RALLY APPOINTED BY JCWI TO HELP DEVELOP THEIR DIGITAL MOBILISATION STRATEGY

We are delighted to announce that we’ve been appointed by the Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants (JCWI). 

JCWI is an incredible, small but mighty organisation that fights for the rights of immigrants. It’s an organisation that defines its vision of the UK as a country in which the benefits of migration are celebrated and shared, with no community left behind. A place where newcomers are safe and welcome, and communities are strong and open. A country in which the politics of migration do not rely on or fuel fear, division and animosity.

These are values which we wholeheartedly subscribe to.

Over the next few months we are going to be working with their amazing team to define a digital mobilisation strategy, framework and plan that will enable them to radically increase the scale of the public’s engagement with their work. Our overall aim is to deliver more reach, more engagement, more supporters, more donors and ultimately more impact on the lives of the people JCWI exists to support.

Satbir Singh, CEO of JCWI said, “We’re really excited to be working with Rally to improve our in-house digital mobilisation capabilities. Working with Rally will help us determine the strategies and tactics we need to attract, mobilise and retain the public's support at a critical time for migrants’ rights’. 

Paul de Gregorio, founder of Rally said, “It’s a dream to be able to work with such an impressive organisation as JCWI. Migrant rights is an issue that we hold dear and we couldn’t be happier to be able to help JCWI deliver on their mission’.

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Main image by Markus Spiske via Unsplash

POSTAVME SA SPOLOČNE : LET’S STAND TOGETHER.

When we blogged about this film to mark Holocaust Memorial Day a few weeks ago we had no idea what would happen next.

You will need to view this film on YouTube.

A friend of ours from Slovakia, Zuzana Suchová, saw our post and got in touch.

Zuzana is a phenomenal human being. We met her when we spoke together at an event in Slovakia when she shared her digital fundraising story from the winning 2019 presidential campaign that saw the election of Slovakia’s first woman president. 

Zuzana knew that the film would be a great way to combat the rise of a vile far right, Neo-Nazi party who were polling high in the Slovakian elections. And she asked if we could help connect her to the film’s makers, because she wanted to make a Slovakian version with Slovakian sporting celebrities. Time was of the essence because when she asked us there were only 35 days until polling day.

We decided we wanted to do everything we could to make this happen. Because, we really don’t like Nazis.

A friend of ours Juliet, connected us to Malcolm, the film director who made the original film for the Holocaust Memorial Centre here in the UK.

Malcolm is amazing. He provided all the support and guidance the team in Slovakia could ever ask for. And more.

Malcolm connected us to Marc. Marc is the Interim CEO at the Holocaust Memorial Centre. Marc was also amazing, saw exactly what we were trying to do and made it very easy for us to do it.

And then Zuzana and a group of Slovak activists, filmmakers, production professionals and sports celebrities made it happen. Lots of late nights, lots of video calls and a few wobbles later they launched this. 

And they did it in less than 20 days from getting approval to launching the film.

We couldn’t be more proud of them, everyone else who collaborated to make this happen and our small role in making it happen.

And that Neo Nazi party in Slovakia? They did much worse in the elections than the polls said they would. Which is great, because we f*cking hate Nazis.

CLIMATE STRIKE. SEE YOU ON THE STREETS.

No ifs. No buts. Rally is closed on the 20 September for the Global Climate Strike.

You will find us with (hopefully) thousands of others at Millbank in London. If you’re there it would be fab to say hello.

You can find details of the most local strike to you here.

And because we like to be useful, we’ve made some A3 poster and Instagram sized graphics for you to download and use.

And if you’re making your own sign. Here’s a useful guide.

Be safe and be very noisy.

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Closed photo by Tim Mossholder on Unsplash

ARE YOU READY FOR TRUMP?

As we’re sure you all know, Donald Trump is visiting the UK next week. Because we like to be helpful, we’ve produced this simple guide to creating the best protest signs.

But don’t worry if you haven’t got the time to make your own. We’ve also produced a series of free designs for you to download, print and attach to your placard of choice.

The designs are available in a variety of sizes and colours. So, whether you’re attending the march in person or showing your support digitally – there’s something for you.

If you need the details for the London march, you can find them here.

And know your rights, this guide from Liberty has all you need to know.

Have fun, be safe and make a lot of noise.

Photo by Alice Donovan Rouse on Unsplash

MAKE NEW CONNECTIONS. SPARK NEW ANSWERS.

Last night around 70 do-gooders and troublemakers from charities, campaign groups and the world of politics descended on Newspeak House in London for our free community screening of ‘Knock Down The House’.

If you don’t know it, ‘Knock Down The House’ is a brilliant documentary that takes you behind the scenes as four determined women, including Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (AOC to her friends), challenge big money politics in the 2018 race for Congress in the USA.

It was such an inspiring and moving film. And as we watched these four incredible women run their campaigns, there were moments of real emotion and plenty of tears in the room.

The very best thing was sharing the experience with so many talented people and hearing a diverse set of views, opinions and perspectives from the room when the film was over (expertly facilitated by Jo Kerr).

When we set up Rally we promised ourselves we’d do more to bring groups of people together. It’s too easy to go to the same events, see the same speakers and hear the same messages. We passionately believe that if we all meet people from outside of our fields, we learn new stuff, we make new connections that can spark new answers to old problems and it’s more fun. Last night was our first step towards keeping our promise and, from the buzz in social, we can already see that new connections have been made and interesting conversations have started - which has made us so very happy.

Watch this space and Twitter for details of future events.

And thanks again to all the amazing people who showed up on a Monday night and made it such a great evening.

And if you want to put on a screening, all the details on how to do it are here and here. Do it. It’s fun.

Paul

INTERNATIONAL WOMEN'S DAY 2019

For International Women’s Day we’ve collated these amazing quotes from four incredible women. They are quotes that inspire us and we hope inspire you.

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And while we’ve got your attention, go and check out Level Up. They are amazing people doing incredible work. This week they are running a campaign aimed at Facebook, calling on them to take seriously the online harassment of women. You can get involved in that campaign here. Or you can give them a couple of quid towards their new office here.

RALLY & 'NEW POWER'

I’ve found myself talking to five people last week about the New Power book.

Of those five people, only one had read it.

Which breaks my heart (ish), as I think it’s a really important book for these digitally disrupted and politically turbulent times.

So I’d love you all to read it. Or if time is tight, maybe just watch the TED talk or read this Harvard Business Review article.

I promise it will help you think about things in a different way. It certainly helped me figure a lot of stuff out when I was thinking about leaving my job and setting up Rally.

I want Rally to be a ‘New Power’ organisation. When you study this graphic I think you’ll understand why.

It looks a whole lot more fun on the right hand side as well.

Paul

SWAG FROM IRELAND

We got our first post today. Well, first post if you don’t count letters from the bank.

Our friend Damian who runs the incredible Ask Direct in Dublin sent us these badges from the Michael D. Higgins presidential re-election campaign.

Earlier in the summer we spent a day and a half in Dublin with Damian and his incredible team talking about the strategies and tactics that drive the most successful political fundraising campaigns - which they then used and built on to power the work they did on the campaign.

Today is election day in Ireland. If you have a vote, make sure you get out and use it. If you don’t have a vote, take a moment to look the #keepthepoet hashtag on twitter and get a feel for MDH’s appeal.