- A great place to start is on the Commons Library site. Their campaign strategy guide will walk you through strategy for campaigning, protest, direct action and much more.
-
The Activist Handbook also have an excellent guide to thinking through your campaign strategy
-
NEON’s organisational strategy toolkit will make sure you haven’t missed anything and Mobilisation Lab’s downloadable Campaign Canvas will help you put it all down on one shareable page.
-
If you are looking for inspiration about tactics you might not have even considered, Beautiful Trouble’s tactics toolbox is a treasure trove. In bite-size sections, it outlines hundreds of tactics, the theory behind them and real world examples of how they have been used.
Lobbying and advocacy
At some point you will probably need to influence someone in a decision-making position - a local councillor, an MP. What skills and knowledge do you need to do it effectively? The Commons Library’s guide to lobbying and advocacy is a great introduction. It includes practical specific resources like tips for meeting MPs.
Movement Research Unit can help you with research for your campaign. They help people fighting for economic, racial and climate justice by doing research specifically to help you win.
The Activist Handbook introduces different ways of creating change from within, through institutional strategies and the Change Agency has an inspiring collection of lobbying stories.
Action Network offers help for grassroots groups and supports events, emails, donations, petitions, letter campaigns and other kinds of actions. Some of their resources are paid for but grassroots organisations can sign up for free resources here.
Digital activist org also support grassroots groups and movements with a range of digital campaigning tools. You can register here.
TheyWorkForYou has useful, UK-specific information about MPs, parliament and devolved institutions and FindyourMP helps you find your own representative. This useful guide walks you through different ways to engage with them. Direct action
The International Centre on Nonviolent Conflict has an extensive resource library covering practical and theoretical aspects of direct action. The library has links to many free downloadable books including The Path to Most Resistance which guides you through planning nonviolent direct action campaigns.
If you need more ideas, then Campaign Bootcamp has them - 198 of them in its handy summary. (Campaign Bootcamp is now closed, but a useful legacy website remains). And the Global Nonviolent Action Database documents over a thousand case studies from more than 100 countries.
Training for Change has a host of accessible practical tools covering topics from how to de-escalate to running effective online meetings.
This short guide from Extinction Rebellion is a great, practical summary of how to organise a protest or other direct action. Green and Black Cross give guidance on the UK laws governing protest and have a downloadable bustcard for protesters with names and numbers of local lawyers. They also offer support through their Protest Helpline and hold regular ‘Know your rights’ online sessions. Community organising
The ChangeMakers podcast has a series dedicated to community organising with interviews and stories exploring all aspects of organising. The podcast host’s blog ‘What is community organising?’ is well worth a read.
For guidance on canvassing and persuasion, check out this masterclass on political canvassing or Blueprint for change’s guide to persuasive conversations.
The Creative coalitions handbook is a very usable guide to thinking through community organising in coalition.
Civic Power Fund works with grassroots organisers, investing in civic leadership, building infrastructure and providing direct support to grassroots groups.
The Social Change Agency also offers support in governance, growth and money management.
If you are looking for information on mutual aid, My Community has useful tips and resources on how to find or set up a mutual aid group. Public campaigns
Mobilisation Lab walks you through the key ingredients of people-powered campaigns in its ‘Mobilisation cookbook’.
If you’re ready to supercharge your public campaign, you might want to check out Breakthrough, a new UK organisation that helps groups maximise their social impact by teaming them up with journalists, lawyers and other experts.
The Activist handbook helps you think through the main things you need to consider when you’re organising a campaign.
If you are looking for eye-catching, creative stunts, then Beautiful trouble’s tactical toolbox is a great source of inspiration and ideas. This guide to creative activism will also introduce you to a range of alternative approaches from artivism to pranks and performances. Digital campaigns
The Commons Library Digital campaigning toolkit is a great introduction, with resources on a wide range of topics including guides to social media activism on all the major platforms.
Common Knowledge are a not-for-profit tech cooperative. They use their expertise in digital technologies to help movements build power. Why not book in a meeting with them?
If you’re organising on intersectional climate, migrant and social justice issues, you can get tech advice from Tipping Point’s tech hub. They offer free ‘tech check in’ video calls.
Social Movement Technologies have a range of trainings and resources geared to helping social movements ‘win in the digital age’. As just one example, they offer free CRM support to social movement organisations to make sure digital data activities like mass emailing, running petitions or keeping supporter data are all being done as well as they can be.