We’re here to help.
Our mission at the Center is to provide clear and useful guidance to the many of you who are planning campaigns and actions to work towards justice and democracy. Our specialty is in training and exercises that lead to wins because they are based on research on how people are moved to act. Successful activism is creative activism, because it’s built on an understanding that culture and emotions drive change.
TOP THREE CATALYSTS FOR CREATIVE CAMPAIGNS
1. Clear, specific, and ambitious objectives
2. A detailed and in-depth understanding of your audiences
3. Investment in creativity and innovation
Last week, we explored that first catalyst: creating clear objectives. This week, we share tools and guidance on the second: understanding your audiences.
Why Defining Your Audience is Critical to Your Success
Audience is particularly important in campaign planning because social change happens when people are moved to change — and your campaign can help move them. But to do this you need to have a clear idea of whom you want to move and how.
Let’s say, for example, that you and group of your compatriots want to pressure your local representatives to put a stop to local unjust immigrant deportation practices. Maybe you know that you want to mobilize hundreds of people in your region. But where to start? Who are the people most likely to join your efforts, and how might you best spend your limited resources to inspire them to act?
Whether you’re planning a local intervention or have a national campaign, you’re already asking these questions. What we can offer are a suite of tools to help you answer them quickly, in ways that tap into the cultural, emotional and creative forces that will drive your success.
6 Quick Ways to Amp Up Your Audience Game
In our Unleashing Creative Campaigns Toolkit, we share 6 exercises to help you refine your audience. Your group can do these exercises in a few hours, and together they make for a fun and productive planning meeting. You’ll emerge with not only a greater understanding of who you want to reach but the foundation for creating a strategy and tactics that are more likely to succeed.
These tools not only help you define your audience, but also your understanding of who they are and what will motivate them to act. Knowing your audiences means you can employ the particular signs, symbols, and stories that resonate with them, which means you have a better likelihood of creating something with significant impact.
Help Us Get Tools Like These to the Folks Who Need Them Most
We offer our digital toolkit for free to thousands of people because we want everyone to be set up for success. We also offer free consulting sessions we call Office Hours, to people who need help with their campaigns. As a small nonprofit, we rely on donations so we can provide these services.
Your donation means we can continue to provide amazing resources for free.
Keep doing the good work! And let us know if we can help.
In Solidarity,
All of us at C4AA
Center for Artistic Activism
