South Koreans build mass movement against martial law, winning reversal within 24 hours, Dec 2024 (Credit: Chris Jung/AP)
Create ads that move people and help win campaigns. Earn SMT’s Certificate in Digital Ads for Organizing & Campaigns
Use this form to get on the waitlist to be the first to know when registration opens.
10 sessions over 7 weeks: March 11 – May 1, 2026
Instruction in English, with live captioning in 39 languages. Sessions offered twice to accommodate different timezones:
- Americas cohort time [see time in your timezone] 1-3 p.m. New York (ET). Ideal for participants in the Americas daytime or Europe evening.
- Asia-Pacific, Africa, Europe, MENA cohort time [see time in your timezone] 1 – 3 p.m. Kenya (EAT) / 11 a.m.-1 p.m. Brussels (CET). Ideal for participants in Africa, Europe, MENA daytime or Asia, Pacific evening.
Around the world, movement organizations are using digital ads to find, engage, and activate their people – from unions finding organizing leads, to Indigenous organizers finding and engaging Native voters where voter file data is lacking, to local racial justice groups generating thousands of letters to pressure local elected officials while building their base.
The 10-session Apprenticeship will advance your ability to use ads to build power and pressure your campaign targets – and give you more confidence managing contractors running ads. From selecting the right channel to targeting the right audience to designing high-conversion landing pages and building an effective pipeline, you will learn how to move people, raise money, and grow your base with ads.
This training is essential with the increasing restrictions on targeting. Groups must take a more sophisticated approach than simple “boosts” to avoid wasting money.
The curriculum will focus on Facebook & Instagram ads, which are the most time- and cost-effective for most organizations. One of the sessions will provide an overview of other online ad platforms, especially LinkedIn and YouTube. We will also discuss Google Ad Grant ads and when they can be cost-effective to administer.
This apprenticeship is for you if:
- You are part of an issue organizing, electoral group, or union that is building power to win change
- You are in a digital campaigning, communications, organizing, or fundraising role where online ads could support your work
- You want to grow your base, attract donors, pressure targets, raise awareness, re-engage inactive supporters, or shape narrative via online ads
- You want to more effectively manage vendors or contractors who run ads, or bring the work in-house
- You have the organizational buy-in to design and launch a real ad campaign during the course of the certificate program; with at least $200 USD in spend (can be $100 if based in Africa or Asia where ad costs are generally lower)
What level of experience is right for this course?
This course is a great fit for those with a beginner or intermediate understanding of Meta ads. Sessions 1 and 2 are designed for relative beginners. (If you need extra help getting your account set up and authorized, you can sign up for hands-on support from a member of the instructor team with discounted coaching rates.) Intermediate-level participants may choose to join from session 3 onwards if they have already set up their accounts and run some ads before.
This course is not for advanced ad campaigners. If you know how to run re-targeting campaigns based on pixel and source code conversion tracking, and are already using custom LAL (look-alike) audiences based on uploaded data, know how to A/B test content and how to optimize through the activation process on Meta, this course might not be for you. That being said, you might still gain valuable insight on ad strategy and best practice tips that could improve the performance of the campaigns you’re already running.
There will be time for small group work during many of the sessions. Participants will be paired based on their experience level to provide a supportive and challenging learning experience appropriate for each participant. In previous SMT ad apprenticeships this has worked quite well.
In-depth Training: What we’ll cover
You’ll complete four assignments that will build an ad campaign step-by-step, getting real instructor feedback. This will include refining the ad, ad targeting, and call-to-action. Then, after launching the ad, you’ll interpret the results and refine the campaign.
Apprenticeship requirements
- Attendance: Sessions will be recorded, but you must attend at least 8 of the 10 sessions live to receive certificate credit.
- 4-6 hours per week to attend live sessions and complete assignments and prep work (2-3 hours/week in-session and 2-3 hours/week out-of-session)
- Access to run campaigns: you will create ideas for multiple ad campaigns, and will run at least one to edit and improve based on the results. If you are running ads classified as political or ‘social issues,’ you must be authorized to run ads in your country. You should get verified as early as possible.
- Budget for ad campaigns: budget of at least $200 ($100 for Asia-Pacific/Africa) (not included in session cost, paid directly to the ad platform).
- Confirmation by a supervisor that these requirements are in place for participant success.
