Campaign in a Box
This resource is a master document that will help you do everything from building a team, defining your goals, creating a strategy, crafting a narrative, and much more!
Starting a Climate Justice Campus Campaign
The climate crisis is just getting bigger and bigger, and the fossil fuel industry continues to push us in the wrong direction, disproportionately harming the world’s most marginalized people. How can you get involved in the fight against fossil fuels and climate disaster on your campus?
For many years, the student climate justice movement was focused around divestment of university endowments from the fossil fuel industry. However, many universities have made commitments to divestment, and our movement has diversified, choosing targets like university partnerships, career recruitment, and fossil fuel-funded research. There are many ways to get a movement going at your school and plug into this broader effort.
Eight Steps to a Successful Climate Justice Campaign
1. Building A Team
You can’t build a campaign by yourself. Look for other organizers and existing campaigns at your school. If you’ve had a fossil fuel divestment campaign, that’s a good resource for contacts, but you can also look into any climate justice or sustainability-focused groups, as well as other social justice groups. Find people who want to do this work with you. Then use 1:1 conversations and larger planned meetings to build up a team.
Resources:
Divestment Guide: Build a Team
Go Fossil Free: Building an Effective Team
Further Reading:
FFR: Meetings and Facilitation
FFR: Meeting Facilitation Guide
Divestment Guide: One-One Training
2. Choosing Your Goals
What does your team think is the most important problem with the fossil fuel industry on your campus? Maybe your university has yet to divest, and you want to push them to take that preliminary step. Maybe oil and gas companies frequently hold recruiting events at your school or take advantage of your school’s job posting site. Maybe your governing board is populated with oil executives, attorneys, or consultants.
One major movement that has taken hold at universities in recent years is fossil free research. Fossil free research works to interrogate the fossil fuel industry’s toxic influence on higher education, especially through donations to climate and energy-related research. A 2023 report by Data For Progress found over $700 million donated from six major fossil fuel companies to several top universities. And that’s only the tip of the iceberg. Through exposing the problem, working with decision-makers, and engaging in tactical disruption, fossil free research campaigns work to push school administrations toward adopting policies prohibiting fossil fuel influence.
Of course, your campaign doesn’t need to have only a single goal; you can decide what collection of demands works best for addressing the problem on your campus.
Resources:
3. Doing Your Research
A good climate justice campaign begins with a thorough understanding of the problem at your school. Choosing your goals already involves looking into where your university is tied to the fossil fuel industry, but now is the time to get specific. If your school has a climate-focused or energy-focused center that’s heavily funded by fossil fuels, can you find the names of all the funders and the amount of funding? If you’re going after individual oil executives who hold powerful positions at your school, what are their positions and responsibilities? How much do they make from the fossil fuel industry? Do they have a record of defending fossil fuel companies from criticism or even lobbying on their behalf? There are many ways of getting this information, but if certain things are impossible to find out, the university’s lack of transparency is important to note as well.
Resources:
4. Determining Incremental Goals and Strategy
Now that you understand the problem, what is your path toward university policy change? The best campaigns don’t simply hold periodic actions with static demands, but instead have a strategy and timeline for escalation.
Incremental goals: What are potential smaller steps toward overarching change? If you want an end to fossil fuel-funded research or industry recruitment, it may be strategic to target a particular part of the university first, like an environmental studies department. You may also want to campaign for stronger disclosure policies if your university’s ties to the fossil fuel industry are not transparent.
Strategy: Think through your targets (who you’re putting pressure on), tactics (how you’re creating that pressure), and timeline for escalation. Who are the major decision-makers you need to sway? Is there a possibility of engaging with them through official channels like meetings? If that isn’t feasible, are there secondary decision-makers, faculty, or other higher-ups who might be more willing to hear you out and vouch for you? Decide on ways to publicly engage in good faith if you can, and if the administration doesn’t listen, decide on a timeline to escalate into more disruptive tactics.
Resources:
Divestment Guide: Goal-setting
Go Fossil Free: Build Your Strategy
Go Fossil Free: Choose a Target
Go Fossil Free: Create Your Campaign Timeline
Further Reading:
Beautiful Trouble: Theory of Change
Divestment Guide: Target-setting
Beautiful Trouble: Organization Tactics
Beautiful Trouble: Choosing The Right Tactic
5. Crafting A Narrative
A good campaign needs a good story. You should be ready to explain your campaign to outsiders and newcomers in a way that’s engaging and persuasive. You should have talking points prepared for engaging with administrators or talking to the press. You should also have a good presence online and on social media, so people who hear about your campaign can look you up and follow you.
Resources:
Divestment Guide: Building a good story
Go Fossil Free: Share Your Story
Go Fossil Free: Media and Communications Guide
Further Reading:
6. Recruiting and Training
Just like building a team at the beginning of your campaign, a continual cycle of recruitment and training is necessary to maintain the health of the organization. This is especially important at universities, where everyone on campus will be replaced in four years. Student campaigns can easily fizzle out when important people graduate. There are lots of ways to bring people in, but don’t stop there: make sure you give new recruits things to do, make them feel like a part of the campaign, and train them to continue the cycle of recruitment when older members are gone.
Some of the same strategies for your initial team-building, like finding other organizers and having 1:1s, are also helpful here.
Resources:
Divestment Guide: Recruitment Tactics
Sunrise Movement: Recruitment Guide
Divestment Guide: Having a Kickoff Meeting
Divestment Guide: Training Tactics
Further Reading:
Divestment Guide: The “Ladder of Engagement”
Go Fossil Free: Build People Power with Digital Tools
Divestment Guide: One-One Training
7. Taking Action
Every part of a campaign goes into creating a good direct action. You need a specific goal in mind, a specific target, and a sense of how this action fits into your overall strategy. You need to build a compelling narrative around your action. You need to amplify it on social media and get the press to take notice as much as possible. Actions are also prime opportunities for recruitment: get a large number of people to show up to an event, and use that as a way to bring them into the organization.
Resources:
Further Reading:
The 198 Methods - Action Ideas
Divestment Guide: Meeting with decision-makers before and after actions
Beautiful Trouble: Expressive and Instrumental Actions
Beautiful Trouble: Put your target in a decision dilemma
8. Organizing A Coalition
No organization exists in a vacuum. If you’re starting a Fossil Free Research campaign at your school, you’ll already be connected to the wider Fossil Free Research movement, which will link you to schools across the US, UK, and Canada. But you should also build a coalition in your community! Find other climate-focused or social justice-focused groups on your campus that you can partner with. Find other organizations in your town/city as well - local groups can be great avenues for mutual support.
Resources:
More Resources
On Organizing:
On Fossil Free Research: