After spending so much time and energy, it’s often hard to know how and when to walk away from an idea or strategy that isn’t working.

In this week’s 3 Things, we’d like to talk to you about your bad ideas.

The Atlantic recently published a great article about the benefit of walking away from a lost cause. This got us thinking about some of the great organizations we’ve seen stick to a losing strategy simply because they’ve been doing it for so long or because the board or Executive Director thought it was eventually going to work.

Discovering your strategy doesn’t make sense – maybe it never did, or maybe things have changed and it just doesn’t make sense anymore – isn’t fun, but it’s important.

1. Set SMART Goals

If your goals are generic, you’re doing it wrong and might be heading for strategy calamity.

We tell our clients that their goals should be SMART: Strategic, Measurable, Ambitious, Realistic and Time-Bound. Meaning you have to spell out, in painstaking detail, how exactly you’re going to build the organization and coalition it’s going to take to get the legislation you want passed, the press you’d like, the influence you strive for, etc.

Bad Goal: Get More Media Coverage

Good Goal: Get at least one article, Editorial or OpEd and 2 Letters to the Editor placed in the hometown newspapers of our 6 top congressional targets prior to the August recess.

2. Trust in Data, Not Your Gut

If you set measurable goals and use data smartly, you’ll see your progress and where you’re stumbling. Don’t have as many grassroots supporters in the Southwest as you’d like? Not enough op-eds or coverage in a legislator’s district? You can shift your resources to fix these things.

What about picking a message to go with for your C4’s educational campaign? If you don’t have the money to put a large poll in the field, you could use Facebook’s incredibly cost effective ads to test out a few different messages. You’d be surprised how often results of the most popular ads correspond closely to polling.

The point is: use data whenever you can to verify your progress and guide your decisions. Remember that you are not your audience, so your gut isn’t the best thing to go by.

3. Don’t Be Afraid to Be Wrong/Walk Away

What’s worse: a) wasting resources on a project doomed to fail or b) admitting something’s not working and saving everyone’s time and money?

We think option A is worse by a mile.

Not every strategy is going to work; it’s OK to realize something isn’t working and to shift your organization’s focus to something else. The hard part may actually be realizing your strategy isn’t working.

An article in last week’s Forbes addressed how Warren Buffett avoids confirmation bias. Confirmation bias is basically that little voice in your head that trusts what you already know and discounts outside opinion and data that disagree with what you think.

This is where your board and consultants come into play. Set yourself up to hear outside opinion that tells you you’re wrong. If you’ve got active board members or consultants that feel free to criticize and offer up dissenting ideas, you’ll be able to avoid confirmation bias and your organization will be able to spot that iceberg before you run into it.

Need help setting SMART goals and avoiding potential icebergs? Say hi sometime, we’d love to help.

We’re psyched!

But we’re also realists: the House of Representatives is where all good things go to die and unfortunately, this could likely include immigration reform. So any victory in the Senate may be ephemeral, and not result in real policy change.

What do we do when Congress fails to act?

Longtime readers of 3 Things won’t be surprised to hear us say this: take matters into your own hands and get out into the states. Our top three recommendations for progress on immigration reform:

1) Be Like the Gays

There are many reasons that LGBT rights have moved so incredibly fast over the last ten years, however, chief among them was previously undecided people knowing a gay person.

Just like LGBT rights, the fight for fair immigration reform will be a cultural one. Using your C3 for a person-to-person educational campaign could start the conversation in communities where voters may not otherwise know a DREAMer or other person affected by today’s inhumane immigration policies.

2) Pay More Attention to Denver and Salem

Did you know that Colorado and Oregon passed bills that allow undocumented immigrants to pay in-state tuition at state colleges and universities?

You might be surprised by what you can accomplish in the states. There are opportunities to make progress and way too many opportunities to defeat bad bills. See what you can do to help champions, punish opponents, and persuade fence-sitters.

