning cycle and within the plan for each activity, it is known what data will be collected and when opportunities will be built in for evaluation to ensure that the strategy is still on target. 

Establishing the relevant data for collection should be undertaken during the strategy-building process. The monitoring and data collection could relate to the broad objectives of a campaign – for example, if the goal is to have a media law reformed by the end of the year, it might be possible to monitor whether there have been changes in votes or stated opinions of parliamentary committee members overseeing the Bill over a given time period. This type of broad monitoring (e.g. around progress on outcomes or impacts) will indicate if there has been progress in influencing the key decision-makers. As well, rigorous monitoring and data collection could be undertaken with respect to a specific activity, such as measuring whether an information session on the bill was effectively organized. In that case one could measure how many people were convened; whether notes were distributed and to whom; and if participants expressed interest in receiving follow up information. 

Once the relevant data is collected, it needs to be evaluated in order to establish lessons learned and to make the changes necessary to secure the success of a campaign. Continuous and systematic evaluation can take many parallel forms, including:

• weekly staff meetings
• periodic meetings of the campaign manager with her/his managers
• meetings of external “advisory bodies”

There are different methods for evaluating the information gathered. For instance, this process could be a strictly internal one, where the campaigners themselves and any relevant partners evaluate their own progress at an internal level through regular meetings and/or reports. Alternatively, a campaigning organisation may wish to convene a meeting or a series of gatherings, of external and internal experts on the campaign issue. For example, if the issue of a campaign is to improve journalists’ working conditions, external advisors could include a labor lawyer, representatives from a union, a journalist, and a newspaper owner. Meeting with the campaign team, these individuals could meet every two months to review the latest changes at the political level; to go over declarations in favor or against your campaign; to give insights on the opinions of decision-makers or key players on the issue (politicians, celebrities, other organisations); and to check if the campaign objectives are realistic or way off the mark. The responsibility of designing and maintaining a successful campaigning strategy is to each organisation or campaigning team, but a group of experts can often provide impartial, fresh and professional advice and information when evaluating and making adjustments to the campaign strategy. 

For this form of evaluation to be effective, evaluators will need the monitoring results, such as copies of the newspaper articles, a report on the latest parliamentary developments, and letters sent by the organisation to ministers and partners. From all this data it might be concluded that a review of the campaigning strategy is in order. At this juncture, there may be new opportunities or developments that were not there at inception of the campaign strategy. It may now be the right time to ask for a meeting with the recently appointed minister of information while maintaining good relations with the former minister adviser. Perhaps an actor or a singer who can be a popular supporter of our campaign has been identified. Maybe there is window of opportunity to build momentum behind the campaigning message due to an external factor that can be taken advantage of; for example: reports of the misuse of foreign aid after a natural disaster have created a public mood for transparency and access to information that wasn´t there when the campaign began. 

Similarly, campaigning objectives need to be reviewed in case there are mounting challenges to one’s efforts. An unexpected alliance of parliamentarians could be creating a barrier to the media law reform; perhaps internal problems within an partner or ally organisation are slowing down progress on activities or the public mood or sympathy toward journalists has shifted following a reporting scandal. 

Challenges to watch out for 
Monitoring and evaluating are not simple processes. They can be expensive and require time and human resources. It can be difficult to find objective data and to determine the link between the campaign undertaken and the result. Did the minister change her position on the campaign issue because of the various meetings that you had with her? Is the latest poll on the public reaction to the campaign´s issue really true or has it been manipulated towards the political bias of the newspaper running the story? Can the organisation afford the staff time to gather and file all the information needed? 

If one tries to answer all these potential questions it might be tempting to give up on monitoring and evaluating. Thus, in order for it to work, monitoring and evaluation should be kept simple and relevant to the campaign´s objectives. And, where possible both processes should be integrated into the on-going work of the organisations or identify where this is already taking place, such as staff meetings or reports. 

Practical tips 
It’s not necessary to monitor every topic under the broad area of freedom of expression, thus it’s better to select the most relevant indicators for monitoring based on the campaign objectives (see SMART OBJECTIVES chapter). It can be most helpful to keep records and monitor the responses of the main targets – the media, public or key decision-makers - to establish whether the campaign is reaching them or not. As a rule of thumb, it’s a good idea to aim for gathering enough information to draw a reasonable conclusion around impacts but it’s not necessary to collect the data required for an academic paper or a legal defense. 

