External Review

"How can we be both agile enough to respond to the crises we are seeing yet broad based enough to make a

‘real’ impact on policy – while ensuring promises are kept and governments are held to account nationally?"

- Kumi Naidoo, Executive Director, Greenpeace International -

The challenge for GCAP and many other international organizations is to strategize how to translate its programs and campaigns into real progress that can be shown on the ground. Many non-profits attempt to use external communications tools to take their online presence and promote it offline. However, very few do it well. The reality is that it is very difficult to translate online actions into real on the ground results.

PURPOSE

To get the word out. Through internal efficiency an organization can begin to be more effective at finding how, when and where to put political and social pressures in place externally. There are many dynamic strategies and tools that will allow for this.

CURRENT COMMUNICATIONS TOOLS

INTRODUCTION

GCAP's communications strategy has been very effective at mobilization...

In 2009, 173 million people stood up against poverty...

The whiteband campaign has been adopted worldwide...

But what do we do with these successful campaigns? Where do we go beyond this?

WHERE CAN WE IMPLEMENT EFFECTIVE CHANGE?

EXTERNAL STRATEGIES

Large Meetings/Gatherings (such as StandUp): GCAP should keep the pressure up and keep showing that they are good at mobilizing millions. Strategies for more interactive engagements at these events would add another layer of participation and action by these groups. At these events perform media stunts, get attendees to participate interactively online and with their cell phones.

Campaigns: GCAP has been very successful with certain campaigns that include the whiteband campaign. It is a symbol that is very easy to replicate in a variety of contexts. In India thy were tearing cloth and wrapping it around their wrists, in Africa they were making beaded whitebands, and in the rest of the world it was a rubber band that emulated the Livestrong bracelets of Lance Armstrong. Also, the initial campaign that kicked off the whiteband was the "Make poverty History" campaign. It was a very clear, succinct, and easy to understand.

Effective story telling:

Individual stories if used in the right way are very effective at gaining support.

Power Mapping:

Strategically Reviewing the best pressure points of each region and in each sector can provide a useful map of where to go with your mission and success. In one country it might be useful to use media outlets to ask for change. In some countries local leaders might be the best route while in others it may be best to target the central government.

Branding:

An organization that cannot easily define and present itself to others will have difficulty with all of the above strategies. GCAP has struggled between being a facilitator of NGOs and an organization that can lead on issues by itself.

JOIN THE CONVERSATION

Include Your Audience:

Empowering individuals to take on your mission in their country will allow for interactive participation and a widespread share of ideas. Ask them to get involved, participate and submit ideas of their own.

EXTERNAL TOOLS

GCAP's Website: A dynamic external facing website with a simple design and strategy towards steering people to participate is key

Facebook: It is difficult to translate perceived online support through Facebook and any materialization on the ground. A million "likes" on Facebook is hard to translate into any physical mass or progression on the ground. It is difficult to promote ongoing discussion on Facebook but it can be used to organize events, keep track of constituents and begin to build a mass following online. You can then use different strategies to call on this online mass for offline participation.

Twitter: Twitter is more effective at promoting discussion than Facebook. Be aggressive at getting the followers you want, and promote discussion by continued interaction with followers and key players in your target audience.

Ushahidi: Ushahidi uses mobile phone technology for mapping purposes in a number of different areas. Like most social media, its utility is endless. Creative campaigns can be implemented with this tool. For example, in monitoring the numbers for worldwide StandUp events it could be useful to use Ushahidi as an independent counting tool.

Mobile Phones and Mobile Phone Applications: Many of GCAP's constitutents are in the Global South. Their main communications tool is the cell phone. This is the best way to reach them and have them reach others.

WEBSITES/TOOLS FOR MONITORING

http://wthashtag.com/Main_Page: This site analyzes any hashtag on Twitter to see how much airtime it is getting.

http://www.alexa.com/: This site is great for analyzing your web traffic by region, demographic or pure numbers