Strategy Resources

NEW!  MobileActive Guides NOW in Arabic! 

Strategy Guide #1 in Arabic: Using Mobile Phones in Election Monitoring/استراتيجيات استخدام الهاتف الخليوي في الحملات الانتخابية وحملات تسجيل الناخب

Strategy Guide #2 in Arabic: Using Mobile Phones in Advocacy Campaigns/استراتيجيات استخدام الهاتف الخليوي في إطار حملات المدافع

Strategy Guide #3 in Arabic: Using Mobile Phones in Fundraising Campaigns/اعتماد الاجهزة الخليوية في حملات جمع الام  

Mobile phones have become a powerful emerging tool for participation in civil society. The MobileActive series of Strategy Guides examines the effectiveness of nonprofits using mobile phones to build their constituent lists, influence political causes, and raise money. In the Guides we aggregate strategies, case studies, and lessons learned to encourage the adoption of mobile phones by nonprofits.

This series of Strategy Guides is designed to equip organizations around the world with the know-how to deploy effective mobile campaigns for a variety of types of activism and advocacy.

The MobileActive Strategy Guides are made possible with support from the Surdna Foundation, a leader in supporting civic engagement and the use of technology in nonprofit organizations.

Scroll down for our MobileActive Strategy Guide Series.  

Strategy Guide #1: Using Mobile Phones in Electoral and Voter Registration Campaigns (English, French, Arabic)

Mobile phones have enormous potential in electoral, voter registration, and election monitoring campaigns.

With 3 billion phones in circulation around the world, in many countries mobile phones are the easiest and least expensive way to communicate and are far more pervasive than the Internet.

Mobile phones have been used for systematic election monitoring in Nigeria, Macedonia, Sierra Leon, and Kenya, among women voters in Saudi Arabia, and in popular uprisings in the Ukraine and South Korea. In the 2004 U.S. election, almost 10,000 people started their voter registration process through a mobile campaign.

While the use of mobile phones in elections and voter registration campaigns is still in an experimental stage, a lot has been learned about the characteristics of successful campaigns. In this guide we will share these findings with you, along with case studies, and other information organizations can use to run their own mobile campaigns.

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Strategy Guide #2: Using Mobile Phones in Advocacy Campaigns (English, French, Arabic)

This second MobileActive Guide focuses on using mobile phones in issue advocacy. The guide features case studies from around the world, strategies for using mobile phones in advocacy work, and a how-to section for advocacy organizations considering using mobile phones to advance their causes.

We are featuring mobile campaigns, share best practices, successes and failures, what to consider strategically and tactically when engaging in a mobile campaign as an advocacy organization or campaign, and give a wealth of resources and tips.

Download the MobileActive Guide #2 (PDF) - English

Download the MobileActive Strategy Guide #2 (PDF) -- Arabic

Download the MobileActive Guide #2 (PDF) - Francais


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Strategy Guide #3: Mobile Phones in Fundraising Campaigns (English and Arabic)

  This third MobileActive Guide focuses on using mobile phones in fundraising campaigns. The guide features case studies from around the world, strategies for using mobile phones in fundraising, and a how-to section for organizations considering using mobile phones to generate support for their work.

We describe the current state of fundraising via mobile phone, it's promise, and shortcomings at this point. We feature a number of case studies from around the world, what we learned about effective fundraising via mobile phone, what the state of the technology is at this point, and where it's headed. We provide useful tips and resources for those who want to try using mobiles in their fundraising campaigns.

Download the MobileActive Guide #3 (PDF) - English

Download MobileActive Guide #3 (PDF) - Arabic/اعتماد الاجهزة الخليوية في حملات جمع الام 

Strategy Guide 4: ¡Acción Móvil¡ Guía de Móvil Activismo para Latino América

Dentro del mercado mundial de telefonía celular América Latina comienza a jugar un rol importante por su crecimiento en relación con el resto del mundo. A esto debemos sumarle la gran oferta en la región de contenidos que ofrece la industria del entretenimiento y de servicios que los usuarios poco a poco van adquiriendo como nuevas formas de uso.

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MobileActive Strategy Guide 1 in Arabic - Using Mobile Phones in Election Monitoring

MobileActive is pleased to announce the translation into Arabic of its Strategy Guide #1: Using Mobile Phones in Election Monitoring/استراتيجيات استخدام الهاتف الخليوي في الحملات الانتخابية وحملات تسجيل الناخب

Thank you to the National Democratic instititue for this in-kind translation contribution!

Mobile phones have enormous potential in electoral, voter registration, and election monitoring campaigns.

With 3 billion phones in circulation around the world, in many countries mobile phones are the easiest and least expensive way to communicate and are far more pervasive than the Internet.

Mobile phones have been used for systematic election monitoring in Nigeria, Macedonia, Sierra Leon, and Kenya, among women voters in Saudi Arabia, and in popular uprisings in the Ukraine and South Korea. In the 2004 U.S. election, almost 10,000 people started their voter registration process through a mobile campaign.

Read More >>

MobileActive Strategy Guide 2 in Arabic - Using Mobile Phones in Advocacy Campaigns

We are pleased to announce the translation into Arabic of MobileActive's Strategy Guide#2: Using Mobile Phones in Advocacy Campaigns.

Thank you to the National Democratic Institute for this in-kind translation support.

This second MobileActive Guide focuses on using mobile phones in issue advocacy. The guide features case studies from around the world, strategies for using mobile phones in advocacy work, and a how-to section for advocacy organizations considering using mobile phones to advance their causes.

We are featuring mobile campaigns, share best practices, successes and failures, what to consider strategically and tactically when engaging in a mobile campaign as an advocacy organization or campaign, and give a wealth of resources and tips.

Download the MobileActive Strategy Guide #2 in Arabic (pdf).

Read More >>

MobileActive Strategy Guide 3 in Arabic - Using Mobile Phones in Fundraising Campaigns

This third MobileActive Guide, translated by the National Democratic Institute into Arabic, focuses on using mobile phones in fundraising campaigns/اعتماد الاجهزة الخليوية في حملات جمع الام  . The guide features case studies from around the world, strategies for using mobile phones in fundraising, and a how-to section for organizations considering using mobile phones to generate support for their work.

We describe the current state of fundraising via mobile phone, it's promise, and shortcomings at this point.

Read More >>

Wireless Technology for Social Change -- 11 Case Studies

Mobile technology is transforming the way advocacy, development and relief organizations accomplish their institutional missions. Our recent report Wireless Technology for Social Change: Trends in NGO Mobile Use, released by the United Nations Foundation, The Vodafone Group Foundation and MobileActive.org, brings this point home.

Wireless Technology for Social Change: Trends in NGO Mobile Use examines emerging trends in “mobile activism” by looking at 11 case studies of groups active in the areas of public health, humanitarian assistance and environmental conservation. 

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A Mobile Voice: The Use of Mobile Phones in Citizen Media

We are pleased to release the newest MobileActive.org resource, A Mobile Voice: The Use of Mobile Phones in Citizen Media. 

In this report we explore the dynamics of the role of mobile phones in enhancing access to and creating information and citizen-produced media. We explore trends in the use of mobile telephony with a focus on software and platforms that make content creation and broadcasting easier.  We also present an inventory of current and potential uses of  mobile phones to promote citizen media and freedom of information, and present short case studies of examples--all from the MobileActive.org community.

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