Hot tips for campaigners
Here, you’ll find some practical guides to help you campaign for a fair and flourishing Aotearoa. Scroll down to learn how to set up a petition, grow the petition, communicate, use social media, attract media, mobilise offline, meet your MP, and more.
Setting up an OurActionStation petition
A petition can be an effective tactic to build a supporter base for a campaign. Here are a few simple points and FAQ for setting up a petition:
🎯 Go to: Setting up an OurActionStation campaign and petition
Plotting a path for change
It’s possible to achieve a goal without a plan; passion and intuition can get us a long way. But an overview of where we’re going and how we expect to make change, will make it easier to work out what to do when things get stuck, and get others onboard with the campaign.
A campaign plan can be an ‘overview’ and as simple or as complex as you like. It can start by asking some simple questions:
- What’s our vision of a better future?
- What’s getting in the way, and how does it affect people?
- What could be done differently to fix it? What’s our solution and how would that benefit people?
- Who, or what organisation, has the power to do that?
- Who can influence them? How do we get their attention and convince them to do that?
⚡️ Read more: Planning a campaign for change
Getting more signatures
You’ve started on your campaign journey, launched a petition and got the first wave of signatures. After a week it tends to level off — so how do you continue to build support without a feature on the front page of the NZ Herald?
The following guide has suggestions that will help you think of options.
🚀 Go to: Getting more signatures
Choosing tactics from the toolbox
A petition once launched can be a powerful launchpad for other tactics to build a campaign for change. The ‘tactics toolbox’ contains options and approaches that can be used in different ways, in any order, depending on the situation, issue, the barriers that need shifting, or opportunities to capture.
Communication and your campaign
During our campaign we’ll be emailing our supporters, posting on social media, reaching out to the media, taking and sharing photos of our events, and having real conversations at the local market.
We’ll be repeating our messages in different ways to different audiences over and over. How do we tell our story in a way that persuades, motivates and engages people to get involved?
🔥 Go to: Communication and your campaign
Useful online tools for campaigners
A citizen campaigner often has to be a ‘jack of all trades’ and take on the roles of writer, designer, communications and IT! The following are websites that can help you when you and your team have these jobs to do.
💪 Go to: Useful tools for the online campaigner
How to deliver your petition to Parliament
Support for your petition is growing, you’ve gathered hundreds or thousands of signatures and the community is fired up. There is a crucial next step — delivering your petition. While petitions can target businesses, media organisations and local councillors, many are directed to our elected representatives at Parliament. Read on to find out how to plan a successful petition delivery to Parliament, then use the Checklist to make sure you have everything in place — ready to deliver!
🤸🏽♂️ Read: How to deliver your petition to Parliament
Presenting to a Select Committee
If you present your petition to Parliament, they are likely to give it to one of the select committees, the groups of politicians from different parties who discuss and seek advice on new laws, and review petitions from the public. The select committee may ask you to send a written submission and/or make an oral submission. After considering the petition and other evidence, they will make a report and recommendation to Parliament.
The submission process is another opportunity in your campaign to talk with, update and invite contributions from your supporters and allies.
Written submissions can be both informative and engaging. MPs often have lots of facts and technical information, and personal stories and perspectives from the people most affected are valuable for them.
🎯 Check out: The ActionStation community’s submission to the Environment Select Committee to protect the Haast Tokeka Kiwi
Together Towards a Fair and Flourishing Aotearoa
Whether you're launching your first petition or leading a long-term movement for justice, OurActionstation has been supporting campaigners for nearly a decade, working towards a better future for Aotearoa. If you'd like to learn more about our members' collective vision, please view Te Ira Tangata.
If you have feedback on making these resources better, or queries about using the OurActionStation platform, reach out to us at [email protected]!