What Comes Next? Sequencing Community Ownership Policy Campaigns

Community Ownership advocates work with limited capacity and in difficult political and economic contexts. That makes the order of policy campaigns matter. An early, modest win can open doors for something more ambitious later on. A poorly timed campaign can burn through scarce resources without building lasting power.

This research note distills lessons for thinking strategically about sequencing policy campaigns. It examines how modest and even symbolic policy goals can build legitimacy and relationships, why the order of funding measures and enabling legislation deserves deliberate attention, and what advocates do between campaigns to be ready when a policy window opens unexpectedly. The research note also takes up a question practitioners face in the middle of every campaign: when to hold to an original policy design and when to adjust in the face of headwinds.