What is the right way to come up with a campaign strategy?

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To determine your strategy as a group, the first step is to agree to a strategic process. This requires determining the steps you will need to complete to come to an effective strategy. The hub recommends the following steps be included in a strategic process:

1. Get your group to agree on the strategy process

2. Agree on a theory of change

3. Make an asset map

4. Make a power map

5. Decide on a timeframe and goal

6. Evaluate your strategy by comparing with other case studies

7. Set moments and milestones

<span id="HTMLENTITY:1657157192958" style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: times new roman", times;" class="mwt-preserveHtml" >A theory of change is "a strategic process by which we identify a winning approach to achieving positive change, and the specific milestones and tactics that are required to effect that change." - Ella Baker School of Organizing

An example of a theory of change might be... 

<span id="HTMLENTITY:1657134249026" style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: times new roman", times;" class="mwt-preserveHtml">If we put public pressure on the banks

<span id="HTMLENTITY:1657157505813" style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: times new roman", times;" class="mwt-preserveHtml">then they will be forced to divest from fossil fuels

<span id="HTMLENTITY:1657194863593" style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: times new roman", times;" class="mwt-preserveHtml">because they care what customers, especially young ones, think and their reputation will be threatened.

<span id="HTMLENTITY:1657155689024" style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: times new roman", times;" class="mwt-preserveHtml" >Asset mapping is "the general process of identifying and providing information about a community [or group's] assets, or the status, condition, behavior, knowledge, or skills that a person, group, or entity possesses, which serves as a support, resource, or source of strength to one’s self and others in the community [or group]." - Healthy City

<span id="HTMLENTITY:1657139844351" style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: times new roman", times;" class="mwt-preserveHtml" >Examples of questions that could be asked when developing an asset map are:

• <span id="HTMLENTITY:1657140925070" style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: times new roman", times;" class="mwt-preserveHtml" >How much time do we have?
• <span id="HTMLENTITY:1657167987512" style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: times new roman", times;" class="mwt-preserveHtml" >How many people are ready to move with us? 
• <span id="HTMLENTITY:1657186664644" style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: times new roman", times;" class="mwt-preserveHtml" >How much money or other resources do we have?
• <span id="HTMLENTITY:1657133417985" style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: times new roman", times;" class="mwt-preserveHtml" >Relationships to leverage to get to influencers-decision makers? (journalists, politicians, community leaders etc.)

So which should come first?

The answer will probably depend on your group and its needs.

If you're just starting off as a new group, or are starting from scratch on your strategic direction, we recommend starting with your theory of change first. This will ensure you know what you want to achieve before you dig into what you'll need and what's available to achieve it. It's helpful to create this at the beginning of the process to ensure your group is aligned on your goals before completing the rest of the strategic process. Of course, you can always go back and revisit your theory of change if it's unrealistic based on your asset map. Typically, a theory of change should serve as a vision for your goals, where an asset map helps to build the objectives which describe how exactly change can be achieved. A reminder that the hub's recommended order for completing the strategic process is: 1. Theory of change, 2. Asset mapping, 3. Power and systems mapping, 4. Timeline and goal-setting, 5. Comparable cases and 6. Moments and milestones.

Truly, there is no 'correct' order for completing the strategic process. The order you take will largely depend on factors such as whether you have established specific practices of organizing and engaging in action, whether you already have a defined target, where your communities needs lie etc. Overall, our recommendation is that if you have never completed the strategic process before, follow the steps as described. You can always go back and revisit a step, and it's a lot easier to go to big and revisit than to go to small and add ideas after. If your group has a bit more experience or knowledge to run with already, perhaps working backwards or jumbling the steps will help to uncover new insights. The key is to get your whole group to agree on the steps and how you'd like to go about completing them.

Hub Community Responses  

Emily Thiessen (Climate Justice Victoria and Our Time Vancouver)

"When we did [our strategy process], we ended up just skipping Theory of Change entirely because we had to cut something (and it was fine) but if we did do it the plan was to set goals for the year first and then come up with a theory of change *for* each goal. I've found before that things get mushy and vague when we've *started* with Theory of Change. We did: 1. agree on the process 2. asset mapping 3. power mapping 4. campaign goals 5. timeline."

Caitlin Chan (Climate Justice Montreal)

"The general strategy for Theory of Change first is that filtering out is easier than adding in after. Perhaps, depending on the group situation, maybe starting in a specific root (goal) and sprouting out makes more sense."