Creative Ways to Collaborate
The key is focusing on the diversity and creativity in collaboration methods, beyond just the standard joint campaigns or statements. The titles emphasize the range of options available when organizations want to collaborate, from social media takeovers to international events and thematic working groups. They highlight flexible, innovative ways to work together for greater impact.
Workcamp launch
One of our yearly campaigns is the launch of the workcamp year on our social media. The main goal of the campaign is to inform all potential volunteers that many new workcamps are available and encourage them to apply. The campaign has been executed in different ways throughout the years, but the constant element is the importance of a large collaboration of organisations for the campaign to be successful and reach the widest audience possible.
Example: Workcamp launch 2023
International days
International days are great opportunities for visibility, to spread our message and state our stance on a specific topic. It allows organisations to be part of something bigger, add their voice to an existing conversation, join other campaigns that are already running and have more visibility, network with like-minded organisations.
It is up to each organisation to select the days that are relevant for them. In SCI, we always celebrate the International Day of Peace on 21 September and the International Day of Volunteering on 5 December, and we consider the following days also very connected to our work: International Women’s Day (8 March), International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (21 March), Earth Day (22 April), International Day Against Homophobia, Biphobia and Transphobia (17 May), World Refugee Day (20 June), Earth Overshoot Day, International Day of Nonviolence (2 October) and Human Rights Day (10 December), among others.
Example: International Day of Volunteering 2022
Thematic campaigns
Thematic campaigns focus on a specific issue, with the goal to either inform the public or inspire action. They can overlap with International Days or be independent from it.
Such campaigns can bring together organisations that work on the same topic, or that have the same values.
In SCI, they are often initiated and/or created by thematic working groups, and then find support from the SCI network to spread their message.
Examples: Stop white saviorism in volunteering 2 – 3 – 4 – 5 – 6; Unmasking COVID 2 – 3 – 4 – 5 – 6 – 7 – 8 – 9 – 10 – 11 – 12 – 13 – 14 – 15 – 16 – 17
Campaigns that result from projects
Some of our international projects include the creation of communication or advocacy campaigns in their planned activities. This usually involves participants in an international training course, coming together to apply their newly acquired knowledge and skills for the creation of a campaign. This is a form of collaboration that brings together the partner organisations in the project, its existing activists, participants in the project, project donors, and possibly other organisations that are welcome to join the campaign.
This allows for participants to practise their skills on a practical task, and for organisations to receive support in their campaigns with new volunteers and their ideas.
Such campaigns can overlap with International Days and/or thematic campaigns.
Examples: International day of peace: abolishment of nuclear weapons 1 – 2 – 3
Joint statements
Joint Statements are official, open letters that organisations write together to address recent events relevant to their work or that impact their values. Statements are a chance to express the organisations’ views on the event, address key people or institutions urging them to take certain steps to address the situation, and/or address the public encouraging it to act.
For example, a peace organisation could issue a statement when an armed conflict breaks out, stating their support to a peaceful resolution of the conflict, urging the head of states to immediately stop the conflict and encouraging the public to sign a petition in favour of diplomacy.
Joint statements are an important tool for advocacy, and where numbers are crucial in order to have an impact: the more organisations join, the better. Joint statements show that reacting to a specific event is so important that many different organisations are compelled to raise their voice together.
Timing is also very important for joint statements. They are often published as press releases.
Example: Statement “No War in Ukraine! No War Anywhere”
International events
reinforce connections, especially around a specific topic concerned by the event. They contribute to knowledge sharing, to positioning the organisation as an expert on a topic and to more visibility.
Potentially, they can be the beginning of the creation of a community interested in the subject, if planned from the beginning (e.g. collecting the right information and consent when organising the event) and nurtured later.
Example: Women Empowerment event by SCI India – Maharashtra State Group on the occasion of the International Women’s Day
Social media takeovers
A social media takeover is when one organisation’s social media account is “taken over” by other organisations or people contributing their content directly on the account. The takeover is temporary and usually lasts for a short period of time, for example one day. The people taking over the account are usually influencers, key people in the organisation, employees, volunteers, … The takeover allows organisations to share content with a different perspective, make the communication more personal and relatable, as well as reach a wider audience thanks to cross-posting. It can be done in different ways:
- by giving your account’s credentials to the person taking over: in that case, make sure you are available to communicate the code you might receive from the social media platform for the access from a new device, and to change the password after the takeover is done.
- By receiving the content in advance and publishing it yourself. In this case, some options are not available, like lives.
Example: Instagram takeover for International Day of Volunteering 2020
Reflection moment
Reflection moment: think about a communication or advocacy campaign you want to develop: its message, goal, audience, and timing. What type of collaboration would be suitable?
- Could it be connected to an international day?
- Could it include an international event?
- Would it benefit from a joint statement?
- Would there be people that can share their perspective in a social media takeover?