- The participant may need additional support if they are inexperienced with tech and learning new skills on tech platforms. You may want to pair individual coaching support with the apprenticeship. This can be arranged at a discounted rate.
Instructors
Instructors have deep digital ad campaign experience working in movement organizations on important climate, anti-racism, electoral, and union organizing campaigns. They are based in the U.S., Australia and Sweden.
Ericka Persson. Ericka provides ad campaign support to SMT partner groups. She spearheads efforts to shape criminal justice reform and advance progressive candidates nationwide at the Working Families Party. She works with candidates and coalitions to strategize and implement voter engagement tactics, specifically focusing on online-to-offline organizing. A recent win where Ericka led digital strategy was Prop R, decriminalizing marijuana in Dallas, Texas. Ericka has trained hundreds of candidates and activists in effective campaign and digital strategies. She helped spearhead “Women Run Campaigns” at the Working Families Party, where she trained hundreds of women on electoral campaign strategy and management. She served as “the digital track” mentor for The Movement School, where she made specialized programs for organic and paid digital strategists, and coached hundreds of progressive organizers on strengthening their digital skills. She is currently pursuing her Masters in Public Affairs at Columbia University, focusing on technology, media, and national security as it pertains to electoral and digital disinformation policy.
Solaye Snider. Moving between Australia and Canada, Solaye has worked for 9 years advocating for climate justice and human rights. She currently works as a Campaigner at Greenpeace Australia Pacific, leading campaigns to make polluters pay and push for a fast and fair fossil fuel phase-out. Before this, Solaye was a Senior Digital Campaigner at Stand.earth, where she co-led their advertising program across Meta, Google and LinkedIn – achieving some of the strongest CPA and ROI results in the sector. She also led the digital strategy for campaigns that helped end British Columbia’s biggest fossil fuel subsidy and push 18 insurance companies to drop the Trans Mountain pipeline. At SMT, Solaye provides coaching and support on advertising and digital campaign strategy.
Scotty Brown. Scotty ran Color Of Change’s digital ad campaigns for 5 years, managing the ads team for campaigns across Meta and Google platforms with ad budgets of up to $50,000. Campaigns included voting rights for formerly incarcerated people in Florida; justice for Black people murdered by police violence; and GOTV. Ad campaigns drove thousands of people to register to vote, sign petitions and donate with some of the lowest costs per action in the organization’s history. They also helped co-found the Color Of Change Union in 2020, representing over 85 staff members. With SMT they have coached and trained hundreds of people on digital ads. They are based on Piscataway Land in DC and organize for a Free Palestine, housing justice and protecting Black communities, and police and prison abolition.
Deivid Rojas. Deivid has worked with unions and other organizing groups to develop their online-to-offline organizing pathway, including using ads for list building and lead generation through Meta. He is an organizer, storyteller, communicator, and visual artist with 10+ years of experience supporting and building organizing campaigns that tightly intertwine field organizing, communications, and digital, including over six years as the Communications Director at Fight For 15 Chicago, where he led the communications work for hundreds of actions, strikes, and protests. He developed and coached dozens of workers to become effective campaign spokespeople and landed national stories with national and international press, created content shared thousands of times online, and produced iconic protest visuals. Deivid has also led communications and digital organizing with SEIU National Fast Food Workers Unions, SEIU Local 73, and UFCW 881. As a queer man from Colombia, he is fluent in Spanish and has deep experience working with groups focusing on labor, Latine, racial justice, Black/Brown solidarity, and LGBTQIA+ issues.
Andrew Giacco. Andrew is one of SMT’s ad specialists, with experience in running Meta, LinkedIn, TikTok and programmatic ad campaigns. He helps steer groups through account management blocks and challenges, advises on ad strategy, and runs campaigns doing setup, monitoring, and optimization. He has supported a range of campaigns, including for example, supporting the fight for property tax justice by activating people threatened with foreclosure via Meta ads to win policy changes and save hundreds of families from foreclosure.
Pick the time that works best for your time zone
Participants can select which cohort they will join based on time zone convenience. See curriculum page for a detailed schedule. Presentation content will be recorded.
- Americas cohort time [see time in your timezone] 1-3 p.m. New York (ET). Ideal for participants in the Americas daytime or Europe evening.
