Progressive and radical activist training materials

** LAST UPDATED 15th Nov 2023 **
In the progressive, radical and activist communities there is a lot of knowledge and experience, and within certain circles it’s shared very well. I realised I haven’t seen a thorough collation of all the available free materials to help people develop their skills however.

This is an attempt to pull together some of the best progressive training resources. The idea is not to link to individual PDFs, but to resources sites that offer free materials for campaigners, radicals and activists.

FREE TRAINING RESOURCES FOR ACTIVISTS, CAMPAIGNERS & ORGANISERS

• Act Build Change. This has become one of the best repositories of training materials, their Essential Community Organising is a must. 
• Mobilisation Lab (Greenpeace). This group have done a lot of research and regularly collaborate with organisations from across the activist world, and this website is a hive of fantastic information and collated knowledge on people powered campaigning. In particular, check out their ‘Cookbook‘.
• Global Change Lab (ActionAid). A training and skills based site with a community element, linked to the Global Platform training spaces.
• 350.org. Some great materials for facilitation, workshops, strategy/organising approaches and basic training courses too.
• World Institute for Social Change (ZNet). This is a fantastic set of courses from the team that brought you ZNet.
• Center for Story-based Strategy. CSS have a variety of worksheets available for download on their site, mostly for facilitating sessions, as well as some face-to-face advanced trainings in the US.
• The Change Agency. Toolkits for activists with many workshop resources and guides, structured around the logical progression of developing a campaign. (via @SamHuggard)
• Training for Change (US). Covering a broad cross-section of progressive skills, these resources cover organising, facilitation, team building, anti-oppression training, non-violent actions and interventions. Some of their resources are also available in Spanish. (via @SamHuggard)
• Academy of Change. Offer a very focused training on behaviour change led by behavioural psychologists and practitioners from the third sector.
• Ella Baker School of Organising. Pretty comprehensive set of campaigns training materials from Theory of Change to case study based materials. Thanks to @johnpage10 for the tip!

SPECIFICALLY DIGITAL MATERIALS

• Tactical Tech. On the digital end of the activism spectrum, and their site includes comprehensive and detailed guides and toolkits on subjects from digital security to compelling use of visual materials for your campaigning.
• Digital Activist. Digital campaigning tools for grassroots groups and movements (free, but you have to login)
• PrivacyTools.io. Some high quality resources here on security and privacy.
• Engaging Networks. One of the original CRM and mailer providers for BINGOs, and they also have a pretty good resources area and pre-recorded trainings.
• An online privacy guide on Wizcase. This appears to be a robust set of recommendations that certainly apply to activists.

RESOURCE LIBRARIES, TRAINING TEMPLATES AND MORE

• Beautiful Trouble. This is a brilliant resource for anyone wanting to learn or simply get more inspiration for actions or protests. Buy the book as it’s as good as any training, and they also have case studies on the site.
• Beautiful Rising. This collaborative project built on the success of Beautiful Trouble, and made it more globally relevant. The project has a community of activists primarily from the majority world / Global South, and has collated helpful resources for activists.
• Learn with the Yes Men. Perhaps the greatest of the progressive stunt-makers and tricksters? Lots of great lessons learned type content. Their Book of Tricks is also a must read.
• Campus Activism. Sadly not very up to date anymore, but a good archive of resources is available here contributed from a multitude of different organisations.
• Climate Advocacy Lab. Very broad set of reference resources and training materials. via @GrazielaTanaka
• Destructibles. A site with ideas to help with creative protest and dissent.
• Actipedia. A wiki for creative protest actions.
• Citizen’s Handbook. A huge resource on community organising with a lot of tips and guidance to help with organising activities and engaging people.
• European Change Makers. Lots of How-To type guides on topics from digital activism to organising.
• Community Toolbox. A set of resources for community-based organising.
• Campaign Strategy. This is Chris Rose’s website that provides online materials that support his How To Win Campaigns book.
• DIY Toolkit. There are some really well put together resources here for developing activists and planning social innovations.
• Midwest Academy. With 40 years of experience training organisers, this academy offers courses recommended by @SamHuggard.
• Open Campaign Library. The Open Campaign group have provided access to lots of the resources they have been using in this library. They also have an excellent list of external resources (similar to this!)

COMMUNITIES TO LEARN WITH / FROM

• Digital Charities. Active Slack channel of well over a thousand digital progressive folks from all over the world (plus a monthly meetup in London).
• Engaging Activists (Facebook community). This is a space for activists to share experiences, tips and generally learn from one another.
• Campaign Bootcamp. If you’re new(ish) to the campaigning game, Campaign Bootcamp’s are a great way to learn the skills needed to be effective. These trainings are run by very experienced folks, and they have lots of scholarship places on their courses so check them out! Sadly now defunct, and much missed.
• E-Campaigning Forum. The original and arguably best email list for digital professionals at non-profits.

PAID TRAININGS AND/OR TRAINERS WHO DELIVER

• Seeds For Change. This is a group of trainers who will come and deliver high quality trainings for activists and campaigners. The link is to their resources section which also provides some free guidelines.
• Powerlabs.io. A group of (US) trainers who support grassroots organising groups. via @GrazielaTanaka