What makes a social movement effective? A look at the evidence.

Philanthropic engagement is essential for driving significant social, and therefore also environmental, change.

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✊ The Effectiveness of Social Movements

In this newsletter, we dive into social movements, protests, and activism. Social movements have been responsible for massive social and political changes. What makes a protest movement successful, how can philanthropists support them, and what language should climate and environmental activists use to appeal to wider audiences?

A Fridays For Future protest in Bonn, Germany, 2019. Photo by Mika Baumeister

📣 Tactics

James Özden and Sam Glover from Social Change Lab wrote a report titled What makes a protest movement successful? about the evidence base of social movements using protests as their main tactic. The graphic below summarises various tactics, based on a a literature review, interviews with academics and social movement experts, public opinion polling, a case study and interviews with policymakers. It shows Social Change Lab’s most recent estimates (Spring 2023), and the strength of the evidence for the relative importance of different success factors.

🤝 Philanthropic support of social movements

Cathy Rogers and James Özden’s How Philanthropists Can Support Social Movements - and Why They Must from May 2023 may be over a year old now, but has not lost any of its relevance. This research by Social Change Lab outlines the pivotal role that philanthropy plays in empowering social movements - among which is (effective) environmentalism.

The paper rounds up the following key elements of protest movements, and tells us what is to be done in order to improve their effectiveness:

1. Long-Term, Flexible Funding: Possibly a no-brainer, but social movements require sustained support rather than short-term grants.

2. Partnerships with Movement Leaders: Philanthropists should build trust-based relationships with movement leaders.

3. Capacity Building, which could include investing in organisational capacity, enhances a movement's effectiveness.

4. Funding Advocacy and Litigation, critical tools for achieving systemic change.

5. Embracing Risk: Social movements often challenge the status quo, requiring philanthropists, who themselves could be part of this status quo, to take bold, calculated risks.

For some, a rather uncomfortable truth arises from the paper: philanthropic engagement is essential for driving significant social change, which should urge philanthropists to go beyond traditional funding models and actively support the strategic needs of social movements.

🪧 Communications

With regards to effective communications, Effective Environmentalism recently spoke with Caroline Behringer from Potential Climate Coalition. Their report tellingly named Talk Like A Human holds that traditional climate messaging is often too complicated, technical, or alarmist, which alienates the general public.

Instead, communicators should use simple, relatable language that connects emotionally and practically with people's everyday lives. Climate change, however, remains a highly complex issue - it’s just the way we communicate (about) it that should be less so. By talking "like a human", the aim is to make climate change more understandable, relatable, and urgent for broader audiences.

Key takeaways:

1. Simplify Language: Avoid jargon like "decarbonization" or "net zero." Use terms like "pollution" and "overheating" that resonate more clearly with the public.

2. Avoid Exaggeration: Stick to the facts without resorting to catastrophe messaging. Alarmist tones can polarize audiences, particularly those not already engaged with the issue.

3. Non-Partisan Communication: Messages should appeal across the political spectrum. Emphasize universal values like protecting communities and conserving resources.

4. Localize the Impact: People care more about issues that affect their immediate surroundings. Frame climate change in terms of local consequences rather than distant global impacts.

5. Humanize the Message: Focus on the human impact of climate change rather than abstract concepts. Messages that feature relatable people or scenarios are more persuasive.

6. Pollution Framing: Reframe climate action as a fight against pollution rather than against climate change itself. This approach clarifies accountability and motivates action.

7. Present Immediate Concerns: Focus on the tangible, current impacts of climate change instead of distant future projections. Present solutions that are relevant today.

8. Credible Messengers: The effectiveness of a message increases significantly when delivered by trusted sources, such as scientists, farmers, or firefighters, rather than politicians.

There is much, much more literature on the topic of the effectiveness of (environmentalist) movements that can be found, but for reasons of brevity and familiarity, we chose to highlight the findings above. Want to engage with us and our community on this topic? Send us an email or join our Slack channel!

💶 Effective Environmentalism is looking for funding

Effective Environmentalism is currently a volunteer-run initiative, but we would like to scale up our activities to more effectively grow a global community of people and organisations tackling environmental issues as effectively as possible. Financial support would help us to devote more time to growing the field of effective environmentalism.

If you are a donor or work for a grant-making organisation, please get in touch.