It helps to identify someone to take responsibility for this area of work. The same way that it is always clear who will manage a project budget, it should be clear who is in charge of monitoring and evaluating the campaign strategy either personally or coordinating the overall exercise. A specific budget line for this should be set aside for this as well. 

A campaign does not happen in a vacuum but in the real world, which is the world campaigners seek to change. A campaign asks for concrete outcomes from particular people in a defined social and political environment. All of these factors can change, which one cannot afford to ignore when aiming to reach the objectives and achieve the impact that will change people´s lives.

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Choosing Your Campaigning Issue

Choosing what issue to campaign on is the first strategic step in a successful campaign. Since most issues are multilayered and will have numerous related problems, the decision about whether a campaign is necessary - and what specific issue to focus on - is not always easy. You need to be strategic about your work, and determine which issue(s) for your organisation will most likely achieve a positive change through campaigning. 

DEFINE THE ISSUE

When defining the issue to campaign on, reflect on these questions:

• What are the changes you want to achieve?
• Is a campaign necessary to achieve these changes?
• How will these changes bring your organisation closer to realising its mission, vision or strategic plan?

Key to making the best possible decision about the campaigning issue is having the right people managing the right data and following the right decision-making process.

The right people 
The individuals involved in making the decision about the campaign issue should be those with the highest political and operational responsibilities within the organisation. They need to be able to picture different scenarios and analyse potential risks and benefits, taking into account that the campaign will have an impact on the organisation´s identity. 

Ultimately, these people are accountable for their decisions to the organisation's supporter base (members, donors, etc). Therefore, final decisions about the campaign issue are usually made by board members, executive directors and senior managers of the organisation. 

The right data 
No organisation or campaign can live in a vacuum. To make the best informed decisions, the decision-makers will need information about the external and internal environments in which the campaign will be operating, as well as accurate information about the issue itself. 

External data
Your organisation will need information about its external environment, including social, political, economical and cultural contexts in which a campaign will develop, and how these realities could have an impact on the campaign. For example, are elections coming up? What is the country's economic climate?

There are many analytical processes to help yoru organisation get this information. Among them is the PEST (Political, Economic, Social and Technological) analysis. A general PEST analysis might involve the following factors: 

Internal data
Objective data about your organisation itself is also needed at this stage. Take into account the organisation´s financial situation, staffing issues, information about its supporter base, media profile and presence, etc. The internal analysis aims to provide an accurate image of your organisation to help you determine if it is ready to embark on a campaign that will have associated political and financial costs.

Issue-related data
Your organisation will also have to collect and analyse information on the issue it is considering campaigning on. This includes any previous work carried out by the organisation, knowledge of the issues, as well as the capacity of the organisation to continue this type of information gathering for the duration of the campaign.

It is also a good idea to have reliable information about the following:

• The people most affected by the issue;
• Other organisations working on the same issue; would there be value added by working together with them?
• Ethical considerations around the issue.

Your organisation may choose to obtain this information with the help of internal or external experts and stakeholders.

The right process 
Decision-making processes vary from one organisation to another, depending on factors like size, political architecture (hierarchy, collective, or board), the experience and stability of the organisation and the local legal framework, among others. 

In any case, the decision-making process should be as transparent as possible, and be defined in advance with a clear timeline. Some organisations might include a consultation with their constituencies in this process. 

When making the decision around the campaign issue, political considerations have more weight than operational ones. As mentioned above, the decision will impact, in one way or another, the organisation´s identity, and the way internal and external stakeholders perceive the organisation. 

IDENTIFY THE PROBLEMS

Once you have defined the campaign issue, it is time to lay out detailed information about the different problems within the issue. 

Defining the campaign problem should follow the same process used to determine the campaign issue. However, the process opens up to internal and external stakeholders and specialists on the campaign issue, and should include more operational input from people like senior managers (and less input from board members and executive directors). 

Issue versus problem 
Issue and problem are different concepts. There are many related problems associated with any one issue. For instance, problems related to the issue of Internet censorship includes the role of software providers collaborating with governments; the persecution and arrest of online journalists and bloggers; and the banning of human rights-related websites. To focus resources more strategically, organisations should select only one or two of the problems related to the larger issue to campaign on. 
When deciding on the problems to focus on, identify:

• The significant actors for each problem;
• The potential for impact your organisation can have on the problem;
• Your organisation's campaigning policies and capacities with respect to each problem.

The decision to tackle a particular problem and not another in your campaign does not mean that the other problems are not important to your organisation, or that you would not choose to campaign on them in the future. Campaigning is a tactic that might not suit every problem at every point in time. 

