Guidance for promoting an ECF event to your contacts and networks.
What is the Campaigning Forum?
- The Campaigning Forum is the annual gathering of the world’s leading campaigners, fundraisers and communicators campaigning for social change in the digital age.
- The focus is on campaignING, not campaignERs because campaigning is something that involves multiple disciplines and contributions to succeed!
- Originally called the eCampaigning Forum (aka ECF), when the focus was on getting campaigners to use digital for campaigning, the emphasis switched to campaigning because digital is now so ubiquitous and will be part of the conversation anyway, while campaigning remains a discipline in need of constant adaptation, new challenges, new approaches, etc. It has thus outgrown this ‘e’ label since good campaigning also involves digital and fundraising (and good fundraising and digital work involves campaigning).
- Organised annually since 2002. It has inspired the creation of other events like re:campaign in Germany, Fwd in Australia, Camp16.nl in Netherlands and ECF Europe in Berlin and Vienna.
- Organised with the highly popular and effective ‘open space’ methodology (aka unconference, bar camp and more) for peer knowledge exchange.
- The main gathering of the global ECF community (3,600 members and growing daily)
Who should participate?
The profile ECF event and community will appeal to most it:
- campaigners (and campaigning managers)
- fundraisers (and fundraising managers)
- volunteer managers
- digital managers
- digital communicators
- digital innovation/strategy
ECF events it can host up to 140 participants.
Promotion planning tips
- What: Decide if you wish to promote the whole event or a specific stream (campaigning, fundraising, digital leadership or future forum).
- Where: Single-ask emails work best, everything else (email newsletter, Twitter, Facebook posts, LinkedIn) less so. But using them all is the best approach as it reinforces the promotion across multiple digital channels.
- Tracking: Will you use the same tracking for everything or track each channel. Just adapt the code in the table below (?s=TAG). For example using ?s=Care2 to track everything the same or ?s=Care2_FB for tracking Care2 Facebook posts.
- When: The normal rate (£550) ends 30 days before the first day and the late-rate (£650) starts 30 days before the first day – so promoting it before that would be most effective. There is also limited on-site accommodation.
Key asks
| ASK | SHORT LINK | TRACKED LINK |
|---|---|---|
| Join ECF 2022 | https://fairsay.com/ecf | https://fairsay.com/ecf?s=TAG |
| Join the ECF community | https://fairsay.com/ecflist | https://fairsay.com/ecflist?s=TAG |
| Spread the word about ECF 2022 and the ECF community | as above | as above |
* For tracking, replace TAG with a tag identifying your promotion.
Key points
- People come to ECF first and foremost because of the participants (listed on the ECF 2022 page). So be sure to provide a link to ‘who else is participating’
- People justify the budget to managers based on the agenda and speakers so also include a link (on ECF 2022 page).
- Video clips from past participants are provided on the ECF 2022 page (YouTube hosted) if you wish to share those
- If they are interested but can’t join the event, suggest they:
- Join the ECF community email list
- Tell others about the event and community
Sample copy to adapt
Factual style – example 1
Subject: I think you’ll like this event | Headline: ECF 2022: the event for NGO digital knowledge sharing
Have you heard of ECF 2022? It is one of the most eagerly anticipated annual events for campaigning, digital and fundraising professionals. This year is is Mar 31-Apr 1 in Oxford, UK. The event is special because only experienced people can (see the participant list so far at https://fairsay.com/ecf) go and it had a large focus on experience sharing with only a few participant presentations, panels and speakers. You can see more at https://fairsay.com/ecf
If you wish to go, decide soon – on-site accommodation is limited and the price goes up March 1.
If you can’t make it, at least join the global ECF community (3,800 and growing daily) for active discussion on achieving campaigning and fundraising with digital media. See more at https://fairsay.com/ecflist
Finally, just because you can’t go, your colleagues and other not-for-profit sector contacts might be able to – so do forward this email to them.
