ControlShift's Efforts and Landing Pages tools allow organizations to run distributed templatized campaigns. Templatized campaigns are usually national or international campaigns that share a common goal but have many local targets. These campaigns are based on the idea that applying pressure to many local targets can be more effective than trying to pressure a single national or international institution. These local campaigns lead to smaller victories that add up to a big impact.
What do these distributed campaigns look like?
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An organization wants to prevent the passage of a specific piece of legislation. They create an Effort with a separate petition targeting each member of parliament. After recruiting local leaders and signers, they coordinate the delivery of each petition to its targeted member of parliament.
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An organization wants to raise the minimum wage. Instead of sending a single petition to Congress, they create a Landing Page so that supporters can work to raise their local minimum wages. Petitions are created by supporters and then delivered to their city councils, mayors, town boards, etc.
- An organization wants to prevent the sale of a harmful pesticide. They create an Effort targeting local hardware stores asking the franchise owners to not stock the pesticide. Members are able to search for their local store and lead local campaigns.
Efforts and Landing Pages share a lot of the same code – they actually used to be the same feature. We separated them into two features to make the difference between the two campaign models clearer. However, we've found that organizations often want to run a campaign that combines elements of both Efforts and Landing Pages, so we're in the process of merging the features back together.
That said, Efforts are generally used when the organization has a complete or partial list of targets in mind. Often these targets are added by admins, petitions are pre-created, and supporters are then recruited to lead their local campaign.
With Landing Pages, the organization doesn’t preselect any targets. Instead, the organization provides the common goal for the campaign, and supporters are asked to add their own local targets. The organization can suggest or require common text, but members create and lead the petitions.
Tip: Given the current status of the Efforts/Landing Page merge, we'd generally recommend using the Efforts feature to run templatized campaigns. However, there are still some features that are unique to Landing Pages. The table below will explain the similarities and differences between the two features.
| Feature | How it works in Efforts | How it works in Landing Pages |
| Decision Makers | Decision makers can be pre-chosen by admins, added by petition creators, or both. All petitions in an effort must be associated with a full decision maker record.* |
Decision makers are only added by petition creators. Petitions in a Landing Page may be associated with full decision makers, or they can use the free-form who field instead.* |
| Petitions | Petitions can be pre-created by admins, created by members, or both. | Petitions are only created by members. |
| Leadership | Petitions are not required to have local leaders. If the organization wants local leaders, members can be recruited to run admin-created petitions or they can create and run their own campaigns. | Petitions are created and run by members. |
| Target Uniqueness | Efforts can have only one petition per decision maker (target). If a user tries to create a petition for a decision maker that already has a petition targeting them, the user will either be unable to create the petition or they'll be asked to provide additional context for the decision maker (in an attempt to differentiate the new decision maker from the old decision maker). | Target uniqueness is not enforced in Landing Pages. Decision makers may have an unlimited number of campaigns targeting them. |
| Petition Associations | Petitions created within the Effort can be disassociated (meaning that they continue to live on the site, but are not included in the Effort). Petitions created outside of the Effort can be moved into the Effort, but must have an associated decision maker. The decision maker cannot be the same as, or conflict with, another decision maker in the Effort. |
Petitions created within the Landing Page can be disassociated (meaning that they continue to live on the site, but are not included in the Landing Page). Petitions created outside of the Landing Page can be moved into the Landing Page. |
Why might you want to use a templatized campaign instead of a single petition?
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Single petitions focusing on a national issue are usually targeted to an often immutable institution (like the US Congress). These petitions are easily ignored. With distributed campaigns, you can target each member of Congress, instead of Congress as a whole. When presented with a petition specifically targeting them, which is signed by their constituents, it will be harder for these representatives to ignore the issue.
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Templatized campaigns allow you to pursue other avenues of applying pressure. Single petitions usually have single targets, even if that target isn’t the most likely to get you the change you’re looking for. With templatized campaigns you can try pressuring other types of targets. Maybe campaigning each governor, a collection of mayors, or local stores across the country will be more effective.
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A single petition ignores the organizing potential and energy of your supporters. With templatized campaigns, each local petition can have a local leader. Allowing members to own local campaigns activates them and gives them an increased sense of agency. Additionally, having a local on-the-ground leader allows the organization to more easily stage local events, like rallies or in-person petition deliveries.
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For members who do not become leaders, there’s still a local element to the petition. Their signature is targeted to their specific representative/governor/store/etc., petition events are happening in their backyard, and campaign updates are specific to their local campaign.
*Learn more about the difference between structured decision makers and the free-form who field.
More information about Landing Pages and Efforts is included in this help center.
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