Identifying allies and opponents

Mapping out all the people and organisations involved in your campaign

Who are the key players? Campaigns involve key decision-makers, opponents and allies. Who will be your key allies in this campaign and how will you work with them?

Exercise to identify allies and opponents

OBJECTIVES

  • To identify key actors in a campaign and their roles and relationships
  • To practise prioritising and strategising campaign goals

Power mapping helps to identify campaign influencers, allies and other stakeholders and the relationships between them. The exercise itself is useful to practice conceptualising campaign strategy. When applied to real campaigns, the exercise can help to prioritise campaign targets and to identify useful ways of reaching them.

TIME NEEDED

60 minutes

RESOURCES NEEDED

Blank cards or post-it notes (about 20 for each small group), marker pens, butcher’s paper

HOW IT’S DONE

Ask participants to form groups of two to three, think of a campaign they are involved with (or might become involved with) and follow these steps in their groups: