Campaign Planning

Campaign Planning Aides

	Campaign Planning Worksheet
	Role Development Worksheet

How to Plan a Campaign

Campaign Story Overview
Elements of the Story
Tips on Campaign Planning
Put the Plan into a Timeline
Campaign Roles

Campaign Story

A good campaign story is just that - the story of your campaign. We want people to go on an emotional journey – feeling the depth of the problem, the excitement of the solution, and the motivation to be a part of it. 

Having a concise and compelling campaign story is critical to every part of the campaign process – recruiting new volunteers, coalition members, getting media coverage, and advocating to decision-makers.

Be ready with different versions – the 2 minute version, the 5 minute version, and the extended version. Different situations will call for different versions. For example, a media call will require a very short version, a presentation to a potential coalition partner may take a little longer, and a coffee meeting with a board member could allow enough time to go into detail.

Elements of the Campaign Story

Context - What is the background that led you to choose your current campaign?  When did your district join Arts for All, for example? 

Challenge – What is the challenge that you are currently facing with your issue? Start big and broad and bring it down to specifics. Example: Big – Public education system not producing as competitive a workforce as other global economies. High drop out rate in LA County. Specific – Our school district only has xx amount of Arts teachers to xx amount of students.

Solution – Again, think broad and get more specific. Think of every possible solution. Big solution – Arts Education for every child to help foster a sense of self-discipline and expression. Specific – hire a full-time arts coordinator for the district and allocate 5% of budget to arts ed.  Having a well-defined solution is the foundation upon which your advocacy will be built.  Advocacy should always be solution-oriented and positive.

Objective – Here is where you start to build the actual work you’ll do. Out of the wealth of solutions you've thought of, you want to pick a specific objective. Things to consider.

• The objective allows you to have a unified vision and focus, and quantify your work
• When setting your objective, consider the lay-of-the-land of the District – climate, players, competing priorities
• Is it realistic/feasible? What resources will it take?
• Is it challenging enough to compel involvement and enable leadership development and group building?

Strategies – These are the methods by which you will realize your objective. More than one strategy is best, but too many will be less effective. Aim for 2-4. Also consider your human resources in choosing campaign strategies. Example – educate Board members on the importance of Arts Ed infrastructure, demonstrate overwhelmning public support for the Arts Coordinator, build a diverse coalition of community stakeholder groups.

Tactics – these are the specific to-dos within each strategy. If the strategy is to educate the Board, the tactics could be to do a survey, and/or a forum event. Be specific. It’s not enough to say “Hold a forum event” but rather “get 50 attendees to a forum event” Then you can plan where you’ll find those 50 people.

Tips on Campaign Planning

• Set goals for every piece. There is the overall goal of the campaign, but each strategy and tactic should have specific goals as well to guide our work.
• Think about the lay-of-land in the District. Who are the players, what are the competing priorities, what’s the political and social climate, what is the current state of the Arts Ed program and how did it come to be that way?
• Make sure all goals are feasible – if you can’t think of specific tactics to get you to your goal, it may be worth revisiting
• Be specific! Don’t just say “get media coverage” but rather “get 5 letters-to-the-editor printed and one feature story”
• Make sure there is a story to every piece of the campaign. Why did you choose these goals? How are the specific tactics you chose going to help us win? Make sure there are no arbitrary goals or numbers. 
• Keep it positive!  Advocacy is about solutions.  it can be easy to fall into the habit of belaboring the problem and using anger to rally people.  It's not enough to understand the problem.  Proposing specific solutions and approaching a campaign with positivity is key to success.

Put the Plan into a Timeline

Now that you have your story, the next step is to plan it into a timeline.

Tips

• Plan Backward from Goals and set Dates
• Use benchmark goals to track progress and keep the group motivated
• Set times to check in your plan and goals and make sure we’re on track.  Make adjustments where necessary
• Extract priorities from the plan

Campaign Roles

In order to execute your campaign most effectively, it is best to divide the work up into specific roles.  This also enables you to build leaders and get more people involved.