- Asia-Pacific, Africa, Europe, MENA cohort time [see time in your timezone] 1 – 3 p.m. Kenya (EAT) / 11 a.m.-1 p.m. Brussels (CET). Ideal for participants in Africa, Europe, MENA daytime or Asia, Pacific evening.
Language and Hearing Accessibility
Instruction in English, with live captioning in 39 languages. Arrangements can be made to cover the cost of dubbing of recordings and slide translation to other languages. Assignments in Spanish, French, Swahili and Tagalog can be reviewed by bilingual SMT instructors.
Cost
In order to support a movement organization learning space, SMT trainings are for staff of non-profits – NGOs, unions and electoral campaigns. Trainings are not for consultants or agencies. Consultants & agency staff who register will have their registrations refunded. Alternatively, on-demand trainings are available to all on SMT’s course platform.
| Region | Budget of the organization | Early bird (by Feb 15) |
Regular rate | Additional seats from the same organization (Same email domain) |
|
North America + Western Europe + Australia/New Zealand
|
$2M and above | $1,120 | $1,400 | $840 |
| $500K-$2M | $1,008 | $1,260 | $756 | |
| Under $500K | $806 | $1,008 | $605 | |
|
Africa, Asia, Eastern Europe, MENA, Latin America, and Oceania (except Australia/New Zealand)
|
$2M and above | $645 | $806 | $484 |
| Under $2M | $452 | $564 | $452 | |
| North America & Western Europe |
Group Rate (up to 10 seats) – Email info@socialmovementtechnologies.org |
$9,800 | ||
| Africa, Asia, Eastern Europe, MENA, Latin America, and Oceania | $4,516 | |||
Note: Organizations paying for a mix of staff based in various regions can pay based on where each staffer is based.
Payment is by credit card at the below form, which includes a 4% fee. Please reach out to info@socialmovementtechnologies.org if you’d like an invoice for payment by bank transfer ($20 fee).
Note for all: separate from the registration fee, organizations must also budget for the participant to spend $200 in ads over the course of the program ($100 for Asia-Pacific/Africa ad campaigns), paid directly to the ads platform.
Testimonials
El DCCP es un programa súper completo que cubre casi todos los aspectos de las campañas digitales y el activismo digital. Durante el año que pasé en el programa, aprendí a usar muchas herramientas y tácticas nuevas así como también mejorar en las que ya estaba usando. Y he estado aplicando felizmente lo que aprendí en mi trabajo de campaña con Amnistía.
I strongly recommend SMT. Their strong organizing background, preparation and thoughtfulness made our strategy assessment with them enjoyable and really helpful.I'm still digesting the valuable information from this training and applying it to my work. Meeting activists worldwide and learning about important campaigns was inspiring.SMT helped us build an integrated, strategic approach to a union contract campaign. SMT’s work is sophisticated and flexible–their support was invaluable.
Great information on how to make emails more impactful and spur action. Great to get direct feedback on a sample email.SMT helped us choose an appropriate database for our organization. Its focused training sessions are valuable tools that have helped us further a conversation with our grassroots leaders about strategically building a more powerful, goal-oriented organization. For change-makers looking to harness people power for good. Expert presenters and experience sharing with classmates enhanced my knowledge and provided valuable, immediately applicable skills.Incredibly knowledgeable…Weekly coaching has been a great experience. Keeps us on track. Staff is flexible, creative.SMT is a great resource if you’re looking to improve your organization’s social media presence and strategy.The program allowed me to deep dive into specific campaign strategies, learning from diverse examples of what worked and what could be improved.SMT has been a great partner to co-design and launch a set of offerings that meet the growing digital and remote needs of the organizations we support, including bilingual access for our Spanish-speaking partners. The team is relatable, attentive and knowledgeable and their use of case studies helps to make complex information accessible!SMT’s staff is friendly, flexible, competent, creative…Efficiently implemented cutting-edge strategies and designed great-looking materials to communicate our message to our members. I’ll come back to SMT in a heartbeat.The program offered interesting case studies, expanded my digital campaigning knowledge, introduced new organizing tools and strategies, and enabled connections with professionals in the progressive space.Super useful and practical strategy session. Great to learn what we can do to our website and Facebook page to make them better tools, described in a way I can explain to my board.
