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We regularly fund and disseminate research reports and tools to help our clients and the wider movement succeed. Here are some of our best:

Distributed Organizing Worksheet 

The adoption of people-powered organizing strategies has come of age, with more and more high profile NGO’s adopting these new frameworks to support engagement and build power. It’s a welcome trend.

To support organizations rolling out distributed organizing efforts, we’ve put together a new campaign design framework drawn from the best practices of the dozens of successful distributed organizing networks we’ve been advising or have studied closely.

The six “building blocks” are common elements of the design and strategy that has helped distributed campaigns scale, run effectively, and score impressive movement victories. Our worksheet is available for free download.

Digital Engagement Teams in 2018

In the fall of 2017 we asked 80 advocacy-oriented nonprofits about the state of their digital teams and programs today. This is our third report on digital teams, this time co-authored with Austen Levihn-Coon.

The study revealed that having digital leaders on senior management teams, ensuring they shape new campaigns and initiatives, and distributing digital skills throughout departments are now proven characteristics of today’s most successful digital teams.

Digital leaders must continue to play catalytic roles in making social change organizations more effective, adaptive, and transformative. The path is clear, we just need to take it. The report is available for free.

Networked Change Report

Our original research studying 47 of today’s most successful social change campaigns coined the term “directed-network campaigns”. Since publishing the framework it has been used as the model for dozens of high impact campaigns around the world.

Networked Change identifies four principles common to today’s breakthrough campaigns:

  • Open to people power
  • Frame compelling stories
  • Convene cross-movement network hubs
  • Run with focus and discipline

The report has been downloaded thousands of times by leading campaigners, funders, and campaigns directors around the world. The report is available for free.

Networked Change In Canada

Drawing on the framework uncovered in our original Networked Change Report, a partnership with the Broadbent Institute added eight case studies of breakthrough campaigns from Canada to make it directly relevant to the Canadian context.

The report’s goal is to transmit a model that can be learned and replicated by other campaigners for how to blend grassroots participation and organizing with disciplined central planning to win.

It is available for free download from the Broadbent Institute website.

Directed-network Campaign Planning Tool

After training hundreds of campaigners around the world in day-long workshops and custom trainings, we consistently heard a demand for putting the principles of directed-network campaigns into more of a practical application.

Our directed-network campaign planning tool helps campaigners apply the practices that lie behind today’s breakthrough advocacy campaigns directly to your current or emerging campaigns. The easy to use grid format breaks down the four principles of directed-network campaigns into more practical, tactical campaign elements, and allows you to map your existing approach onto the model.

The grid is available for free download.