How to Create Meaningful Roles

• Keep leadership development and individual learning in mind – is the role challenging enough while still being realistic for 1 person?
• Does the role capitalize on a person’s skills, experiences and interests while still offering them room to grow and learn?
• Is it clear how the role fits into the overall campaign, and with whom that person will be working and how?
•  Make sure the role has its own specific goals and timeline

Event Planning

Event Planning Aides

Event Planning Worksheet

 How to Plan an Event

Have a goal and desired outcome

Goal of the event - As always, before moving ahead with planning a big event, make sure it is rooted in a specific goal and outcome. Be able to answer the following questions

• How does this event help us achieve our campaign goal(s)?
• What is our message/vision with this event?
• Do we have enough buy-in for the event from stakeholders to move ahead?
• Is this event the best use of our resources, or would a different tactic be more effective?

Planning step-by-step

1. Assemble a team. make sure all the right people are a part of the planning process. Inclusion of key decision-makers or stakeholders can be a great way to build relationships and power. Delegate roles to make the planning process run smoothly.
2. Create an ideal timeline and plan backward. Include benchmarks for when things should be prepped and ready – materials, speakers confirmed, space confirmed, invites out, etc.
3. Create a budget. Determine what is necessary to implement the vision. Be sure to include fees for VIP speakers (honorarium, travel, lodging, food, etc), rental fees, permits, equipment, promotional materials/advertising, catering, décor, materials.
4. Set a date. If necessary, find out from key participants what the best dates are for them in order to maximize turnout. Make sure to set the date far eough in advance to give VIPs enough lead time to fit it in their schedules.
5. Reserve a location. Brainstorm a big list of possibilities to ensure you’ll find a quality facility for your ideal date. If you are planning a big event that requires special permits or security, apply and reserve as early as possible.
6. Invite VIPs. If it’s a candidate forum, get invites to candidates as soon as you have a date and location set. Typically you’ll need at least a month of lead time. If you’re looking to invite an Expert Lecturer, Celebrity, etc, find out the lowest fee they’ll speak for.
7. Fundraise. If your event requires funding beyond your resources, identify potential sources of funding and apply as early as possible. If you hold your event at a School, often you can partner with the School directly, and/or parent and student groups to get funding.
8. Publicize the event. Put up a website with details of the event, send out a formal email, use event sections in newspapers and websites, social networking sites, partner groups, etc.
9. Create materials. Branding your event will maximize your visibility and help tie it into your larger campaign. Materials for the event should include 
   • Packets of info including speaker bios, organizational info, fact sheetsm action alters, etc.
   • Podium banner
   • Name tags
   • Sign-in sheets
10. Logistics. Make sure you give yourself enough time in advance to rent/buy everything you need.
    
    • Catering
    • AV equipment – find out what speakers need in advance ie projector
    • Permits/security
    • Materials
    • Volunteers – figure out what roles you need filled the day of the event and assign those roles out to the team. If you need volunteers beyond your capacity, recruit some. Colleges, partner groups, confirmed attendees, etc.
11. Invite attendees. Develop and vet an algorithm to determine how many people you’ll need to invite to reach your target attendance, then brainstorm all the places from and methods by which you can reach people.
    • rule of halves
    • email invites – keep them short and to the point
    • make it easy for people to attend – directions on website, parking suggestions, refreshments, etc
    • use macro and micro recruiting methods. Send a mass email, but also make individual phone calls. Individual recruitment is by far the most effective.
12. Invite the media. If you question whether your event is media-worthy, you should question whether your event is worthy of being held at all. Get a Press Advisory out a week in advance, then again 2 days out, and a 3rd time the morning of. Make follow up calls each time. Have a press release ready to send out immediately after the event.
13. Confirm VIPs. Do this 1-2 weeks out.
14. Confirm/Remind Attendees. People forget things. Dance on the line of appropriateness when inviting and reminding attendees. You don’t want to annoy them, but you want to maximize attendance. Send a reminder a week out, and another 1-2 days before. If you think necessary, send one the morning of as well. To minimize overkill, think of creative reasons for the multiple reminders. Ex. “We just found out New VIP will be attending – can’t wait to see you there!”
15. Day-of. Although everyone should be set in motion before the day of, there is plenty you can do to make sure the day runs early.
    