The program offers excellent support, knowledge, and peer collaboration for learning about organizing and campaigning.I found this course inspiring, especially the strategies part. Learning from diverse students with different backgrounds was enriching."=All of SMT training is packed and powerful!We’ve heard really good things from our grantee partners. SMT has a strong, grantee-focused way of working.SMT helped us create a social media presence to expand our cannabis worker organizing campaign. Our organizers have enhanced their social media capabilities. We have succeeded beyond our expectations. Working with SMT has been a great experience. They really understand organizing and communications.[SMT's WhichCRM tool] helped me make a side by side comparison without having to spend hours sifting through demos and websites on my own. Invaluable!SMT supported our coalition so we could play a more powerful role in advocating for our work and priorities with funders and elected officials. They facilitated a process to take a loose group of collaborators across a large geography and worked with us to build a cohesive understanding of shared values and how we could present ourselves.SMT helped us craft an effective public narrative for our campaign to get a mine closed. SMT helped us finalize a campaign strategy and come up with an effective plan to raise visibility and engage the public. Our campaign led to a pause in the mining. We will keep fighting!This program was pivotal in my early organizing career, providing a strong foundation for recognizing technology's power in social movements. It equipped me with tools to create effective systems for our organization and broader membership base.I want to express my continuing and deep appreciation for SMT’s staff. We’ve made great strides and SMT has been catalytic…Among other things–fast, smart, patient, thorough, skillful handling of the website makeover. You guys pulled it off quickly and affordably.The digital training was expertly executed and helped me develop new ideas and best practice to implement in our campaign.I'm grateful for the opportunity to expand my organizing knowledge with SMT. It's sparked creativity, and I'm excited to put new ideas into action.It was powerful hearing directly from groups across the country using these powerful tools to win campaigns and create real change."Skye's growth in confidence and strategic acumen through the SMT program has been a huge boost for our organization. She's also been able to bring tools, trainings, and ideas back to our entire staff team, making us more effective and responsive.""I have found the webinars and trainings by SMT to be timely, relevant and incredibly useful in my work.
I work often at the intersection of climate and labour and have been thrilled to see the trainings you organize have met my needs in advancing my work."[Story-Based Strategy] was awesome. It was sort of a refresher and a reset for me as an organizer and a social worker. I took a great deal of notes.Two things I valued most about the program were lifelong access to the course materials and case study walkthroughs from some of the most compelling organizers and organizing collectives we have in the field right now. Great coach for executing our group's livestream plan! Often we have little time to do comprehensive analysis or comparison of newer technologies, so it's important to consult with those with their hands on the tools, and have seasoned coaches in your corner who can help you execute plans.
We hired SMT to help with some ad campaigns. Folks are professional, experienced, and communicative. Knowing what was happening at different stages helped me understand what was going on in our programs. I was never embarrassed to ask questions. The SMT staffer explained everything that would happen, why he was doing something, how he'd accomplish it, which was great. It made me feel like we were working collaboratively. SMT also provides a lot of great trainings to the progressive community to equip people and organizations to do this work on their own.
The Digital Campaigning Certificate Program was immensely helpful, and I continue to apply its learnings in my daily communications and strategizing.We have had a fantastic experience with SMT…they have been highly responsive to the needs of our grantees.The program was an eye-opener and better positioned me as a Communications Officer. I learned about digital mobilizing, online community building, and more.
Last year, we worked with SMT on a census campaign with Native Voice Network, and we got so much direct campaign support, one-on-one coaching. I spent a lot of time doing just one-on-one coaching support with ads. after that I felt super empowered and fearless to just navigate all these different tools in the universe. So it was a really great and helpful experience for us.The online coaching sessions have been really good for helping us make decisions about what makes the most sense for us to incorporate…and what we can let go.Our experience to date has been wonderful, helping us make the migration from one CRM to another as painless as possible…a life saver, terrific. Quick to respond, SMT staff provide clear explanations that avoid all the techno-garble.I found a lot of value in this Certificate Program that I use in my everyday work: from using social media effectively; significantly growing accounts and activating people online, pressuring targets in campaigns, and running Twitterstorms. Even when using other tools, I still apply the principles I learned!SMT taught our staff and leaders to use Twitter strategically, understand the intricacies of Facebook for organizing…They respond quickly, have real world organizing experience, do really solid webinars that leaders and staff can engage with.We hired SMT to lead a discussion about online strategy with some of our union’s staff. It re-kindled my desire and commitment to using emerging technologies in my organizing!SMT's expertise in social media, ads training, and particularly their personalized coaching, has been invaluable for navigating the unique challenges of the non-profit sector. SMT's guidance has empowered us to adopt new technologies and strategies, leading to our most successful social media ads campaign to date. Their support is a game-changer for organizations stepping into unfamiliar digital territories.It helped me better understand, through the experience of like-minded organizers, how to use accessible digital organizing tools to support the efforts on the ground."I learned so much about different labour movement actions. The digital part was huge, along with actually just understanding the range of tools that are available to organizers. I knew about petitions, about actions in the street, but seeing how differently they could be appleid in so many unique contexts was really exciting. I feel like I got an entire history of the labour movement.
