Remember, although the vision of your campaign is 100% renewable energy, your campaign goal should be to get someone to adopt to this target, ideally within the next 12-18 months.Your goal should be the solution to the problem you identified on your problem tree.
An example of a campaign goal could be:
Make St Albans the best ‘renewable energy town’ in Hertfordshire, UK by targeting business in the town to realise the co-benefits of renewable energy, and pledge to go 100% renewable energy.
This goal is broad and arguably could be achieved in a variety of different ways. This is why it’s important to set objectives to guide what you will do to achieve this. The theory is that if you achieve all your objectives you will achieve your campaign goal.
Be SMART:
To convince your town on co-benefits of 100% renewable energy
To reach 100% renewable energy in your town in the electricity, heating, cooling and transportation sector by 2050
Quite obviously, objective 1 fails the SMART test as it is not specific, measurable (nothing to compare it to), unlikely achievable with your campaign resources or within a realistic timeline.
Objective 2 on the other side is specific (reaching 100% renewable energy), measurable (defined sectors which have documented baselines) and within a realistic time limit (by 2050).
Take time to write your objectives and revisit your mapping and answers to the questions in the Getting Started section to ensure they are SMART.
You should think about what outcomes need to happen under your objective in order for it to be achieved. For example, for the objective above, projected outcomes could be:
Once you have SMART objectives, it’s time to think creatively and strategically.
Underneath all your objectives you need to think about the sorts of tactics that you will use to achieve them.
What are tactics?:
Tactics can be all sorts of things, from a conversation with a key decision maker, a radio interview, a march, a newspaper article, a key champion speaking out about your campaign at a rally. Many different things. Something that works towards your objective.
Caution : Do not start planning your tactics before your objective. Many campaigns fall into this trap and you may end up not getting the result you wanted to achieve.
Let’s look at an example of a campaign plan of the 100% Renewable Cities campaign. The campaign had considerable resources and therefore ambitious objectives:
Here you can download a template like the above to easily plot your goals, objectives and actions.
If politics is the ‘art of the possible’, campaigning is the science and art of changing what is possible. Campaigning lowers the barriers and increases the incentives to take action.
Director International Development at Canadian Red Cross
Copyright CAN Toolkit 2024
