Contributor Guidelines

Mobilisation Lab equips advocacy campaigners and their organisations to win in the networked age with transformative, participatory and collaborative approaches to social change. Why? Because these strategies are key to addressing the scale and complexity of the challenges we face today.

One way we advance this mission is by publishing stories about what’s working (and what’s not) in advocacy campaigns. These stories can be written by someone with first-hand experience with the campaign or organisation in question or they can be reported by a knowledgeable observer.

Generally, storytelling about advocacy campaigning in most media outlets focuses on the five Ws (Who, What, Where, When, and Why). The How becomes an optional detail.

• Campaigners mobilise protests against an issue

At Mobilisation Lab, however, the How is the story. Our stories offer timely, accurate and practical information about the mechanics of changemaking that readers can use to inform their own work.

• Campaigners explain the innovative strategy behind those protests
  

• Campaigners explain what worked and what didn’t in those protests

A Mobilisation Lab story is generally about lessons, innovations or trends involving transformative, participatory and/or collaborative approaches to social change. Breaking that down further, it might touch on one or more of the following aspects of advocacy campaigning:

• Collaboration: How different actors in and around an advocacy campaign work together
• Culture and leadership: Transforming the internal structures of teams and organisations to enable more effective and equitable approaches to changemaking
• Narrative, framing and storytelling: Inspiring action and shifting values, beliefs and behaviours through storytelling
• Planning: The tools, exercises and frameworks used in the process of planning an advocacy campaign
• Organising, mobilising and engagement: Building and leveraging the power of people
• Safety and security: How changemakers stay safe in the face of evolving threats
• Strategy: The thinking behind how an advocacy campaign will pursue and achieve change
• Tech, tools and tactics: Imagining, designing and deploying these elements in a campaign, organisation or movement
• Testing, learning and iteration: Testing and measuring the effectiveness of an idea, strategy, tactic or tool, and adapting based on lessons learned

All stories are also told in a way that conforms to the principles outlined in our Editorial Code.

We’d love to hear about it! Send a one paragraph pitch about why this story is relevant, showcases transformative, people-centered or collaborative campaigning, as well as a short bio and any links to articles that you’ve written, to editor@mobilisationlab.org or ani@mobilisationlab.org.

We pay $250-500USD depending on the topic, word count, amount of reporting, and if the piece is commissioned. We will center grassroots campaigners and lesser known voices/contributors. If you have a story that you would like to tell but recognise that other people are more in need of this space, please send us the “tip” and indicate that you’d like other writers to tell this story.

We look forward to hearing from you!