You don’t necessarily need one, but explore starting a C4 and/or a PAC to turn your issue wins into electoral wins. Changing who makes the decisions might be the most reliable path to progress. And, just in case someone out there isn’t tired of hearing us say this, today’s state leaders are tomorrow’s federal leaders and progress is more likely if we get ‘em early.

3) Go Hang Out with Congressman Goodlatte’s Folks

Besides being the home of a great school, James Madison University, Harrisonburg, Virginia is also the home of one of Rep. Bob Goodlatte’s District Offices, who happens to be the Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee. He’s all but pledged to kill any pathway to citizenship in an immigration reform bill. There are voters there, and lots of great organizers, and not nearly enough organizing on immigration reform.

The point here is to be ruthlessly selective about where you’re working – on any issue. If you’re not recognizable to the key players on your issue before you get to Washington or the State Legislature, you might have already lost.

Tough choice, huh?

It’s no wonder that localities across our country are struggling to find citizen input on everything from changing the name of a street to rezoning. Even though votes taken at the local level will affect people’s lives more than votes on Capitol Hill (one reason because there are actual votes taken at the local level), most people would rather watch MSNBC or even CSPAN than read about their local representation.

So, how do you inform, interest and get citizens engaged?

Localities like Boston and Fargo have taken advantage of public participation sites like MindMixer while others have gone the simple route of using social media to connect to people outside City Hall.

Here are a few suggestions to help get more than the same 13 people commenting on the next big change in your area:

1) Let Go.

You know what you should be able to find out about your city on their website? Everything. Recently we looked at the website of a state capital city and we noticed that not only was it hard to find any info, you couldn’t even email the mayor or his staff if you wanted to. That just screams, “go away.”

On the other hand, San Mateo, CA took a step toward getting younger people involved in city matters by making their public information, well, public. Not many folks want to call the City Clerk’s office to find out how much it took to build the newest firehouse.

If you actually want the ideas from the best and brightest, don’t handcuff them. Give them the tools they need to offer up solutions.

2) 1:00 AM Public Comment Periods.

You wake up, metro/drive to work, spend 8 hours at the office, metro/drive home, and then: a) spend time with family, b) watch a baseball game, c) spend three hours in a meeting so that you can speak for two minutes about an issue important to you.

If you’re like us, you might consider going to that meeting for 10 seconds before realizing you’d rather drive back to work at that very moment instead.

You want public comment? Move online. Fairfax City, VA launched Our Parks, Our Future, which allows residents to weigh in on the Park and Recreation Deptartment’s Strategic Master Plan. Folks can do that whenever they want. Even at 1am.

3) Urban Planning is just like Nintendo.

Well, that might be a stretch, but it can be fun. Making city planning into a bit of a game can really get a lot more people interested.

For instance, San Francisco uses MindMixer to get people involved in everything from transit to greenspace. You accrue points the more involved you are: 50 for creating a profile, 10 points for submitting an idea, two points for seconding, commentating or voting on an idea and 10 points for someone seconding your idea.

The winner gets their idea or design chosen, like the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency’s new logo which was designed pro bono and was slapped virtually everywhere in the City. You can also then turn in your points for neat stuff like lunch with the mayor, the mayor’s voice on your voicemail, magazine subscriptions, etc.

The point is, it’s neat, different, and kinda fun. The kind of thing that catches people’s attentions and makes them want to play, er…get involved.

The Senate was voting to require background checks on more of the 40% of annual gun purchases that are not currently subject to them. The policy had as close to unanimous support among the American people as anything does - Republicans, Democrats, even NRA membersagree that background cheecks should be the law of the land.

Yet, sixty U.S. Senators couldn’t agree to pass the bill. (And yes, sixty are required because of the arcane rules of the Senate that require sixty votes to end debate.)

So, what are we to make of what happened?

What if you care about something that doesn’t enjoy such widespread popular agreement? Is there any chance at all anything can happen on any issue if something that should be basically uncontroversial can’t happen?

