Research + Experimentation 10 Convening

Turning Knowledge into Practice

The Climate Advocacy Lab’s Research + Experimentation 10 Convening

Our Research + Experimentation series of convenings are our marquee venue to share what the Lab community has been learning, researching, and testing to build power and win for climate action. For Research + Experimentation 10 (R+E 10), we wanted to try something a little bit different.

Instead of a multi-day in-person or virtual conference, we thought we could be more impactful and respectful of your time by focusing our effort on a series of interactive conversations that will run through mid-May into June. These webinars are our way to invite the Lab community to transform theory into practice around some key topics the Lab has been tracking for a long time, as well as present our own research findings.

Attendees will leave these sessions with tangible instructions on how to apply the topics to their advocacy practice as well as a collection of materials like handouts, tipsheets, and sample documents to work from. Become a better organizer, strategist, researcher (or whatever other hats you wear) with us at R+E 10!

Note: while R+E 10 sessions will be recorded for later viewing, you won’t be able to directly interact with the panelists or other participants if you aren’t live and present for the webinar. Get your questions answered, meet some new people, and show our wonderful presenters your support by registering and showing up live!

 

Schedule for Research + Experimentation 10

Click on titles for more information
 

May 18: Level up your learning and evaluation with researcher-advocate collaborations (with research4impact)
May 25: Change the conversation from the ground-up with climate deep canvassing
June 1: Right-sized solutions to resist climate disinformation
June 8: Generate community, efficacy, and buy-in through SIMCA (Part 1)
And more to be announced!

Note: Registration for R+E 10 events is open for members of the Climate Advocacy Lab only. Join the Lab for access (it's free!). Check out the agendas for R+E 8 and R+E 9

 


Level up your learning and evaluation with researcher-advocate collaborations (with research4impact)
Wednesday, May 18 from 2-3pm ET/11am-12pm PT

Advocates: How can you tell if your project is actually doing the things you want it to be doing? What can you do to make your supporters more likely to stick around and invest in your organization? Is there a question you’ve been dying to answer but don’t really know how?

Researchers: Are you looking for ways to test how theories hold up in the field? How can you share your hard-won knowledge outside of the academy? Do you want to do work that can have immediate positive impacts for advocates and the communities they work for?

Join us for this interactive session to learn how researchers and advocates (the two biggest constituents in the Lab community!) can help each other evaluate the effectiveness of their programs, test out new approaches to win campaigns, and generate more knowledge for the rest of the movement to learn from. Our panel will include:

  • Kate Mannle (Rare) and Adam Seth Levine (Johns Hopkins University, research4impact) on the process of building mutual understanding and a healthy, equitable working relationship across sectors
  • Rodrick Leary (Audubon) and Heather O’Connor (Louisiana State University-Shreveport, Indiana University) on how to connect across sectors and share knowledge
  • Ernesto Cruz (Neighbor to Neighbor) and Justin Rolfe-Redding (Climate Advocacy Lab) on moving from shared interests to tangible questions and a functional research plan

While this session focuses on researcher-advocate collaborations, it should be broadly useful to any sort of cross-sector relationship (e.g., with consultants, vendors, funders). If you have questions you’d like our panelists to answer, drop them into the registration form!

Check out the recording and resources provided here! (login required)


Change the conversation from the ground-up with climate deep canvassing
Wednesday, May 25 from 2-3pm ET/11am-12pm PT

Deep canvassing is a tactic with the potential to help advocates do the most difficult thing in politics: persuade people to change their minds. For nearly a decade, advocates have employed deep canvassing to change the public’s mind on marriage equality, trans rights, and electoral engagement. However, when it comes to climate change, deep canvassing has shown mixed results, likely due to the particular complexities and difficulties of our issue. Sometimes it leads to successful public outreach that dramatically changes how a local population embraces climate solutions. At other times, it’s hard to tell how well it worked at all.

Luckily, we have an all-star panel to guide you through the ins and outs of designing, running, and evaluating a climate deep canvassing program. You will be provided with a walkthrough of the entire deep canvassing design process; a haul of instructional materials, tipsheets, and sample scripts; and the opportunity to run your troubleshooting questions by some of the best the progressive field has to offer.

We’ll have:

  • Regina Clemente (Movement Voter Project) on when deep canvassing is right for organizations and how to integrate it into a larger advocacy strategy
  • Montana Burgess (West Kootenay EcoSociety) on the process of script development, testing, and refinement
  • Matthew Rodriguez (People’s Action) on canvasser recruitment, training, and management
  • Nicole Ektnitphong (Climate Advocacy Lab) on program evaluation, strategy-appropriate metrics, and program follow-up

If you are planning on (or even just curious about) climate deep canvassing, make sure you attend this webinar! If you have questions you’d like our panelists to answer, drop them into the registration form.

Check out the recording and resources provided here! (login required)


Right-sized solutions to resist climate disinformation
Wednesday, June 1 from 2-3pm ET/11am-12pm PT

The world can be a dangerous place, especially when you’re trying to solve a climate crisis. Disinformation – from the fossil fuel industry, conspiracy theorists, or their partisan accomplices – pollutes the discourse and draws attention away from actual climate solutions. Unfortunately, we’re now all responsible for pushing back against lies, dirty tricks, and bad-faith arguments in order to protect our audiences.

Building off of our March webinar on Fighting Digital Climate Disinformation, we want to arm advocates with what they’ll need to fight disinformation in their work, whether that looks like organizing volunteers on social media to amplify inoculation messages, debunking misleading information in frontline communities, or building a dedicated program to conduct anti-disinformation research. Participants will leave this webinar equipped with the knowledge and instructions to protect their organization and their base.

Our seasoned veterans will deliver these right-sized disinformation solutions in a fun and interactive format where participants can choose to join the dedicated breakout room most relevant to their own context, each led by an experienced anti-disinformation practitioner. Some examples of these rooms include:

  • Frontline Response
  • Digital Defense
  • Policymaking and Enforcement
  • Research
  • Movement Alignment

Thanks to Yesenia Rivera (Solar United Neighbors), Philip Newell (Climate Nexus), and other experts from the Climate Disinformation Coalition for their help with this session!

Check out the recording and resources provided here! (login required)


Generate community, efficacy, and buy-in through SIMCA (Part 1)
Wednesday, June 8 from 2-3pm ET/11am-12pm PT

In 2021, we kicked off a round of research project collaborations to study how climate, clean energy, and climate justice organizations can leverage the Social Identity Model of Collective Action (SIMCA) to better engage and mobilize their bases. In short, SIMCA tells us that people participate in collective action when they feel that their social group is experiencing injustice because of an issue, they strongly identify with that group, and/or they feel that acting together could have an impact (that is, a sense of collective efficacy).

Come see how we’ve been unpacking SIMCA and leave better understanding how to organize your key audiences and build buy-in from your supporters! In part 1 of this report-out, we’ll feature research done in collaboration with:

  • GreenFaith on how to invoke shared social identity for action-taking related to COP 26 with inter-faith audiences
  • Illinois Environmental Council on if appealing to a shared identity as farmers boosts recruitment when targeting rural agrarian audiences online
  • republicEn on whether conservative audiences may be spurred to action-taking through emphasizing injustices related to climate inaction

Check out the recording and resources provided here! (login required)