Finding and keeping supporters

Some of the people who back you might be highly committed and willing to do a lot towards helping you achieve your campaign goals. Others may have far less time, but still back you. Others again, while highly committed to you don’t want to be involved in demonstrations, but would be happy to beat the streets in getting the public to sign a petition.

In leading a campaign the trick is to ensure that you capitalise on whatever level of support people are willing to give to you. So, it would be useful for you to ‘segment’ your audience. NCVO’s ‘The Good Campaigns Guide’ that you segment your supporters into:

1. Advocates – this might only be a small proportion of your supporter base, but as they are highly committed they can act as ambassadors and have a significant impact.
2. Supporters – this will be a larger group, and while not having the same level of commitment as the advocates, they will be willing to take action periodically.
3. Joiners – this is likely to be an even larger group. While they will be sympathetic to your cause, they might not have the time, or simply do not want to actually get involved in something they see as too ‘political’. But they are still useful supporters to engage, as they may sign petitions, donate to your campaign, or even write to their MP in support of your campaign.

While segmenting might sound like a complex process, it can be done simply. In sign-up leaflets, through your website mailing list or other resources and materials you use, you can simply give people different options about how they can get or stay involved.

The Fairsay website has a very useful section on supporter retention. This does very much focus on how to do this through email and internet-based resources, but the principles still apply if you are not online.