Once we finished banging our heads on the wall, here’s where the team at Englin Consulting landed:

1. It was all theater anyway.

3. There’s actually a lot happening on guns.

This week we’re taking a break from our normal 3 things to pass along a couple of things we found helpful, inspirational and profound.

Stay safe, be with your people, enjoy your weekend, and we look forward to a fresh start on Monday!

1) People are mostly awesome

While technology, the 24 hour news cycle and social media allow us to experience the horrors of human tragedy in real time, we also don’t have to wait weeks for the inspiring tidbits from true heros to surface.

As the tragic events in Boston were unfolding, stories of runners that didn’t stop but continued their run to the hospital to donate blood and restaurant owners feeding people for free immediately began to surface.

Buzzfeed has a more comprehensive rundown of people being awesome in the face of fear, uncertainty and unspeakable tragedy.

2) How not to say the wrong thing

Last week the LA times published a brilliant opinion piece on how not to say the wrong thing to someone who is in crisis or has experienced a trauma. We thought the piece was smart last week, unfortunately it’s timely now.

Draw a circle. This is the center ring. In it, put the name of the person at the center of the current trauma. Now draw a larger circle around the first one. In that ring put the name of the person next closest to the trauma. Repeat the process as many times as you need to. In each larger ring put the next closest people. Parents and children before more distant relatives. Intimate friends in smaller rings, less intimate friends in larger ones. When you are done you have a Kvetching Order.

Here are the rules. The person in the center ring can say anything she wants to anyone, anywhere. She can kvetch and complain and whine and moan and curse the heavens and say, “Life is unfair” and “Why me?” That’s the one payoff for being in the center ring.

Everyone else can say those things too, but only to people in larger rings.

When you are talking to a person in a ring smaller than yours, someone closer to the center of the crisis, the goal is to help. Listening is often more helpful than talking. But if you’re going to open your mouth, ask yourself if what you are about to say is likely to provide comfort and support. If it isn’t, don’t say it. Don’t, for example, give advice. People who are suffering from trauma don’t need advice. They need comfort and support. So say, “I’m sorry” or “This must really be hard for you” or “Can I bring you a pot roast?” Don’t say, “You should hear what happened to me” or “Here’s what I would do if I were you.” And don’t say, “This is really bringing me down.”

3) Technology, the good guy

We’ve taken to heart studies that examine the health and psychological effects of a constant state of “on” with smartphones that keep our email coming in real time, long after work hours have passed. We’re huge fans of the folks over at Lifeboat because we agree we should take some time to set technology aside and really connect with the people who matter most.

That said we were thrilled to see technology play the role of the good guy during this tragedy. Several databases emerged to connect people in need, including a find friends and family database from google.

We couldn’t help but think back to 9/11 when friends and families waited breathlessly for hours to find out if loved ones in the World Trade Center, in the Pentagon and on various flights were OK. With cell service spotty, people sat in nervous anticipation for loved ones to show up at their door, hours later. We were heartened to see technology (even if only slightly) alleviate some of those horrors this week.

As always, it’s chock full of excellent data, clues for improving online communication, and at least one big important question.

below. Download the report here and let us know what your top takeaways are!

1. Email effectiveness is plummeting. Maybe it’s about impact.

According to the study, email lists are bigger than ever, open rates have remained pretty steady, organizations are sending the same volume of email, but click-through and response rates continue to plummet. Fundraising email click-through-rates dropped by 22% since 2011, advocacy email click-throughs dropped by 14% in that same time.

The study authors suggest some technical and list management reasons for the drop.

We’re not so sure.

Our Advocacy Gap research revealed some deep reservations among advocates about the effectiveness of all those clicks. (See an infographic of advocate attitudes here.)

Maybe those reservations are translating into fewer clicks and lower response rates to the standard, urgent asks (quick! sign this petition right now!). Maybe the decline in email performance is advocates acting with their (online) feet.

SO WHAT? If you’re seeing declines in the effectiveness of your email program, maybe it’s time to reconsider what you’re asking of your advocates, and how you’re reporting back to them the impact of their actions.