SMT helped GAIA use LinkedIn to reach a key constituency we were having trouble reaching - thousands of people who play a specific role in the waste management industry. We got responses from key players.Learned invaluable skills, gained practical knowledge, and connected with inspiring professionals.This is great for C3's to understand what they SHOULD be doing during elections. I think there is much more space for C3s to take the GOTV initiative.This training provided invaluable clarity and direction for my digital organizing work, empowering my team to work more effectively.
The program gave my team the tools and time to strategise how our grassroots migrant organising translates to a digital context. I picked up tools like source codes, which then enabled us to see that more people were registering from Instagram than through any other platform and caused us to adapt our strategy. We also became SMT an Outreach Partner to enable our network to benefit from trainings at lower pricesSMT’s knowledge of the organizational use of different CRMs and migration between them was very helpful.I view organizing in a whole new light. Everybody should have the opportunity to go through this experience, and get these tools, and start organizing.I had an amazing time. I am already applying the valuable content in my organization.The DCCP program enhanced my skills and provided valuable support. I've applied these skills in my job and community work. Well-designed and presented program!SMT developed a custom training for our youth climate fellows from around the world. It was a holistic training on creating campaigns from strategy to implementation and building our activist base. We appreciated SMT’s attention to detail around language and inclusion and always thinking about power building.This program has been a great experience for me personally and for my work. With the few campaigns going under way I’m excited to show my colleagues what I have learned from SMT! Design firms told us our current site couldn’t be mobile optimized, but SMT did it cleanly and affordably. The site looks great and SMT was easy to work with and addressed any concerns we had.The webinars were very thorough, and the SMT team seems very responsive, broadly knowledgeable, and intuitive. The “WhichCRM?” questionnaire was helpful when I filled it out with my team. It helped us think about the aspects of a CRM we were looking for.
Working with SMT was easy and collaborative. The training helped our Greenpeace Southeast Asia team get new insights into campaign best practices across the globe.Each session was well-facilitated, skillfully blended presentation, discussion, and practical exercises, allowing me to immediately apply techniques to my work.The course provided invaluable tools and strategies, real-world case studies from different cultural contexts, and a supportive learning environment that encouraged interaction and peer learning.I initially thought this program was centered around communications, but it offered so much more. It provided an inside perspective on organizing work and how communications integrates with it.SMT's coaching was incredibly supportive, encouraging and accessible. SMT had a huge impact on evolving La Semilla's storytelling program. Through SMT coaching, we diversified our digital communications. Having SMT as a source of resources and as a thought partner has been incredibly impactful to our work.Great ability to eloquently name a few top communications gaps that we could easily fix and increase our impact. The summary document is highly valuable; we will refer to it in our future planning!SMT is the only training I know of that speaks our language of activism and uses the tools we use everyday in the field. They are a go-to resource to help raise the bar for communications in the labor movement.SMT coaching enabled us to expand our presence within human rights spaces in Kenya beyond an LGBTIQ audience. It helped us use Twitter to connect with allies in the environmental justice and land rights movements. It was amazing to have someone to work with who knows our work and give us templates just when we needed them.
Our staff took a lot of SMT courses – including the intensive Digital Campaigning Certificate Program. It helped us take our digital campaigning and collectivizing actions to the next level! We used various tools to increase our follower base and successfully target authorities to take action at the village and municipal levels in India.
