Resource Type: Tips & How-Tos

At the Lab, we are wrapping up field research projects with six great partner climate advocacy organizations. While I can’t wait to share what we’ve learned once they are complete, today I wanted to provide some of my reflections on best practices for field research I’ve learned from these tests and other projects. Think of these as extra dollops of advice on top of our core guidance on research and testing and Learning 101*.

Over the last year, the Lab has been involved in a strategic planning process. The purpose of this body of work has been: to be clear about the focus of our programming, have a clear vision of the type of climate movement we want to bring into fruition; and how as a movement support organization we can use our programming to build this future.

             
Social science research affirms the need for “critical capacities” of effective social movements (narrative, disruptive, electoral/institutional). What are these? How do we develop them in our campaigning and organizing work? In this training, we will work through the meaning of the critical capacities and their utility in multi-racial cross-class organizing. We will review case studies about how different coalitions have developed and sustained their critical capacities using evidence-based advocacy.
 

You’ve probably heard a lot from us about evidence-based advocacy, but what are we talking about when we talk about “evidence?” Does it mean we privilege academic research that has withstood the rigor of peer review, or that we should raise up lessons learned through the hard work of organizing on the ground? Do we gather evidence from a bird’s-eye view of the public at large through polling, a detailed examination of a particular audience through interviewing, or an introspective analysis of how our own organizations and coalitions operate? The short answer is that we think all of it matters as long as the insights generated can help us be more effective, challenge our assumptions, and grow as a movement. This post examines how we think about evidence at the Lab and how we can break evidence down into the categories of Listening, Watching, Tinkering, and Reflecting*.

The power of organizing is the ability to apply enough people-power to win – and keep – the changes we need for a future in which we can all thrive. This power is a renewable resource built through the trust and mutual accountability fostered by the relationships the organizer seeds between members and the organization, members and the organizer, and members and other members. This session will equip you to apply organizing principles and evidence-based advocacy insights to your work with volunteers.

Does “evaluation” sound judgy, “research” feel like a luxury, “testing” pointless, or “data” too technical?
Then we welcome you to explore with us how developing a culture of testing, evaluation and learning is crucial to multiracial, cross-class organizing in the climate movement. Evaluation and learning allow you to get real-time feedback about what is working (or not), and the space to grow from your experience and make shifts to your work. So it’s crucial to understanding the areas we are successfully building power and where we need to experiment and iterate. If we can’t track and improve, how do we know if we are on the way to winning?

The heart of today’s Insight is a guest column from Deb Lavoy at Reality Team. Billing themselves as “reality’s marketing team”, they take on the challenge of combatting disinformation of all sorts by competing directly for the attention of those people most likely to consume and believe it. Deb outlines the team’s program design of 10-second ad son Instagram, the successes, and how they measured its impact. It’s a compelling read. Hear from her yourself by registering for the Lab’s webinar on fighting disinformation.
Before we dive in, here’s one last plug for the Lab’s Spring Training for Impact Cohort. Applications close on Monday, February 28th. We have 25 spots and we’d like you to force us into hard decisions about who gets them. Pass the word on or apply yourself!

The recent winter storm over a huge stretch of the country—including parts of Texas—has brought back memories of almost exactly a year ago, when beginning on February 14th 2021, a deep freeze in which hundreds of Texans lost their lives and more than half of the state was without power or water service for days. A year after that traumatic catastrophe, the state remains susceptible to similar extreme weather events and a freeze-vulnerable natural gas supply still powers many homes and contributes to climate change. Today we highlight lessons from innovative and evidenced-based online campaigning surrounding this one-year anniversary to hasten the end of natural gas.