🔔 Short news

• Join us at EAGx Berlin! From 13 to 15 September we’ll be at this conference to talk about and inspire effective environmental action. EAGx events are exciting conferences for people who want to tackle global challenges as effectively as possible. You may connect with like-minded people, learn new ideas, grow your career, and find meaningful work. Registration closes Wednesday 28 August, so sign up now!

• Rachel Glennerster's podcast episode on 80,000 Hours explores market-shaping incentives in global health and climate change. She discusses how innovative financing mechanisms, such as advance market commitments, can encourage the development of vaccines and other essential health products. By guaranteeing a market, these incentives reduce risks for pharmaceutical companies, leading to more affordable and accessible solutions in low-income countries. Glennerster also highlights the importance of evidence-based approaches in designing these interventions to ensure they effectively address public health needs. (Our previous newsletter covered this topic in more detail.)

• Updates from Climate Change Fund grantees by Founders Pledge: updates on recent achievements of grantees working on climate solutions! Actual progress, among others in areas like clean energy, carbon removal, and advocacy for stronger climate policies. The grantees have been instrumental in scaling impactful initiatives, influencing policy changes, and driving innovation in sustainable practices. These efforts collectively contribute to mitigating climate change and promoting environmental sustainability on a global scale. For more detailed updates, you can visit the Founders Pledge page.

• A new book on EU Food Law by Hanna Schebesta and Kai Purnhagen is out now, which might be helpful for people working on food systems change.

• Soemano Zeijlmans from Effective Environmentalism has contributed a chapter on the Dutch water authorities and climate adaptation to the book Water Emergency: Case Studies and Global Perspectives, published by the UN-mandated University for Peace. Other topics include water availability, contamination, and boundary disputes.

📰 What we’ve been reading and listening to

Some things we think deserve more attention.

1. 🎯 The Science Based Targets Initiative’s take on carbon credits, as covered by Chris Lang.

2. 📃 The US Energy Permitting Reform Act of 2024 is stirring debate among environmentalists. Some argue it allows easier construction of renewable energy projects, whereas others predict that it leads to construction of new fossil fuel infrastructure, like LNG terminals.

   1. In favour: Sam Matey from The Weekly Anthropocene

   2. Against: Bill McKibben from The Crucial Years

3. ☢💧 Joran Buwalda’s series on neglected climate solutions. This edition’s topic is nuclear ships and hydrogen planes: science fiction or realistic solutions for zero emissions transport?

4. 🏢 “How do we bridge the corporate climate gap?” by Client Earth’s Laura Clarke. This post addresses a topic we mentioned earlier on in this newsletter: philanthropy and pledgers. How do we bridge the corporate climate gap between pledges and reality?

5. 🔍 “Climate policies that achieved major emission reductions: Global evidence from two decades” by Stechemesser et al. in Science. Which types of policies have led to carbon emission reductions in practice?

6. ♒ “Welcome to the age of non-stationarity” by Jonathan Tonkin from Predirections. River management needs to take into account that the flow and variance of rivers isn’t stable, especially under climate change.

7. 🔥 “How big are global wildfires this year?” by Hannah Ritchie

👩‍💼 Job openings

We are highlighting some outstanding opportunities to make a positive difference with your careers. These positions are vetted by Effective Environmentalism and 80,000 Hours and are not sponsored.

International/remote

• Clean Air Task Force is hiring a Program Coordinator, Nuclear and Fusion Energy. In this role, you'll support CATF’s strategic initiatives to advance nuclear and fusion energy as vital components of our low-carbon energy strategy, plan, organise, and execute project activities to ensure timely delivery of project milestones, conduct research on nuclear energy technologies, regulatory frameworks, and market trends to inform team strategies, and much more.

Europe

• Opportunity Green is looking for a Scientific Officer to help develop recommendations for policymakers regarding the use of green ammonia as a fuel for shipping. The work will involve scientific research and the development of legislative recommendations to ensure that the use of ammonia does not inadvertently worsen climate change or degrade the nitrogen cycle.

• Food Systems Lead and Principal Researcher at the International Institute for Environment and Development

• Consultancy roles for Central and Eastern Europe and Germany at the Clean Air Task Force

Other

• High Impact Professionals has opened applications for the Fall 2024 round of their Impact Accelerator Program.

You can find more impactful environmental job openings at 80,000 Hours, or find careers specific to developing alternative proteins here.

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We are grateful to our readers for giving feedback on the draft version of this newsletter. Any mistakes remain ours.