Planning your campaign

Where to start

Campaigners stage a spoof demonstration to illustrate how the corporate sector is opposing reform of Company Law. [Marcus Rose/Insight Visual]

The key element in the success of any campaign is planning.

Get some of your friends together and figure out what you want to achieve - it could be raising awareness about CAFOD's campaign at chapel, collecting signed action cards, or even lobbying your MP. Work together and start your plan with questions like:

• Which issues do we care most passionately about?
• How much time do we have to plan something?
• What other societies or groups at the university might be interested in what we're planning?
• When during the academic year is the best time to organise an action or event?
• What kind of resources would we like to get from CAFOD?

Join forces

You’re not alone! Band together with other interested students and members of your university community – there’s no need to take on a huge issue by yourself.

Start with your friends but don’t stop there. Possible allies on campus include:

• The Chaplaincy (Catholic or Ecumenical)
• People & Planet Society
• Environmental Society
• Latin American Society
• African Society
• Fairtrade Society
• Students and lecturers in development or environmental studies, or environmental engineering.

You'll never know who's going to be interested until you talk to them about it.

Meetings

Meetings may seem a boring detail, but they're vital to organising any campaign!

Start with an agenda - know what questions you want to answer, and what outcome you want to get from the meeting. This ensures that you get everything done that you need to , and that nobody's time is wasted.

You may want to assign roles: a timekeeper, a minute-taker, and a chair. You may also want to appoint a 'vibes watcher' - someone to make sure people are happy with decisions being taken and they aren't bored, cranky or falling asleep.

By the end of your meeting, try to ensure that everyone has a task to do or an area of responsibility - make sure that one person isn't doing anything, and make sure that everyone feels ownership of whatever you're planning to do.

take action

Take action: Shine a light in the darkness

Please sign our petition calling on the world's largest mining company to listen to communities in the Philippines worried about the effect mining will have on their land - plus send a personal message of solidarity to the people of Macambol

Stop dangerous mines - email your pension fund

If 6,000 people email their pension fund, we could have £540m of financial power to pressure mining companies with - so, as well as taking action yourself, please send the action to up to six friends

Tell Gordon to Act Now!

Urge Gordon Brown to ‘call time’ on the global greed at the heart of the world's financial crisis. Add your voice now