Social Work with People Practicing Same-Sex ... - ILGA Europe

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advocacy campaign. Second, additional resources can be found in the course of the
campaign thanks to effective fundraising. It should be emphasized that donors are
more likely to support the project which is being implemented, rather than the project
under planning.
The other solution in case of insufficient resources is to change the goal of the campaign
into less resource-intensive one, or to reduce or transform the campaign's objectives. It
is better to complete something small, than to start something big and never finish it.
Good intentions are good only if they end up guaranteeing good results.
As it was mentioned, resources include:
• Technical (office equipment, telephone and Internet access, etc.);
• Financial (noncash and cash funds that can be channelled to the campaign
implementation, including personal money of activists and campaign managers,
attracted sponsor assistance, etc.);
• Human (staff that can be involved in the realization of campaign at all its stages,
regardless the type of reimbursement for this work. This means that human
resources also include volunteers).
8. Identification of targets of advocacy.
Every organization or government body that develops and implements programmes,
which influence our lives in this or that area, is characterized by the specific structure,
delineation of authorities and distribution of responsibilities between its staff members.
It is typical for all kinds of structures — from ministries to the boards of directors of
commercial enterprises.
If we want to influence the process of decision-making, or to change already existing
decisions, we need to find channels of personal access to relevant officials, or, at least,
to establish effective official communication.
As a rule, the decision-making algorithm in different organizations is quite complicated.
It is not always open for regular citizens, but sometimes we can still determine it. Before
we start to influence decisions, we need to have clear understanding of the decisionmaking
process, including time-frames, distribution of responsibilities between the
staff, responsible for the preparation of decisions, as well as the role of managers in
making modifications in prepared decisions, and so on.
IMPORTANT! If it is impossible to determine, who and how makes decisions
regarding the issue of advocacy, it is highly probable that your organization will
fail. So, it would be expedient to refuse from efforts to change the situation, and
to limit yourself to awareness-rising, for example.
Sometimes it is beneficial to draw the “diagram of access to targets”. In the centre of
this diagram we place the name of the key person — the most influential individual,
whose decisions can alter the situation — e.g. to resolve the issue of advocacy. Around
this individual we draw other persons, who can influence him. At the same time we
should mark the level and the nature of their relations with key person, as well as their
individual characteristics, which may be helpful in influencing them (e.g. gender, age,
ethnicity, education, place of birth, etc.).
As it was mentioned above, “targets” of advocacy include subjects of political,
administrative or social processes, whose position, policies, decisions and/or official
duties influence the protection o rights and realization of interests of targets groups
of the advocacy campaign.
These entities may include:
• Public officials, for example, heads of relevant parliamentary committees, key
ministers.