    • Make sure all the volunteers arrive early. Allow enough time for any last minute prep that needs to happen. Make sure there is someone to run errands if necessary.
    • Greet attendees as they arrive
    • Be ready to adjust the schedule to fit the mood of the event
    • Have a post-event celebration with volunteers, speakers, and important attendees.
16. After the event. Make sure to build on your success by
    
    • sending out thank-yous
    • adding attendee contact information to your contact database
    • follow-up on ideas or concerns that came out of the event
    • evaluation of the event

Things to Consider

• Are special permits or security required?
• Some venues have policies about what kind of food can be served ie. No homemade or unpackaged food
• Weather – If you are doing an outdoor event, be prepared with canopies, tents, etc.
• Your municipality can help (with a fee) to put up no parking signs, provide sanitation services, etc.
• Ask for feedback on the planning process from confirmed attendees to maximize turnout.

How to Start a Community Advocacy Team

Congratulations on taking the first step to becoming an arts education advocate. This toolkit is here to provide you with all the resources you need to get started organizing in your community.

Sure, it sounds a little intimidating. You care about our kids receiving quality arts education, but how do you turn that concern and passion into action? You will see in the following modules that it doesn’t have to take a lot of time or expertise to bring members of your community together and use your collective voice to make a positive impact on improving arts education in our public schools.

As you get started, there are a couple important things to keep in mind.

1. You need to include community leadership in the planning process
   • Buy-in from key stakeholders in your community is vital to the success of your effort.  Seeking council from key voices in your community will help you gain insights into your issue your community, and the district culture that you may not already have.  Finding answers to questions like -
     • What is the history of arts ed in your community? 
     • Who are the program's biggest supporters on the Board of Education? 
     • What is the relationship between the district and the local municipality? 
     • How are current arts ed programs funded? 
     • How does district leadership respond to advocacy, and what are the best methods by which to effectively communicate to them?
2. You need a VISION  
   • Often times people get interested in a cause because they are frustrated over a problem and want it to change.  Having a vision for what that change looks like is the key to fixing the problem and building a movement for sustained progress.  A vision of quality arts education for every student is a great place to start.  For ideas on a well-articulated vision for arts education, check out the following resources.
     • SMARTS - a program of the CA PTA and CA Alliance for Arts Education
     • Arts for All - Los Angeles County's blueprint for arts education


3. You need a GOAL
   • In addition to the vision, the goal is the catalyst for being able to rally people around your cause. When you have something specific to say as to HOW you will be working to improve arts education, people will see how their involvement can make a difference. A goal might be something like
     • Build support for arts ed among school board candidates through a survey
     • Advocate for the district to hire a highly place arts coordinator
     • Advocate to district leadership to allocate 5% of the budget to arts education
     • Pass a local parcel tax initiative to help fund arts education

Once you have these key starting points well defined, you can begin planning your campaign and recruiting a team. All of these skills and more are covered in this toolkit.

Advocacy Toolkit Modules

Media and Publicity

Media and Publicity Templates

	Letter-to-the-Editor Tips & Sample
	Sample Op-Ed
	Sample Press Advisory
	Sample Press Release

 Media and Publicity

Overview
Types of Visibility
Media Overview
Opportunities for Media
Know Your Market
How to Get Covered
Tools for Getting Media
Internet Visibility

Overview

Visibility is one of the most important elements to any successful campaign.  Even with the best cause, coalition, and leadership, without a strong visibility plan, it will be difficult for a campaign to gain traction  and influence enough people to be effective.  

Types of Visibility 

A good visibility strategy incorporates  passive and active elements. There is a certain saturation level that must be reached for a message to penetrate its audience.  If someone sees your message at least 3 times in different ways, it is likely that it will stick.

Passive - this is the kind of visibility that people see, but don't interact with

• flyers/signs
• banners
• emails
• websites

Active - this kind of visibiltiy involves some kind of exchange

• group announcements
• phonecalls
• blogging
• on-line actions (surveys, petitions, etc)
• media (press conferences, writing letters-to-the-editor)
• events

Media Overview

Media is a great source of visibility for several reasons -

• Advances your campaign goals
• Influences public perception more than anything else
• Influences decision makers – they use it to measure where the public stands
• Adds to your credibility
• Internal morale – getting media coverage is cool!

