All about this campaign selection business
- Posted by
- Kate
We’re often asked how GetUp decides which issues to campaign on. Well, in the early days we often consulted a magic 8 ball in the GetUp office (no, really) — but there’s a bit more to it than that.
A small, lucky and devoted team of staff, interns and volunteers are responsible for developing GetUp campaigns. It’s great work, and we’re very, very grateful to GetUp members for making it possible. GetUp also has a board, which advises the team. You can read more about the board and team here.
As long as politicians keep stuffing things up, there’ll be no shortage of campaign opportunities for the GetUp community. But we have to pick them carefully, because we can really only run about a dozen campaigns a year. A campaign is a big commitment. Once we get started on something, GetUp members don’t give up easily – so some campaigns take a few years to win (think ‘Bring David Hicks Home’, stopping the Gunns pulp mill and overturning unfair enrolment laws).
So, what makes a good GetUp campaign? We look for values, a movement and a moment.
Values -
Firstly, we look for campaigns that fit our values. GetUp is about social justice, environmental sustainability and economic fairness. So you won’t be seeing any GetUp campaigns about locking up more refugees, or tax breaks for billionaires.
A movement –
It’s no exaggeration to say that every ounce of power a GetUp campaign has comes from GetUp members. No members would mean a petition with no names, an TV ad with no spots on air – or an event with no volunteers and nobody attending! The most important criteria for a GetUp campaign is support from the GetUp movement. So of course, the most important test for any potential campaign is whether it will be supported by GetUp members.
Each year all GetUp members are invited to take part in a huge national survey to set GetUps course and issue priorities (you can read the results of the latest survey here.) We also conduct monthly surveys to gather GetUp members’ thoughts on issues of the day; 5000 GetUp members are randomly selected and invited to participate each month.
GetUp members also suggest campaigns using our campaign forum. Not all GetUp campaigns start this way, but many have, including the successful campaigns on detention debt, indigenous rock art on the Burrup Peninsula, internet filtering, and our ongoing mental health campaign.
On the forum you can read hundreds of suggestions and vote for your favourites. That doesn’t mean any suggestion that receives lots of votes will become a GetUp campaign. It does mean GetUp staff, volunteers and interns will look into the issue and see if it fits with GetUp’s values, fires up a movement of GetUp members, and that there is a good moment when GetUp members can help win a victory on the issue. A few people try to game the system by flooding certain campaign suggestions with votes from fake accounts, and so forth — but it’s usually pretty obvious when that’s happening.
A moment –
In an old episode of The Simpsons, Lisa tells Homer that the Chinese use the same word for both crisis and opportunity. Homer replies, “Yes! Crisatunity!”
The best GetUp campaigns have a moment of crisitunity, for example “right now some of the world’s oldest Indigenous rock art is under threat in the Burrup Peninsula, but together we can demand the Federal Government protect the site before it is bulldozed.” Our team of volunteers and staff look for campaigns that provide GetUp members the best ‘crisitunities’ to win victories on important issues
GetUp currently focusses only on campaigns that are of national importance and interest. We’re working on ways to bring GetUp’s online toolkit and passionate community to bear on local campaigns in the year to come (watch this space).