Having identified the campaign issue and the problem, your organisation will have taken the first two steps in the campaigning cycle. 

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Bagaimana Melakukan Pitch

Pitching bukan hanya berlaku untuk penulis, professional yang bekerja untuk public relation, atau entrepreneur yang sedang mencari modal dari venture capital. Kita semua melakukan pitching, setiap waktu. Kita melakukan pitching dalam surat-surat kita, mengundang tamu ke sebuah pesta, mengajak seseorang untuk pergi berkencan, atau bahkan seseorang yang menulis email ke perusahaan untuk mengeluhkan masalah produk atau servisnya.

Demonstrasikan kalau Anda telah mengerjakan tugas rumah (PR) Anda

Carilah informasi kepada siapa Anda akan melakukan pitching, gunakan nama dan title mereka dengan benar, apabila Anda melakukannya dengan benar, mereka akan merasa dihargai, sehingga mereka juga akan berusaha mendengarkan Anda dengan baik. Namun dalam mencari informasi kepada siapa Anda melakukan pitching, jangan sampai menjadi seperti stalker (penguntit) dengan menyebutkan informasi terlalu banyak tentang mereka.

Hati-hati dalam menggunakan variasi nama, misalnya anda menyebut seseorang bernama “David” menjadi “Dave”.

Sesuaikan pitch Anda dengan audiens. Buatlah penerima pesan merasa spesial karena ada aspek kustomisasinya. Dan ya, lakukan follow up.

Mainkan kelebihan Anda

Carilah irisan antara : 1. Materi yang ingin didengar audience dan 2. Materi pitching yang dapat Anda lakukan dengan baik. Bayangkan diagram Venn sampai Anda menemukan tumpang tindih diantara keduanya.

Pitch yang singkat

Jangan berikan kesempatan pada responden untuk berkata tidak. Semakin banyak atau lama Anda mengoceh, semakin banyak informasi yang dapat menjadi celah bagi responden untuk menjatuhkan Anda. Dan juga, Anda akan membuat audiens Anda bosan dan mereka akan seterusnya berpikir Anda membosankan. Pastikan pitch yang Anda berikan sederhana dalam pratiknya. Jika Anda tidak dapat merangkai pesan Anda dalam beberapa paragraph atau beberapa kalimat, Anda perlu memperbaiki diri (atau minta pertolongan dari luar).

Dapatkan bantuan dari profesional

Ajaklah seseorang untuk membaca atau mendengarkan pitch Anda. Minta mereka bersikap kejam dan jujur. Kalau mereka tidak mengetahui apapun tentang Anda dan apa yang sedang Anda coba jual, akankah mereka membeli dari Anda? Jika tidak, dimanakah letak ketidak-tertarikan mereka? Jika memungkinkan, tanyakan juga feedback dari seseorang yang merupakan pitcher yang hebat dan/atau memahami luar-dalam bidang yang Anda tekuni.

Sadari bahwa Anda sesungguhnya sedang ‘menjual’ diri Anda sendiri

Tujuan utama dalam setiap pitching adalah menjual diri Anda (sebagai seorang penulis, founder dalam sebuah startup, seorang karyawan, dan lainnya) kepada orang lain. Kepribadian dan karakter Anda lebih penting dari segalanya. Anda dapat memberikan pitching dengan ide yang hebat kepada seorang editor ketika mungkin tulisan Anda biasa-biasa saja, mereka akan meloloskan Anda. Cara Anda membingkai pitching Anda dan kekuatan dalam suara dan gaya Anda akan membuat Anda menerima kata ‘iya’ dari mereka. Kepercayaan terhadap Anda dan presentasi yang Anda berikan akan mencapai kesepakatan, namun kesan yang Anda bangun adalah faktor yang paling  menentukan dan semua usaha yang Anda lakukan haruslah terarah. Kurangi waktu mencoba membaca pikiran untuk memberikan semua pihak tepat apa yang mereka inginkan namun tambahkan waktu untuk memperbaiki unique value preposition dari penjualan Anda dan kekuatan persuasi Anda dalam mengkomunikasikan kelebihan Anda. Mengapa Anda adalah orang yang tepat untuk tugas ini, untuk menulis cerita ini, untuk membuatnya berhasil ? Apabila pitch anda belum dapat meyakinkan audiens Anda, maka pitch Anda masih perlu diperbaiki sampai tidak meninggalkan keraguan sedikitpun.

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