I am Alex White, a progressive campaign strategist, writer, social marketer and policy activist.
Below I have published my latest article from my new Guardian UK column, Southern Crossroads. You can read the article over at The Guardian. Since the disappointment of Copenhagen in 2009, Australia has witnessed a concerted scare campaign against action on global warming. The scare campaign has been led by senior commentators in (Murdoch owned) News Limited [...]
Conservative crank Gerard Henderson wrote last year that unions “have nothing to fear from external competition”. Apart from demonstrating that he knows relatively little about the new Fair Work Act, which allows for inter-union disputes over membership coverage, the sentiment he expressed, that unions do not face “traditional”, market based competition, is one I’ve heard expressed [...]
The Californian-based Alliance for Climate Education has a fantastic story about how it used its data to measure who amongst its supporters were turning into activists and leaders. I think it’s a really good example of how progressive non-profit organisations can use their CRM to achieve their mission (they’ve reached over 1 million students) and [...]
Because unions are democratic organisations, accountable to members and with a leadership elected by members, as organisations they face considerable challenges in messaging. Add to this the fact that many unions have a diverse membership covering distinct and structurally different industries. It’s no wonder that many unions struggle to develop strong, consistent messaging. The key to [...]
Activists, delegates and volunteers are the lifeblood of campaigning organisations like unions. Effective campaigning means keeping a track of your activists and delegates, and to do that, you need a proper database. There are myriad databases out there, some purpose built for membership organisations and others built for campaigns with beginnings and ends. Selecting the right [...]