Setting up national campaigns includes a wide range of activities, such as research, supporter base building, relationship building, fundraising, online activities etc. A successful movement will need to quickly gather a diverse team covering all those skills. On this page you can find lots of useful tips on how to start the campaign.
We recommend WordPress to run your website. It’s free, easy to use and already used by a huge numbers of existing websites (tens of millions). It gives you an easy way to edit a website, and is only a little more complicated than Microsoft Word.
You will need a name, a logo and a tagline summarising what you do in one sentence.
You could design the website around your main point and the campaign you are building.
The main points could be:
The information can be shared between the websites of the international movement and translated into your language. However, the details and figures will apply only to the country of origin. The broad brush strokes are currently the same around the world so the information, and the need for reform, is the same in each country/currency. There is a list below of the main points your national movement can research for your own country.
And finally, but most importantly, you will need to collect email addresses.
An email list is your first goal. Once you have an interested online community you can advertise events, recruit volunteers, give news updates, get people to donate if needed, and start your new national movement.
We would recommend using Mailchimp to manage your email list and to send newsletters. Mailchimp is very good and it’s free for up to 2000 contacts.
When people sign up to your email list, whether online or in person at an event, it is important to have a privacy statement (this may well be a legal requirement in your country). The privacy statement assures your supporters that you will never pass on their email addresses, and lets them know what signing up to the list involves. For this reason you should never ask people to add details for friends and family. An example of a suitable privacy statement is: ‘Sign up and follow the campaign by email. We send out newsletters [twice a month] and you can unsubscribe any time. We never share your email address with anyone else’.
Only add people who want to be added to the list – otherwise you’re just spamming. So don’t eg. add the lists of all your country’s MPs to your Mailchimp account. Adding people who didn’t ask to be signed up can get your account closed.
Sites like Twitter, Facebook are a good start, and might be enough of a social media presence for most campaigns. Google+ is growing and becoming more important so you might consider to use that or using LinkedIn. The popular social media sites will vary from country to country (hyves.nl in the Netherlands, netlog.com in Belgium) so it’s important that you tap into whatever form of social media is most widespread in your country.
However we would recommend you go for quality – build a strong, active, fun base on one or two social media platforms – rather than a weak presence across a wide range. Then go for the additional social networks, if you know you’ll have the time and resources to manage them.
Social media is not a free and easy form of campaigning. Many forms of social media are becoming increasingly crowded (such as Twitter and Facebook) and therefore require extra time and energy to ensure that you get your message across though the din of a crowded world.
An eye-catching and informative video can be a great tool for your campaign; it’s one of the best mediums for communicating and spreading a message, especially since the rise of social media.
A well-constructed video can generate a wealth of interest and new supporters overnight, for comparatively little effort. Dependent on the size of your organization, there are a number of options available to you.
How can you educate people about the problem and the need for reform?
The UK organisation, Positive Money, has some simple guidelines to help you organise an event that can be found here.
Or see the summary at wikihow.
When you organise events don’t forget to collect email addresses by asking people to fill in their email onto a specific sheet. Then make sure someone takes charge of importing the emails onto your Mailchimp base.
If you are planning to go full time on this (and give up your day job) you will want to start collecting donations as soon as possible.
This is the next step to a more formal organisation and will require you to research the appropriate regulations in you country. You may well need to register as a charity or not-for-profit business. Congratulations on this next step towards a bigger national movement.
What is the ratio of bank deposit money vs cash as notes and coins in your country?
What act or law limited the power of ordinary/highstreet banks to create bank notes. Was the intention of that law to limit all money creation by ordinary banks?
Read the guide on setting up a national monetary reform campaigning organisation.