It’s all about relationships - just like with advocacy, it’s not just about getting the story. You want to build relationships with key members of the press so that you can get more coverage in the future.

Opportunities for Media

• Campaign launch
• Before or after a vote
• Passage of a bill or policy
• Pressure a decision maker on a particular issue
• New information/reports
• Protest
• Anniversaries/Holidays
• Using breaking bad news to highlight your point of view

Know your market

You need to know how you can reach the most people in your community by knowing which outlets reach them

• TV stations – know who they are and what they program
• Radio – what’s their format?
• Daily papers – We have LA Times, do we also have local publications?
• Wires

Know each outlet

• The best way to know an outlet is to read/watch it
  • What’s the outlets size/format?
  • Who are key reporters and what issues do they cover? What are their themes?  Who covers education issues?  Arts issues?
  • Who’s on the editorial board?
  • Who are the assignment people?
  • When are the deadlines?
  • How do they receive info?  They’ll be more likely to cover our thing if we get them the info in their preferred format.
  • Find reasons to call them – compliment them on a story, thank them for coverage, feedback if we don’t get covered (this is actually common for them)

Know who else is covering your issue and what they are saying

How to get covered

Different types of media look for different things when deciding what to cover. Knowing the outlets, as we covered above, is key. Here are other tips and/or opportunities for each media type

• TV
  • Has to be visual.  Press conferences, events, etc.  Whenever possible, include big props, signs, and/or VIPs
  • Human interest angles – Arts Ed can be great for this
• Newspapers
  • News section coverage – get it through sending out press advisories for conferences or events, or through having a relationship with a reporter and being their go-to person for certain issues
  • Human interest angles
  • Political columns
  • Letters to the Editor
  • Op-Eds – get a public official/VIP or coalition partner to coauthor
  • Editorial
• Radio 
  • Radio show guest
  • PSA
  • Call in to a talk show

Tools for getting media

Press Advisory - this is like a party invitation that gets sent in advance of your press event – who, what, where, when, description of visuals, etc.

•  Be careful not to include too much information that the reporters skip the event
• If you don’t have a direct contact at the outlet, send to “assignment editor” or “news editor”
• Even if you think the outlet won’t come to your event, send it anyway.  They may want to schedule a one-on-one interview with you.  At the very least, it’ll help you build name/issue recognition.

Press Release - The press release reads like a news story, including quotes.  This gets sent when you want the story to get covered.  Can be for any of the reasons we brainstormed above

• Send it out right after your event to all outlets that don’t attend
• If you don’t want the material released till a certain date but want the reporter to have some lead time, you can “embargo” it until a specific date.
• A proper release should include –
  • Be on organizational letterhead.
  • Be double spaced and one-sided.
  • Be no longer than 2-3 pages.
  • Have a brief headline describing the story.
  • Highlight the release date and provide contact names and numbers.
  • Indicate page continuation by placing the word "more" in parenthesis at the bottom of the page.
  • Indicate the end of the page by placing a "-30-" or "###", which are universal "end" symbols used by news outlets.
  • Include a short blurb at the end about your chapter or organization

Opinion Editorial -newspapers have a special section for these.  Often they are written my VIPs, but they can be a great opportunity for us to partner with VIPs to get our message out in a unique and highly visible way.

Letters-to-the-Editor - this is the best way for us to get coverage.  Elected officials often read the LTE sections of papers to gauge public opinion.  They are short and easy to write, and a great way to send a powerful message.

Internet Visibility

A professional presence on the Internet is critical for any legitimate endeavor.  There is so much on the Internet, and so many pleas for involvement from so many groups, that it is critical for us to be creative in building an Internet presence

Ways to be visibible on the Internet

• Listservs
• Our own email list
• Arts for LA site, Arts for All site, sites of people in the group
• School District site
• Blogs related to Arts, Arts Ed, LA Arts, Parents, Community Culture, etc
• On-line news
• Social networking sites

Internet strategy

With so many options for being visible on the net, it’s important that we be strategic in our approach

• Pick targeted audiences – where do our people go on-line?
• Only send emails to our listserv when they serve a specific function.   Brainstorm clever subject lines to make them stand out among the inundation in the reader’s inbox
• Do big Internet visibility in “splashes”  
• Use consistent messaging and graphics

