TACTIC 1: CASE STUDY
BRING THEM TO THE ACTION
mobilise people
download this tactic card (pdf 740kb)
Case Study
| TITLE: WHO: WHERE: WEBSITE: |
TheyWorkForYou MySociety UK www.TheyWorkForYou.com |
DESCRIPTION
In 2009, MySociety launched a campaign which supported voters in the UK to send emails to their Members of Parliament (MP), demanding transparency in the use of public funds. "We send tens of thousands of email alerts every day to readers of our website TheyWorkForYou.com" says Tom Steinberg of MySociety. Each email gives a link to a website, where people can find their MP and write him or her a custom email. After sending the email, people are invited to join a Facebook group, which, when they join, will post a link in their Facebook profile to publicise their own email campaign. In 2009 the government sought to have MPs' expenses claims kept secret, despite successful Freedom of Information requests. TheyWorkForYou mobilised people to demand transparency. Tom says, "Whether our email campaign was decisive in influencing Parliament, we'll never know, with Parliament being so secretive. But we were able to send a few thousand emails to MPs about this issue. It might not sound like a lot, but these were all individual messages from constituents that went to 95% of MPs. Extremely targeted emails have got to be the most effective form of email campaigns." Soon after this campaign, the UK government agreed to disclose data on MP expenses.
| TOOLS USED: | Custom-built content management system (CMS) and contact management system made from open source software components was used to make TheyWorkForYou. Wordpress and Facebook were also used for the MP expenses campaign. |
| REACH: | The campaign was focused on UK citizens and politicians. The website had 500,000 visitors the month the story broke in the UK press, and it receives an average of 250,000 visitors per month. |
| RESOURCES: | Web hosting donated. |
| TIME: | From planning to completion, the MP expenses campaign took five days. The CMS was already developed and installed. |
LEVEL Of DIFFICULTY: 2 with contact management tools in place, 4 if you must develop them.
COST: USD$1700 in staff salary to run the campaign.
LINKS TO LEARN MORE:
About the campaign effectiveness: UNO NOTICIAS website, Write To Them website statistics
About MySociety