2. Social media “engagement” doesn’t drive clicks. Does it drive meaningful action?

Quoting from the report (page 32):

“While Facebook users were much more likely to like or share a Photo post, when it comes to getting users to click on a link to a website, Link and Share posts were much more likely to result in clicks. Link, Share, and even Video posts were far more successful in encouraging users to visit a webpage even as they were less effective at generating comments, likes, and shares of their own.”

Adding to the ongoing quandry of how to think about the value of social media, Facebook in particular, for organizations, it turns out that the usual measures – comments, likes, shares – are disconnected from the other ways most organizations drive action - via a web page.

Not a focus of the report, but a key factor: Facebook has also been changing things up to make it harder for organizations to communicate their message. Read this excellent analysis from our friends at EchoDitto: the free ride is over.

SO WHAT? It’s probably time to take another look at how you’re resourcing and measuring your social media investments. Maybe more promoted posts, less focus on “engagement” and more optimizing for clicks back to the platform you own.

3. Text mobilization remains a bit of a black hole, but text-ready lists are growing.

Thanks largely to integrations with CRMs – basically, more organizations are asking for cell phone numbers on their acquisition forms - the size of lists available for organizations to use for text mobilizations is growing rapidly. Still, text communicatins remain a very small component of most organizations’ lists and mobilization activities.

We’re reading between the lines here, but the e-benchmarks report is very light on data for text programs compared to email and social media. Just list size, churn, and usage. Since there’s nothing in the report on response rates, we assume there’s not much data there for the authors to report.

No data, no benchmarks.

So, we stay in the dark about how to benchmark the effectiveness of various text mobilization programs compared to the sector as a whole, even as the proliferation of cell-only phone users continues unabated (34% of American households had no land line, as of last year).

SO WHAT? If you’re investing in a robust text messaging mobilization component for your next campaign, be creative and ruthless about what you track. The measurement standards for text campaigns haven’t yet been set, so we can start with impact, things like how many people did you text who took the action you asked them to? And did texting that call to action (versus emailing it or tweeting it or hiring a field organizer to send it) help improve the action rates?

From support for marriage equality hitting a all time high, to Hillary Clinton coming out for equality, to a string of Democratic Senators announcing their support for equality, to this week’s Supreme Court hearings, March has ROCKED for equality.

We were inspired to see our social media feeds filled red equal signs this week in support of equality and Supreme Court action (we joined the Crimson Tide, so to speak).

So this week we’re giving over 3 Things to equality. Here’s what’s on our minds:

1) Wins at the Ballot Box

A few months ago we wrote about ballot box wins during the November elections. Voters decided on the side of equality, rather than the courts.

Wins in Maryland, Washington, Minnesota and Maine marked the first time marriage has ever won at the ballot box and lessons from these winning camapigns will be relevant in the battles to come.

2) There’s more to equality than marriage.

The EC team has our collective fingers crossed for a sweeping Supreme Court decision that legalizes marriage equality in all 50 states overnight. While this doesn’t seems likely, even if it happens the battle for equality will rage on.

This year, we worked with Equality Virginia to make it illegal for state government employees to be fired for being gay. Even that narrow protection was defeated by the Virginia legislature.

In 19 states it’s still legal to fire someone because of who they love and in 18 states violence motivated by someone’s sexual orientation isn’t considered a hate crime.

Regardless of what the Supremes decide later this summer, we still have fights to win.

3) Whiplash (in a good way)

According to a new study by Pew, 14% of Americans and 28% of supporters of marriage equality have changed their minds on this issue over the last decade.

Whoa.

That’s remarkable, dramatic, and FAST progress.

We’ve got whiplash, and we love it.

Our theories on why this pace of change was possible?

• There’s a straightforward solution to an easily identified problem (make marriage legal for everyone, instead of just some people.) Compare that to other progressive issues, even within the equality movement, and you’ll see what we mean.
• Cultural change connected to real people’s lives. Most of the people who have changed their minds in favor of equality know someone who‘s gay. For most issues, it’s much harder to draw a straight line between the change that’s needed and deep, personal experience.
• Hollywood. And we’re only sort of joking (and only a little bit nodding to our Principal, who recently relocated to the W(B)est Coast). Popular culture normalized equality years ago, paving the way for open minds, hearts, and change.