To learn more about using our site and contributing your own content, click here

Recruitment and Leadership Development

Recruitment and leadership Development Resources

	Leadership Ladder

Recruitment and Leadership Development

Recruitment Overview
Recruitment Principles
Planning for Recruitment
Maximizing Recruitment
Leadership Development Overview
Process for Developing Leaders
The Leadership Ladder

Recruitment Overview

Recruitment is most fundamental part of any campaign.  It takes people to make things happen.  Recruiting a group to work with gives you

• more grassroots power
• the resources to accomplish your campaign goals
• the opportunity to educate more people about your issue 
• leadership experience

Recruitment Principles

• Plan so that all stakeholder voices in your community and on your issue are represented in your group.
• Cast a wide net – reach out beyond typical avenues in order to find people who wouldn’t normally get involved
• Use multiple recruitment methods – websites, various contacts and organizations, flyers at schools, tabling at school/community events
• Establish a simple recruitment message and use it consistently 
• Take the time to get to know everyone, and work with those who have the most potential
• Ask everyone to do something – lots of people is important, but its equally important that they all have meaningful roles
• Don’t reinvent the wheel, collaborate with other networks
• Have all materials and messaging ready before you start recruiting
• An important mantra of any campaign is to always be recruiting.  More people involved = more power

Planning for Recruitment

Figure out how many people you need for your campaign and organizational goals to be successful. Think of many meaningful roles as possible. Consider the following realms

• Program (ex. School Board elections)
• Community Relationships
• Visibility 
• Chapter leadership

Take into account different levels of availability. What’s the average amount of time a volunteer will be able to dedicate?

Recruitment Algorithm

Develop an algorithm to figure out how many people you need to make initial contact with in order to end up with the amount of volunteers you need. The rule of halves often works. Here is an example.

1. I need 15 volunteers for my campaign
2. To end up with 15 dedicated people, I need about 30 to come to an initial meeting
3. To get 30 to come to a meeting, I need 60 say they will come
4. To get 60 people to say they will come, I need to contact 120 people
5. Thus, I need 120 people’s contact info

Keep in mind that some of those 15 will be people who are already involved, which can cut down on your numbers a lot. In this example, every 1 person already involved is 8 contacts I don’t need.

Some places where you might find people interested in participating in an arts education campaign include

• PTA meetings
• Arts Orgaizations
• After School Artist Instructors
• Other community groups
• School Advisory committees
• Arts Coordinator’s contacts
• Local businesses
• Student leaders 

If you already have a group assembled, make your recruitment efforts a leadership development opportunity and give everyone a role. Some examples include

• Going to other group’s meetings
• Contacting other group leaders
• Maintaining our chapter database/email list
• Planning info sessions
• Running initial trainings

Set a time early in the campaign by which you want to have recruited all the volunteers you need, but remember, always be recruiting.

Maximizing Recruitment

Once you get someone involved, give that person something to do right away and make a follow-up plan. Pitfall here is to have an info session, get to know each other then set another meeting to figure out the action plan. Have an action plan in mind already and give them something to do.

Have a kick-off meeting. Get as many of your new recruits in a room at the same time. Make it fun. Leave the meeting with everyone having an action plan.

Leadership Development Overview

“the only real training for leadership is leadership” – Anthony Jay

Good leadership is not about having followers, it’s about developing more leaders. Any good campaign serves more than the campaign goals, it also enables leadership development. Roles should always be meaningful and build upon a person’s skills and experiences.

In order for a group to grow, you need more than lots of volunteers. Without sufficient leadership, your group won’t be able to handle the growth or use its person-power effectively.

Process for developing leaders

• Look for leadership potential in everyone
• Motivate people to act on their concerns – lots of people care, but many don’t know what they can do to make a difference
• Create opportunities for people to take on more responsibility
• People stay involved because they feel challenged and feel they are having an impact
• People take on more responsibility because they feel needed – their roles must serve a specific and necessary function to the cause they care about
• Thoughtful feedback is what enables leaders to develop – don’t just continue to assign tasks, take time to reflect and help people understand their strengths and weaknesses
• People stay involved because they feel part of a community and a movement

The "Leadership Ladder"

It’s important to have a plan for how you can develop volunteers into leaders.  Every campaign can be broken down to roles of progressing levels of responsibility.  

