James is co-founder of the Change Agency and director of our Community Organising Fellowship.
Playbook for Progressives [book]
An organizing manifesto for the twenty-first century, Playbook for Progressives is a must-have for the activist’s tool kit. This comprehensive guide articulates pragmatically what is required in the often mystifying and rarely explained on-the-ground practice of...
Imagining Change: How to Use Story-Based Strategy to Win Campaigns, Build Movements, and Change the World [Book]
Re:Imagining Change provides resources, theory, hands-on tools, and illuminating case studies for the next generation of innovative change-makers. This unique book explores how culture, media, memes, and narrative intertwine with social change strategies, and offers...
How power works in our hyperconnected world – and how to make it work for you (book)
Why do some leap ahead while others fall behind in our chaotic, connected age? In New Power, Jeremy Heimans and Henry Timms confront the biggest stories of our time–the rise of mega-platforms like Facebook and Uber; the out-of-nowhere victories of Obama and Trump; the...
The Support Report: An In Depth Analysis of the Changing Face of Giving in Australia
The Support Report: An In Depth Analysis of the Changing Face of Giving in Australia, soon to be released by JBWere, explores how philanthropy is evolving in Australia, looking at each of the different giving areas and the types of givers who support each cause. It...
Foundations of a healthy group culture
Creative, empowering and diverse processes can be used to work with a group to establish their personal and group needs, values, principles and ethics then come to shared understandings and agreements. The analogy of the seed is part of a meta process Robin is...
‘That’s just the life of a warrior’: How disability activists are playing the long game under Trump
Pacific Standard spoke to Anita Cameron. Among disability rights activists, Cameron is legendary. She’s been performing acts of civil disobedience for almost four decades, with over 130 arrests. She also pushes the disability community to confront issues...
What makes nonprofit digital teams successful today? | Jason Mogus & Austen Levihn-Coon
The health of teams working on digital strategy, platforms, and tools at nonprofits has long been an indicator of their adoption of or resistance to wider trends around innovation and impact. Over the years, we’ve observed that nonprofits are significantly more...
Choose the right tool for email, online advocacy and fundraising
Are you looking to identify the right tool to meet your standards for mass email, online advocacy, and fundraising, without breaking the bank or creating more problems than it solves? Finding a tool that efficiently integrates the various needs of your organizing...
Groupwork Institute of Australia’s collaborative leadership short course | various dates in 2018
As a leader, you need to both identify and make the most of the wisdom and experience in your organisation or team. With so many operational issues to address and negotiate, however, the emotional content is often overlooked. The advantage of an emotionally resilient...
Four strategies for large systems change
To create systems of societal change, we need to become clearer about the archetypes of societal change strategies, their strengths and weaknesses, and their interactions. How do we transform a group of well-intended but collectively incoherent change initiatives into...
Practitioners of civil resistance: Assess your cybersecurity through threat modeling
Most activists and other practitioners of civil resistance realize that governments can use various methods of digital surveillance to find and silence dissenters. The question of how to protect ourselves can seem overwhelming. Wherever you look there are different...
Theorymaker: Tools to visualise your theory of change
Theory Maker is a free web app by Steve Powell for making any kind of causal diagram, i.e. a diagram which uses arrows to say what contributes to what. You make the diagrams just by typing the names of the elements (called variables) in a structured way into a...
A theory of change that made the impossible possible
Of all the hot campaign trends from the past few years, the one that’s probably most commonly implemented on new campaigns is the “theory of change”. A critical part of storytelling and engagement, having a credible one helps smart but cynical audiences decide whether...
Tools To Engage: Resources For Nonprofits
Tools to Engage is an ever-changing compilation of the best resources from across the social sector, chosen for their particular focus on supporting constituent engagement and addressing systemic challenges, such as race, gender, and power inequities in the sector....
Minds of the Movement blog
Minds of the Movement bloggers are a diverse group representing more than a dozen countries to date. They write for those interested in the ideas and experiences of people on the front line of civil resistance, and those who seek to understand the art and science of...
Violence Will Only Hurt the Trump Resistance
Erica Chenowith writes: “black bloc tactics often hurt the causes that these activists claim to be fighting for. While violent flanks have sometimes produced short-term tactical advantages, they often come with painful long-term costs for movements seeking...
Changemakers podcast
There are 140 million people engaged in social change work across the globe. These are the ChangeMakers. The ChangeMakers podcast is a weekly, half-hour globally focused series that tells stories and lessons about the world of social change. Each week, host Dr. Amanda...
ROMA: A guide to policy engagement and policy influence
For many international development organisations, influencing policy is a critical means to achieve long term change. For over a decade, the Research and Policy in Development team at ODI has worked around the world to understand how to foster sustainable policy...