SMT helped us think through what type of CRM we need and choose a texting platform to reach our base. SMT’s coaching has been instrumental in helping us develop a social media strategy that communicates our message through the voice of the young people involved in our organization. I was able to immediately use the tools I learned and apply them to our organization. The program was intense, but I loved every minute of it and learned more than expected.SMT’s training on using WhatsApp to activate our bases helped us activate more leaders by creating conversational WhatsApp groups for members and assigning different leadership roles to volunteers.We worked with SMT to get tech support on our virtual townhall event. It was helpful getting advice from an expert on how to prepare for the livestream, and how to best make it smooth. It was a big lift off our shoulders being able to rely on someone who has experience doing it.
I took the workers organizing in the digital age training. We really need this kind of training in Finland, which people in the US have had access to for some years. The training was effective to start organizing for instance on Twitter.Taking this course really transformed my organizing skills to be more effective. This program is very comprehensive and provides tons of tools and resources that have strengthened my skillset in digital organizing. This is a great program that I highly recommend.I felt supported by a community of hundreds throughout my learning journey.I appreciated connecting with passionate changemakers across the U.S. to discuss effective digital campaigning strategies.This program was very useful for understanding the digital aspects of organizing workers and incorporating them into a comprehensive campaign toolkit.The Digital Campaigning Certificate Program is a great course to get to know all the different aspects of digital campaigning. What I like most about it is the consistent focus on building power.For anyone who wants to dive into the world of digital communications, this is the training for you!This program greatly helped integrate our thinking on organizing and digital campaigning. I wish all our organizers and digital staff could undergo this training.I learnt a lot on grassroots movements, digital campaigns and communications in times of state intrusion or threats.The program made me think holistically about offline and online impacts.
I implemented lessons on personal narrative, public narrative and emails directly into my campaign, so this was an instant gratification. I loved learning from the other Digital Campaigning Certificate Program participants who came from around the world, working on different topics.Love it!” (mobile optimization of TheStand.org)The one-on-one sessions have been invaluable given the expertise of everyone on the SMT team.The Social Movement Technologies Digital Campaigner Certificate is an excellent opportunity for me to meet digital organizers from across the country who are doing important work fighting for social justice on digital platforms. Often times, we are isolated in our work whether it be regionally or by issue, but through this program I've learned so much about all the cool ways other organizers are engaging and building movements. I've also been able to refresh my own knowledge about digital campaigning and have learned about a ton of new technology, software, and platforms that can be used for positive social change. Thank you SMT team!I really liked the A.I. custom training session, especially the parts tailored to our workstream and with examples pulled from our staff. It really helped to situate the tools in our work and open our team's minds to the possibilities.
Recomendamos totalmente a las organizaciones de América Latina que se sumen a los cursos de SMT para mejorar y desarrollar su activismo digital. Las herramientas y conocimientos que adquirimos a travez de SMT fueron utiles para lanzar Fondo Defensores. Todo lo que hemos aprendido lo hemos podido implementar para el surgimiento de nuestra organización y para comunicar nuestro mensaje.
The assignments provided a better understanding of how the nuts and bolts of digital organizing fit together.This program has boosted my confidence in organizing and sustaining digital campaigns.This was a fantastic training experience and I learned a lot about emerging technology with lots of support! The program offered interesting case studies, expanded my digital campaigning knowledge, introduced new organizing tools and strategies, and enabled connections with professionals in the progressive space.The SMT trainings I’ve taken have helped us mobilize and deepen engagement in our communities. Through Twitterstorms, phone banking, and other tactics that I learned through SMT’s trainings, we succeeded in our call to #ExtendtheReg for a million young people who would otherwise be disenfranchised by anti-poor COVID policies.
Trainings run by SMT are solid, accessible and worth checking out.We’re starting our third straight year providing grantee partners with Social Movement Technologies training and coaching…our grantees are in good hands.The coaching sessions provide practical tools for making our social media move from passive clicktivism to actually doing something.I received input on how to align field and digital work which is directly connected to the advocacy research that we are doing.SMT was like a breath of fresh air in its approach to empowering small nonprofit organizing efforts. With not much funding, we were able to connect SMT to a few organizations in our network to provide analysis, coaching and hands on technical support. Here at Universal Health Care Foundation of CT, SMT gave us strategic help to up our game with our online organizing and engagement…particularly helpful in guiding us to a more savvy, productive use of social media.
