(4 minute read)
Published: 6 November 2026
Written by: Sufina Ahmad, Director of John Ellerman Foundation
This blog is about a report titled The Future of Campaigning and Advocacy in Britain, which can be accessed by clicking here.
Considering the future in times of increasing tumult and ceaseless change is difficult. It can even feel impossible. But there is value in trying anyway. That’s why John Ellerman Foundation and Civic Power Fund commissioned the UCL Policy Lab to produce The Future of Campaigning and Advocacy in Britain, which was published and launched earlier this year in 2026. You can read the report in full by clicking here.
We are incredibly grateful to the report’s co-authors Peter Gordon, Marc Stears and Jake Cohen, and all the UCL Policy Lab team, for their incredible stewardship of this work. We are so pleased that this report exists. At its heart, the report is a case to funders to support changemaking – not just because we can, but because we must.
In November 2026, the report is being shared and promoted via Rhodri Davies’ podcast Philanthropisms. You can listen to the podcast episode by clicking here. If you’re interested in all things philanthropy in the UK and beyond, then it is well worth subscribing to the podcast too.
Martha MacKenzie (the Executive Director of Civic Power Fund) and I spoke with Rhodri to share why we felt it was important to commission this research in the first place, as well as topics like:
- The impact and significance of campaigning and advocacy work
- The way in which campaigning and advocacy are being attacked or de-legitimised
- The value and importance of pluralism
- The essential need for grassroots organisations and movements, alongside other campaigning and advocacy approaches
- The role of charitable funders or similar in supporting this kind of work.
I want to use this blog as a companion piece really to the podcast episode, in order to reflect on some of the key themes and ideas explored in the research.
Britain is experiencing a series of compounding systemic shocks. Our traditional two-party system is being severely tested right now. This follows a political period in which the UK has applied severe austerity measures, and lived through polarised campaigning for our departure from the EU followed by a messy and protracted exit, the Scottish independence referendum and ongoing unrest at Stormont, fewer and less high quality global trade relationships, including with the US and the EU, legislative changes reducing our rights, including our rights to campaign and protest, increasingly contentious rhetoric on othered and minoritised communities, including trans people, racialised communities, and refugees, asylum seekers and migrants, low economic growth, a mismanaged and criminal response to the Covid-19 pandemic, high inflation, and a cost of living crisis. How we consume our media, including social media, and how we interact with each other as individuals and across wider society has changed significantly too.
Against this backdrop, and much more that I haven’t captured in the paragraph above, civil society organisations seek to do their very best for people, society and our natural world. We know they are under increasing pressure and scrutiny too.
We commissioned this report so that it could make the case clearly that we need to invest in campaigning and advocacy work in order for change to happen. Change that treats the root causes of the problem, and not simply the symptoms. Change that doesn’t just fix the world as it is, but thinks about and brings to life the world as it could be. Change that results in a civil society ecosystem that offers services and support, but as importantly offers justice and lasting positive change too.
In the report, there is a deep exploration of the role of power, relationships, curiosity, humility, and networks in supporting lasting change. There is recognition for the importance of plurality. Plurality is a strength: with justice being possible when there is a healthy ecology of different, complementary strategies and goals. The report explores the role of geography in building community power and how this can be harnessed to deliver lasting change at the local, regional, national, and even international level.
Throughout the report, there are real life examples of change that has happened and what made this possible. This includes things like taking an ecosystem-based approach to allow for greater levels of working together, as well as the importance of infrastructure and the need to build bridges and connections between changemaking organisations and movements. There is more to do, but much to learn from past successes. These past successes in areas as wide ranging as migrant rights, the real Living Wage, tax justice, climate action, workers’ rights, poverty and welfare, and equal marriage offer reasons to be hopeful and to keep going.
The report makes a clear set of recommendations to funders, based on the learning collated for this report. These are:
How to fund
- Fund with abundance and in flexible ways – and this does not mean compromising on rigour and impact.
- Make it easier for organisations to collaborate and experiment, including through funders acting as convenors.
- Support regular and focussed networking and communication exchanges.
- Collaborate better as funders.
- Review institutional appetite for this kind of funding regularly, and test assumptions or myths that may be associated with this kind of funding as part of this.
Where to fund
- Fund the infrastructure that is needed for practitioners and their organisations to thrive.
- Support the ecosystem to grow by also funding grassroots and community based work, as well as more established organisations.
- Respect the knowledge of grassroots groups.
- Support a range of approaches, including emergency funds like the Movement Solidarity Fund.
What to learn
- Commit to peer learning and support across funders.
- Develop and enhance frameworks for impact and learning.
- Catalyse more collaborations between different parts of the ecosystem, and outside of the ecosystem too – e.g. collaboration between the ecosystem and commercial partners that share specific concerns and interests.
This report has been designed to act as a compendium or state of the nation style piece that captures a wide range of material relating to advocacy and campaigning in Britain. It seeks to be honest about advocacy and campaigning work in Britain, by acknowledging what is and is not working, as well as offering ideas on why this is the case.
We have tried to ensure that it is digestible and a useful resource overall. We really hope that you read it and are able to use it to inform your own practice and thinking on campaigning and advocacy in Britain.