Yesterday Paul was asked to speak on a panel at the Engaging Networks London event. The panel featured the incredible Georgie from Hope not hate, Helen from Forward Action and Rhiannan from Care2.
Each panelist was asked to speak for a few minutes before questions from the floor, so we’ve pasted Paul’s notes below in case they are useful! Excuse any typos!
Hello everyone. I’m Paul de Gregorio and I’m the founder of Rally.
I’m old enough to have worked on the 1997, 2001 and 2005 General Election campaigns for Labour.
Obviously the forthcoming General Election is a fantastic opportunity for any charity or campaign group to mobilise their supporters to take action, as well as raise awareness of the issue they’re fighting for.
It’s important that we are bold, unapologetic and very clear in our communications and actions about what the public and politicians can do in order to support our goals for a fairer, healthier, safer, greener, more equal world.
It’s also an opportunity for us all to use our organisational voices to promote active participation in the democratic process. And we should be asking the public to vote with the issues we represent in their minds as they walk into the polling booth.
So I hope that we see charities actively promoting voter registration across all of their channels, to all of their audiences as well as promoting that to vote in UK elections you now need Photo ID.
I do however have a concern that this Tory government has succeeded in taking the edge off of the charity sector's campaigning voice.
They moved from Cameron’s big society in 2010, to the charities minister saying that charities ‘should stick to their knitting’ in 2014. To the grubby and divisive culture war that it’s fighting on many fronts, from attacking lefty lawyers and social media do-gooders to the sustained assault on any organisations fighting for equality for Trans people.
These people are not serious people. And they fear people power & the charity sector because they know that the public trust charities more than politicians. But, maybe their culture war has been successful in creating a element of risk aversion in some boards and senior teams, as they don’t want to get involved in a culture war.
Today’s panel is all about being prepared for the election year.
I think the best preparation we can all do is prepare our organisations to be brave, bold and clear in our messaging in the run up to, during and after the election campaign.
Which means having the conversations internally NOW, getting on the front foot, to ensure alignment with all teams and functions about what you’re going to say, how you’re going to say it and what you are going to ask your supporters and allies to do.
If you want impact during the election period, you need this alignment so you can speak on the breakout issues as they arise. Being able to respond to events in a fast moving election is critical if you’re to be relevant in the debate.
Finally, if you haven’t started activity or planning already, start today. Start building your base now. If you’re clear on your positions, communicate well and have lots of authentic actions to offer people, the election will be a great opportunity to scale your support from the public.
Main Photo by Element5 Digital on Unsplash