For more helpful information, see the "Training volunteers" and 'Running effective meetings" modules.

Running Effective Meetings

Meeting Resources

Meeting Prep Checklist

Running Effective Meetings

Group meetings are a great way to make group decisions, develop plans, delegate responsibilities, facilitate group trainings, etc. 

Steps for running effective meetings

• Before organizing a meeting, make sure you need one.  While group meetings are great for the reasons above, they not necessary to disseminate information or other purposes that don’t require feedback and input from the group.

• Plan the meeting and know your GOALS

•  
  • Define the goals – what kinds of discussions and atmosphere will enable us to reach them?
  • Prepare an agenda
  • Create a list of the attendees
  • Set someone up to facilitate
  • Prepare facilitator and attendees in advance – send out the agenda beforehand
  • Anticipate and prepare for pitfalls
  • Plan a time to debrief with meeting facilitators and any other key participants.  

• Preparing for the meeting takes at least as long as the meeting itself.  Consider the following.
  • Is the location accessible?
  • Is the room the right size?  (better to be too small than too big)
  • Does the chair setup facilitate a participatory conversation?
  • Is there somewhere to write up ideas?  Butcher block?  Whiteboard?
  • Is there a sign-in sheet?
  • Are there materials for people to take?
  • Are there refreshments?  Follow-up social plan?
  • Is there a scheduled duration of the meeting and for each piece within it?

• Plan for follow-up before the meeting
  • Put time in your schedule for meeting follow-up.  This could include thanking any VIPs that attended, debriefing with facilitators, updating volunteer log with new attendees, and following up on delegated tasks
• Prepare all participants
  • Everyone coming should have an agenda and know how they will be participating (presenting a report, helping with a training, etc)
  • Facilitators should know who is coming, what outcomes they want, who is best suited for each role to be delegated, etc…
• Anticipate pitfalls
  • Facilitator should feel comfortable in his/her role and be ready to balance the tensions of giving people the opportunity for input while still moving the agenda forward.
  • Be ready to stimulate any lulls in the conversation, or bring tangential conversations to an end.
• Debrief the meeting
  • Was the agenda appropriate?
  • Did the attendees include everyone we wanted?  Were there any distractors?
  • Were the facilitators prepared?
  • Were the participants prepared enough?
  • Logistics?
  • What is our follow-up plan with participants?  Delegated tasks?
  • How can we make it better next time?

Sample agenda

1. Intros
2. Overview of agenda/goals
3. Reports
4. Discussion of plans for the week/month
5. Skills training
6. Delegate tasks
7. Review plan and what was decided
8. Announcements
9. Adjourn

Training Volunteers

Training Volunteers Resources

Sample Agenda

Training Volunteers

Overview

The more people who have the skills to carry out a campaign and an understanding of the big picture within which you are working, the more likely you are to succeed.  Running frequent trainings helps you to achieve this.

Planning training is key to effective recruitment efforts.  Invite new volunteers to a training right away.  As part of your recruitment planning, you should have a plan for what trainings you want to run to set people up for success.

How to set up trainings

Hold trainings on a regular basis.  People stay involved because they feel challenged and that they are doing something meaningful.  Trainings give people new skills and empower them to take on roles in the campaign.

Plan a training session like an event.  Plan it and publicize it.  Prepare materials beforehand. 

When planning a training, consider the following

• Who is your audience?  What is their skill level?  
• How much time do you have for the training?  How will you prioritize?
• What are the key principles you want people to take away from the training?  Set a goal and communicate it
• Where will it take place?  Ideally somewhere with enough space and privacy for people to break out and practice
• How can you use the training to develop leaders?  Ask people to help you run it

Sample training agenda

1.  Introductions and Agenda
2. Campaign Context – what you’re doing and why it’s important
3. New Skill – explain why it is important in achieving the campaign goals
4. Review the skill – principles and methods
5. Demonstrate the skill
6. Setup the Roleplay – set goals and expectations
7. Practice – have people roleplay the skill (should take the most time)
8. Wrap-Up – what did people learn?  Questions?  Tips?

Working with Public Officials

Meg Wolf's Dance Map