For Change.org’s director of campaign innovation Johnny Chatterton, there is nothing more powerful than a campaign driven by people — especially when it becomes so big an organization can no longer control it.
That was the case for Johnny when running one of 38 Degrees’ fastest growing campaigns ever, its Save our Forests campaign in 2011.
It was members of 38 Degrees, a 850,000 people-powered campaigning organization, who voted in favor of creating a Save our Forests campaign. The campaign successfully mounted a 500,000 strong movement calling on the United Kingdom government to not sell the country’s forests.
According to Johnny, what made the campaign effective was the acknowledgement that people wanted to take part. The 38 Degrees team found creative ways to involve them.
More than 500,000 people signed the “Save Our Forests” petition and 100,000 people e-mailed or called their MPs urging them to stop the forest sell-off.
38 Degrees asked members to fund a people-powered YouGov poll, which found that 84 per cent of the public wanted the forests kept in public hands.
