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Social Movement Technologies
Activists fight gentrification of Chinatown, Philadelphia, U.S. 2022 (Photo: Joe Piette)
Do you want to ramp up your use of online & offline tools on ambitious campaigns given limited time and resources? Want to make sure you’re not missing out on new developments in digital tools & tactics to support your work? Looking for a community of peers working through the same challenges and opportunities? Join an SMT Digital Campaigning Certificate Intensive.
This program covers all of the digital campaigning essentials. It includes 18 sessions over 3 weeks, plus additional time for office hours and assignments. Topics cover:
Participants will get individual instructor feedback on how to apply the topic to their organizing through assignment review. Instructors are deeply experienced online/offline campaigners with real-world experience applying the tools to organizing. They span a range of backgrounds and organizing experiences.
During and after this intensive, participants and their organizations will have unlimited access to SMT’s library of 70+ hours of training, which would cost over $3,000 if purchased individually. This enables interested participants and organizations to go deeper into the above topics and cover additional topics. Additional courses in the library include in-depth treatments of texting, CRM/member database tools, Twitter, online ads including Google Ad Grants, digital security, and much more.
Sessions will be Tuesday through Thursday, two 90-minute sessions with a 30-minute break in-between
Office hours will be offered during the week outside the core session times. Note that this program requires participants to commit significant blocks of time during work days, so please check your calendars carefully for availability.
Organizing Strategy and Tactics
Content that Drives Action
Outreach Tools
Social Media
Systems & Infrastructure
Instruction will be in English. SMT is actively seeking funder and network partners to ensure support for additional language interpretation and captioning in Spanish & Portuguese for this program. With the commitment of 20+ registrants committed by March 25th, interpretation in Spanish or Portuguese will be available at no additional cost. Please email us at [email protected] if you’re interested in additional language support. All recordings in the SMT library are captioned in English and Spanish and up to 5 other languages. In addition, course recordings include courses instructed in French, Spanish and Arabic.
Prices for the intensive range from $600-$1,750 per registrant based on the organization’s budget, location, registration time, referrals, and whether it’s a group or individual rate. This range helps us provide every registrant tailored support, including individual review of assignments and a one-hour 1:1 coaching session following the session while making the program accessible to groups across the world.
Groups referred by outreach partners can get $75 to $150 off specific levels (see table below). Please name the outreach partner in your registration and forward the email you received to [email protected]. The outreach partner discount does not apply to group rates or 2nd person rates, which are already steeply discounted to represent an organization’s investment in SMT training. Outreach partners pass along opportunities for training and coaching to lists of organizing groups. This helps SMT as a non-profit reach more groups that could organize more powerfully with SMT support. Interested in being an outreach partner? Contact [email protected] and describe the size and type of groups you’d reach out to. Typically, this is a list of chapters of a network; allied organizations across a country, state, region; or some other cohort or grouping of many organizations.
| Cost | Early Bird – before April 1 | Outreach Partner Referral – before April 1 | Regular – after April 1 | |
| Groups with budgets over $1M | Globally | $1,600 | $1,450 | $1,750 |
|
Groups with budgets under $1M
|
North America & Western Europe |
$1,200 | $1,050 | $1,400 |
| Outside of North America & Western Europe |
$700 | $600 | $725 | |
|
Additional people from the same organization
|
North America & Western Europe |
$800 | $800 | $800 |
| Outside of North America & Western Europe |
$600 | $600 | $600 | |
|
Group Rate up to 10 seats
Payment by invoice |
North America & Western Europe |
$8,000 | $8,000 | $9,000 |
| Outside of North America & Western Europe |
$5,000 | $5,000 | $6,000 | |
Note: during and after this intensive, participants and their organizations will have unlimited access to the recordings of the program’s sessions as well as SMT’s library of 70+ hours of training, which would cost over $3,000 if purchased individually.
We consider this training an investment for any organization that participates! Only one person from your organization has to pay the full rate. If a member from your organization has participated in this training in the past and paid the full rate, everyone else in your organization will pay the second person rate in the future. If you’re not sure if an individual from your organization has paid the full rate in the past, check this list.
See testimonials of alumni (community organizing | union) from across the world who’ve joined the program to become more effective and strategic campaigners, organizers, communicators and/or fundraisers.
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.
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.
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.
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.The benefits to us of regular coaching sessions were immediate.[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."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."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."The one-on-one sessions have been invaluable given the expertise of everyone on the SMT team.
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."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."The coaching sessions provide practical tools for making our social media move from passive clicktivism to actually doing something.[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!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.
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.Incredibly knowledgeable…Weekly coaching has been a great experience. Keeps us on track. Staff is flexible, creative.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.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. 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.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.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.
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.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’s knowledge of the organizational use of different CRMs and migration between them was very helpful.
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.Love it!” (mobile optimization of TheStand.org)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!
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.
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.
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.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.
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!We have had a fantastic experience with SMT…they have been highly responsive to the needs of our grantees.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 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.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.
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.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.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. SMT helped us build an integrated, strategic approach to a union contract campaign. SMT’s work is sophisticated and flexible–their support was invaluable.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.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.This was a fantastic training experience and I learned a lot about emerging technology with lots of support! The trainings are terrific–geared for every level of experience. And being rooted in social change movement, especially helpful to organizers.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.We’ve heard really good things from our grantee partners. SMT has a strong, grantee-focused way of working.[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.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 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.All of SMT training is packed and powerful!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.Trainings run by SMT are solid, accessible and worth checking out.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.[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.We’re starting our third straight year providing grantee partners with Social Movement Technologies training and coaching…our grantees are in good hands.I strongly recommend SMT. Their strong organizing background, preparation and thoughtfulness made our strategy assessment with them enjoyable and really helpful.
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.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.
SMT is a great resource if you’re looking to improve your organization’s social media presence and strategy.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.
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.SMT helped us launch our first petition campaign…great experience, ended up with vastly higher profile for our work.
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.
Great information on how to make emails more impactful and spur action. Great to get direct feedback on a sample email.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.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!Super helpful process with our staff and leaders to ID new tools we can use to reach our target folks.
We reached out very last minute to get help with ad campaigns. It was a really great experience, I have nothing but good things to say about it. We look forward to being able to work with them again in the future
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