Influencing decision-makers

Every campaign must have at least one ‘target’. Your target is the individual, group, corporation or statutory body that can actually create (or prevent) the change that your campaign is about. Without a clearly identified target and a specific set of messages, your campaign will lack both clarity and impact.

This might sound very basic, but it is remarkable how many campaigns lack a clear target point. If someone was to ask you ‘who is your campaigning targeting and what is it you want them to do?’, could you give a clear and simple answer?

Depending on the breadth and complexity of your campaign, there may be numerous targets, each of which you may have a different campaign message and objective:

• The general public (e.g. ‘I want the public to do more recycling’)
• A local authority (e.g. ‘I want the council to provide more recycling facilities’)
• A company (e.g. ‘I want Company X to produce less waste’)
• The Government (e.g. ‘I want the Government to legislate to make companies waste less)

There are a lot of other resources about this subject, so we will keep this section quite short, and point you to further information below.

Further information

Visit the Battlefront website for some very useful tips on lobbying.

Perhaps the most detailed resource in this area is Mark Lattimer’s The Campaigning Handbook, which looks at how to influence local and central Government and corporations.

Chapter 13 of NCVO’s ‘The Good Campaigns Guide’ is also very informative. It looks at how campaigns must focus on achieving impact.