Sarah Gilbert
Senior Strategy & Impact Adviser
National Council for Voluntary Organisations (NCVO)
http://www.strategy-impact.org.uk
Sarah says...
As Senior Strategy & Impact Adviser at NCVO I offer one-to-one support to voluntary and community organisations through NCVO Consultancy services and various grant-funded projects. I provide support in strategic thinking and planning, impact monitoring and reporting, including involving users. My background is in policy and campaigning; I was the Research and Development Manager in NCVO's Campaigning Effectiveness programme and previously I was a policy worker and campaigner in the voluntary and community sector.
Most organisations have a strategy of some sort. If this is not a living, breathing strategy that is clearly communicated to all who need to know about it, it might just be inside various people’s heads and not written down. Or, it may be in a lengthy document gathering dust somewhere.
…what is a strategy?
A strategy is a set of principles and assumptions about why an organisation exists and how it will achieve its mission, interact with the environment it operates in and adapts itself as...
Spend 10 minutes to fill in our online questionnaire and enter the prize draw to win a FREE place at the National Campaigning Conference on 1st April.
We want to hear your views if you’re interested in policy work, campaigning or influencing.
You don’t have to have been in touch with us or even have heard of NCVO’s Campaigning Effectiveness team!
Please forward this on to your colleagues.
Closing date: Friday 13th March.
To order a paper copy of the questions please email...
Another interesting newsletter from campaignstrategy.org – and relevant to the current economic climate – talks about why political communicators, governments and campaign groups need tax and why and how we can re-frame the issue of tax.
“We…need a new and more positive way to talk about tax”, says Chris Rose of campaignstrategy.org, arguing that “…instead of just advocating what governments should do in terms of delivery objectives…NGO campaigners should utilise their political advocacy...
Another interesting newsletter from campaignstrategy.org – and relevant to the current economic climate – talks about why political communicators, governments and campaign groups need tax and why and how we can re-frame the issue of tax.
“We…need a new and more positive way to talk about tax”, says Chris Rose of campaignstrategy.org, arguing that “…instead of just advocating what governments should do in terms of delivery objectives…NGO campaigners should utilise their political advocacy...
“A one-size-fits-all strategy for influencing MPs is more likely to fail”, finds a survey of MPs conducted by Fairsay. Instead, MPs positions and preferences should be researched, grouped and targeted appropriately.
Conducted between March and April 2006, the results from this survey set out to answer three key questions:
*Does e-campaigning has an impact on UK MPs?
*How does it impact on UK MPs?
*What strategy and tactics should campaigning organisations use to influence UK MPs?
Findings...
In 2005, Barack Obama was a little known Illinois Senator. By November 2008 he was elected as the 44th President of the United States, carried into the White House by a torrent of voting across the US. But how did his campaign take him on this massive journey and what lessons can we learn and apply to our own campaigns?
Compelling, relevant and targeted messages; cutting edge communication and database technologies; and traditional campaigns tools, were the vital pillars of the...
A recent newsletter from Fairsay highlights the success of a new campaign by the British Humanist Society which demonstrates that donating can be a successful campaigning action: a way for people to make a political statement by funding a campaign action.
The lessons from this example show that organisations and campaigners could consider:
- Starting to integrate donations as a campaigning action
- Linking donations the success of the campaigning action: it is up to supporters to make it...
