The Activation Point builds on the Spitfire Strategies Smart Chart™ and focuses specifically on strategies for mobilizing concerned people to supportive action by identifying and leveraging their activation points. To create the Activation Point:

  • An expert panel and teams at Spitfire Strategies and the Communications Leadership Institute examined literature from the worlds of science, commerce, politics and journalism that explores what evokes responses in Americans.
  • We conducted an in-depth review of eleven case studies of successful -- and not so successful -- persuasion efforts to determine what techniques work best in the nonprofit world.
  • We partnered with The Curious Company to conduct qualitative research to test our conclusions. The research looked specifically at people's responses to issues that had high public support -- as demonstrated through public opinion polls -- but didn't have the action to back up that support.
  • Finally, to make this report as user-friendly as possible, we presented a draft to a peer review board.

The result is a collection of best practices that can help social change organizations plan to persuade.

Tell us about how you're using the Activation Point in your work or share an example of an "activation point in action" -- when the right people at the right time are persuaded to take an action that leads to social change. Email us your story!

 

Spitfire Strategies
Communications Leadership Institute