Many NGOs have something that sits between their (large, ambitious) main goal and their (concrete) events and actions. Something that lives longer than a single event, but maybe not as long as the organization itself. These things are often called Campaigns. We should consider making this a key concept in how our organization works.

Why campaigns? What problems do they solve?

• Increase volunteer engagement. Campaigns can progress rapidly, because their goals are typically smaller and measurable. Taking part feels like you're winning, it feels like you're
• Clear prioritization. The number one questions people ask: what action should I take now. That question depends on time, location, and person. We have a big "actions" page but it's overwhelming. Campaigns set a clear priority!
• Keep our messaging fresh. Repeating our same core message gets boring, and that means it loses impact. Novelty keeps our brand interesting and relevant to media.

What are campaigns? They:

• have their own asks and goals. These asks should have some relation to our main proposal.
• should have winnable goals, ideally incremental (1000 signatures, let' do 2000!)
• can be local (national) first or global-first.
• should be shown on the home page (in cards?), perhaps even on the hero image
• have a clear lead, someone calling the shots
• have a limited duration
• have their own webpage. Maybe even website, sometimes. They can have a clear, sometimes even distinct, brand.
• can start bottom-up or top-down. We'll only endorse
• have their own budget

Questions

• Should campaigns have their own team? Yes to leader, maybe sometimes also a team (of volunteers)
• Should campaigns have their own discord channel? Could help to increase fealing of community within a pause-niche.
• To what extent do we communicate "Campaigns" to the public?
• What do we do if there is another org doing an amazing campaign? ControlAI e.g. is doing good stuff so we should probably link to their action calls. But they don't want volunteers to be engaged in the same way.

Example campaigns

• "If anyone builds it, everyone dies". Yudkowsky's new book. We do book reading events, reach out to journalists.
• DeepMind commitments. We did a big protest, sent some letters.
• AI moratorium bill (2024). Lot of volunteer US lobbying to get rid of the moratorium bill.