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In breve

A community organizing framework for designing intentional pathways that guide your supporters from low-effort engagement, at the bottom rung of the ladder, to higher levels of engagement.

Origini

Inspired by Sherry R. Arnstein’s “A Ladder of Citizen Participation” (1969), popularized by the 2008 Obama presidential campaign.

We’ve all been frustrated at some point in our activism with being part of the same small group of people who organize everything in the campaign—from baking banana bread for a fundraising stall to painting protest banners to meeting with officials. And no matter how many new people like our posts or sign our petitions, things always seem to revert to the old ways after a short-lived surge.

The harsh truth is: if we’re failing to welcome new people in and find meaningful ways for them to engage, that’s on us, not them.

Vibrant, successful movements and campaigns require a strong, sustainable base of active supporters and committed volunteers. And that base won’t just be found, nor will it emerge merely as a result of mass mobilization. It must be proactively built and actively maintained. To do so, and do it well, we need an engagement strategy that intentionally builds deep relationships, helps new people feel like they belong, and keeps them engaged.

To build a ladder of engagement, we must first identify the most strategic and realistic ways that supporters currently engage or could engage with our campaign. Then, we use the rungs in our ladder to rank the activities in ascending order by the amount of engagement required. After that, we develop a well-resourced plan for identifying supporters who are ready to move to higher levels of engagement, and supporting them to do so. Your goal is to invite people in through simple and low-effort asks and then build their commitment (and capacity) through actions that result in deeper relationships and prompt greater engagement; which could mean more investment of time, money, risk, skill, or resources.

Strong and effective engagement doesn’t just happen automatically. It’s our job as organizers to make it happen.

For example, the Integrity Campaign against corruption in Uganda wanted the government to release the youth funds that had been promised as a relief measure in response to COVID-19. They knew that their ultimate goal was to get a critical mass of people to speak out against corruption and publicly advocate for integrity, but they also knew that this was a high-risk request and required a level of commitment that most people weren’t willing to make — yet!

So they started by inviting people to attend an online training on nonviolent campaigning. The trainees were then invited to participate in a conference about integrity. The number of attendees trickled down from 70 to 45 as the level of engagement rose. Those 45 who were willing to take the extra step were invited to join a closed WhatsApp group where they were given incremental tasks.

What started as irregular online posts became regular “Twitter rallies” that they participated in every Friday. Some participants went on to post a video or photo of themselves, publicly taking a stance against corruption. This escalation of engagement led to more people wanting to get involved.

To seize the surge of attention the campaign was beginning to receive, a second, public WhatsApp group was created, as a means of funneling yet more supporters into the ladder of engagement. Eventually, the growing momentum created enough pressure that the government released the youth funds.

The campaign succeeded in transforming supporters who were loosely interested in fighting corruption into committed activists willing to take the risk of speaking out publicly and then ultimately into integrity champions who won their campaign.

Although we may sometimes experience a temporary and extremely welcome surge of support for our campaigns due to external factors or crises (see: THEORY: Al faza’a [a surge of solidarity]), strong and effective engagement doesn’t just happen automatically. It’s our job as organizers to make it happen by thoughtfully and strategically mapping, designing, and tracking these interactions into a growing force for change.

A key maxim here is that “activities attract, relationships retain.” As such, a strong relationship is the key to moving people up the ladder of engagement.

That relationship will likely start with a basic introduction: names, contact information, address, and a shared value or purpose. But the more we engage with others who are becoming more active in our movement, the more we want to learn about them. Our interactions shift from one-way broadcasting (sending/receiving email blasts) to a two-way conversation (sharing information in a training, structured relationship-building meetings, or informal conversations on the way to a door-to-door canvass). Nurturing these relationships makes us all better, smarter organizers, as it establishes the trust needed to guide and build our supporters capacity to meaningfully engage. Building relationships, thus, ultimately builds more leadership and power within the movement and sustains it for the long haul.

Come usare

Before assembling your group to build a ladder of engagement, make sure that you already have an overarching campaign strategy, including, for example, well-defined objectives, a vision of how you will achieve those objectives, and an understanding of who has the power to respond to your demands.

Summarize your campaign strategy in one or two sentences and write it at the top of a paper or flipchart. If you are working in a big group, do this on large paper at the front of the room.
Draw a ladder with five rungs (the number of rungs can be different depending on your campaign needs). Label the bottom of the ladder “low engagement” and the top ladder rung “high engagement.”
Also write your specific engagement goal for the highest rung of the ladder— what is it that you really want people to do. This would be the activity that requires the highest level of engagement or effort. For example, in an electoral campaign, the ultimate ask may be to become a neighborhood coordinator to mobilize others to vote, whereas in an environmental campaign, the big ask may be to spearhead the formation of a local chapter or new action team to join a blockade at a mining site.
Brainstorm possible actions for each rung of the ladder below the top rung, the lowest rung being the least effortful activities you could ask people to do. Suggestion: If you’re in a large group, break out to smaller groups and write those possible actions/activities on sticky notes.
Place the sticky notes on the flipchart and then do a gallery walk or an overview of all the ideas presented. Shift sticky notes to reflect the variation in the effort/risk/time/resources required, and agree on their position on the ladder.
Assess, prioritize, and select key steps that you will take for each rung.
Either as part of the exercise or as a follow-up, write up an implementation plan that answers key questions like: Who is responsible for what? What resources exist or are needed? How will progress be measured? How will you hold each other accountable to the responsibilities you committed to?