The Design Apprenticeship course helped me become bolder in my design choices. I became confident enough to push for a more systemic approach to design in the team, developing templates and guiding other creative colleagues. This program was pivotal in my development as a designer![The Digital Campaigning Certificate Program] is a wonderful course with a great amount of information to get you started on understanding how digital can work for your own organization.Our strategy sessions with SMT have really energized our vision for what we need to do…In 90 minutes, we were excited and encouraged about how we could better our media and communications work.SMT helped us launch our first petition campaign…great experience, ended up with vastly higher profile for our work.
I got a LOT out of it...the idea that comms can be used not just to “raise the visibility” of my organization, but to build power -- to move people, engage them, get them to do something concrete to push our social justice work forward. The strategies and tools shared were super helpful, and have already had measurable impact. Staff is fantastic - knowledgeable, responsive, thoughtful, collaborative.The coaching has been fantastic. Staff has extensive understanding of the online landscape and strategy…jumped right into working with our members too, personable and supportive…great to work with someone who felt like a comrade and not just another non-profit consultant. I was amazed at SMT’s ability to connect us with experts or representatives of different online tools.
Having access to experts through the certificate program was amazing. The course is so practical. I set up google ads for the first time and created our digital security policy and implementation plan. Our whole team uses the campaign strategy template now. Now we know how to improve our email deliverability and started a texting program.SMT has worked with us to develop and implement a broad and integrated social media strategy. They helped our leadership understand the importance of such a strategy and taught our activists the basic skills to execute it. From website maintenance to targeted twitter campaigns, they are there when you need them and they understand that it is all about movement building.I would recommend SMT to anyone looking to be more effective online. We are definitely going to experiment with the directions SMT gave us in our strategy session. Very valuable to have consulting from organizers who are keeping up with all the latest.SMT is an amazing resource for starting digital organizing and communications and maintaining a program that engages members and moves them to action. There are a bunch of free and super reasonably priced webinars available so you can jump right in and focus on what you need to improve.The webinars have just been stellar. I've learned so much, especially from the Top Tools and Tactics to bump up your organizing game. I used the templates and resources to set up an editorial calendar and to track stats for our new social media channels. It was very easy to take what was presented in the training and apply it to my union immediately.The trainings are terrific–geared for every level of experience. And being rooted in social change movement, especially helpful to organizers.Without SMT we would not have been able to move our organizing from the field to the digital arena during COVID. They helped us set up systems, coached and trained our folks, helped us troubleshoot and launch digital outreach efforts all in crucial campaign moments. Can’t speak highly enough about what their help meant!Highly recommend it for individuals in civic organizations looking to enhance their technological campaigning skills!The benefits to us of regular coaching sessions were immediate.Super helpful process with our staff and leaders to ID new tools we can use to reach our target folks.SMT was really responsive to my questions and needs, and to customizing a training that met those needs. We had a collaborative relationship of understanding each other's needs and expertise, agreeing on outcomes and approach, and developing content.
I wish SMT had existed when I started organizing in 2010! I learned many of these skills on the fly, often through trial and error. Overall it is really helpful to learn about all of the new tools which exist, especially ones that non-profits can use for low or no cost. The presentation did a great job of outlining best practices for many different scenarios.
I found the email coaching course to be extremely helpful. I thoroughly enjoyed that this exercise involved everyone working from the same assignment. It made the feedback that much more helpful. I think this has been one of the best SMT sessions that I've taken.
SMT's training helped me use my journalistic skills effectively to highlight people's struggles and create change. Using Twitter more effectively, we supported Syria's refugee camp hospital to get more media attention and raise funds to respond to the hospital's needs as well as build visibility on the issues affecting refugees.Our staff have taken SMT’s excellent trainings over the past five years. Mastering the strategic use of digital tools is essential to advance social change online. SMT’s offerings are a much-needed and unique resource. And they are responsive and committed to meeting the needs of participants. We’re thrilled to partner on the new Global South track of their Digital Campaigning Certificate program, which is a need that we expressed and they acted on promptly. Thank you SMT!
The program was an incredible journey of meaningful learning and connections with amazing advocates nationwide.Our coach was an everyday reminder of what we needed to do. He checked in and followed up on us. It really helped us activate Twitter in our campaigns and tighten up digital security. We moved from just having a Twitter handle to building on a hashtag that saw a jailed human rights activist released from prison.This program helped us harness effective tools and tactics that are aligned with our movement's needs and organizational values.