Factual style – example 2
Subject: ECF 2020 event for not-for-profit innovators and agitators
On Mar 31 – Apr 1 in Oxford I’m organising the annual (since 2002) eCampaigning Forum (ECF 2020) event. It brings together campaigners, fundraisers, digital professionals, communicators and more from the UK and around the world (literally). You can see the current participant list.
Social and digital innovation and impact is at the heart of the ethos of the event. It is run on the open space (aka unconference) methodology with only a few presentations /speakers/panels which allows for more connecting and knowledge sharing like happens online with the ECF community.
Emotive/storytelling style (written by Rachel Collinson)
Subject: The best piece of advice I ever ignored
One of my favourite tutors at art college recently died of Ovarian cancer. She was a brilliant lady who passed away far too young.
I miss her.
One of the many reasons I mourned her passing was that she was genuinely dedicated to the success of her students. Since attending other institutions, I’ve realised this is actually a rarer quality than I would like.
Not long after the beginning of my course in Graphics, she gathered everybody in my class around her – about 35 of us – in our 1990s lumberjack shirts and baggy jeans. She said a strange thing. At least, to the arrogant teenager I was then, it sounded odd:
“You will learn just as much from each other as you will from me, so make sure you keep coming in to the studio.”
Nonsense, I thought. You have so much more experience and we are all just starting. How can you say that?
So, alas, I didn’t pay heed, and studied alone for much of the time. I did alright in my degree, but certainly felt estranged from the folk who did follow her advice. Many of them got jobs as soon as they finished their degree. Two of them ended up as design rockstars, zipping from celeb bash in New York to poolside party in Los Angeles.
Of course, I’m not jealous at all.
Fancy following her advice now? Come along to ECF and learn from your peers.
The time came to make up for my error when a charming client badgered me to come along to the ECF Conference. “It’s brilliant!” he said. “Most of what I know about how nonprofits should do digital, I learned there.” I was a little excited but also skeptical. He nagged me about it so much that eventually I relented and decided to investigate.
When I looked at the agenda, I was not sure if I could leave my team alone for a whole two days, and requested special permission just to be there for one. The organiser, Duane Raymond, called me up and said “This is a pretty extraordinary conference. You really need to be there for the whole time to make the best of it.” I laughed and said “I’m sure I’ll be fine. I’m a creative type. I’m used to this sort of thing.” Duane, accommodating chap that he is, agreed to make an exception for me.
A couple of hours in to ECF, however, I realised that I had made a big mistake. Not because I didn’t get it – but because I got it too well. I immediately wanted as much time there as I could.
Why? This conference is one where all participants make up the agenda as they go along. Each morning, we gather and decide on the things we want to learn about from each other. We end up with something like a smorgasbord of learning, all ad hoc.
I was enthralled by the intelligence, varied experience and knowledge that comprised each session. All this from people who wouldn’t usually get to a conference podium for even ten seconds.
Pages of notes were flying out of my fingers. I had a stack of business cards several inches high. My head felt full of shiny new ideas. I even made new friends.
I’ve been back every year since.
I strongly encourage you to attend the conference that has given me so many opportunities and skills. To learn from other people in the same situation as you.
https://www.fairsay.com/ecf
See you there?
For a newsletter article
Headline: 2020 eCampaigning Forum (ECF): Mar 31 – Apr 1, Oxford
Join 140 campaigning, fundraising, volunteering and digital innovators and thought leaders for this annual 2-day knowledge sharing event. With the agenda organised around participant connecting and sharing you get inspired, learn and network more effectively than any other sector event. The big issues this year are likely to be preparing for after the UK election, integrating fundraising with campaigning and getting online supporters volunteering.
Link: https://fairsay.com/events/ecf?s=tre
Headline: ECF 2020: 2-day event for digital not-for-profits
Heard of ECF? It has been an annual event since 2002, bringing together experienced not-for-profit campaigners, fundraisers and communicators from around the world to share experiences about using digital media for achieving change. It has influenced the last decade of digital campaigning and now has space for more people. find our more at https://fairsay.com/ecf
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