Other theories we’re pondering:

• The Key to Same-Sex Marriage’s Fast Acceptance: The Courage to Come Out 
• Wonkbook: The very different fortunes of abortion and gay marriage

But it’s true that social media is an important channel for all types of communications, including those asking for dollars, and being smart about using social media in your fundraising campaigns can only help.

In February, the Stanford Social Innovation Review gave a webinar about utilizing social media to engage donors. While we’ve written extensively about making your social media more awesome, and way back our Principal co-wrote the book on measuring the impact of your Facebook page,  we haven’t directly tackled social media and fundraising.

Our 3 takeaways from the SSIR webinar:

1.) Social Media doesn’t replace anything, but supplements everything.

You can’t replace your current fundraising mechanisms with social media.

We often see organizations (and particularly fundraising/development staff) frustrated by what they see as little or no ROI on time invested in social media.

Most of this is a mindset and expectations problem. Facebook posts don’t replace blast emails, tweets won’t get you an avalanche of new donors and facebook ads shouldn’t suck up the entire events budget. Social media isn’t a replacement for anything you are already doing, it’s a supplement.

You can use social media to expand your audience, find new potential donors, and inform people about your organization. If you are doing a major small-donor campaign for a specific cause, you might find some success on Facebook. But social media is never the right place for the person-to-person ask. That still needs to happen in person or over the phone.

2.) $$$ alone is not influential

Even though your big money probably isn’t coming directly through social media, it is a great place to engage people who have already given and expand your network. Someone who has made a donation to your organization has invested in the cause; they want to see you succeed.

Donors can help influence other donors to give. Have them hop on social media and advocate for your cause. At the very least, they can help bring some of their donor friends into your audience.  Once someone invests their money, ask them to invest their time and influence.

3.) Love the audience you have, not the audience you want

In the pre-social media world, companies controlled their brand very closely and carefully. While this is still certainly the case, the reality is that in the social media era, your brand is a conversation with supporters and your audience.

The key here is paying attention. Look at your social media accounts and see who is following you and what they are saying. Maybe you are an organization advocating for marriage equality, and instead of the liberal group of followers you had expected to get, you have a huge number of libertarians liking your page. That’s OK. Without abandoning your core principles, appeal to the audience you have and get them engaged. You can keep trying to bring in the audience you had always expected, but don’t take your current disciples for granted, because they aren’t that easy to come by.

(Note that there a bunch of tools to help you do this listening piece. Let us know if we can help point you in the right direction.)

OK, we’re being hyperbolic. But only a little bit, according to a recent survey that should have all progressive change-makers headed for the planning table – and maybe the budget spreadsheet – to revisit strategy decisions.

David Broockmany and Christopher Skovronz surveyed every candidate for state legislative office in the U.S. in 2012 (about 10,000 people). They got 1,907 responses from a wide variety of districts, candidate types (incumbent, challenger, etc.) and split about equally between Republicans and Democrats. They asked about the candidates’ own positions and what they thought their voters’ positions were on same sex marriage and universal health care. The researchers then matched up the candidates with district-level polling data on those same two issues.

Key findings:

• Conservative politicians overestimate support for conservative policy views among their constituents by over 20 percentage points on average.
• 70% of liberal candidates underestimate support for liberal positions among their constituents.
• The democratic process – elections – does nothing to alter politicians’ misperceptions of the conservatism of their voters.
• In districts where supporters of same sex marriage and universal healthcare outnumber opponents by 2 to 1, liberal politicians appear to typically believe these policies enjoy only bare majority support while conservative politicians typically outright reject the notion that these policies command widespread support.

Yikes. So, now what?

At least these three things:

1) Even if you don’t work on state policy, this should be alarming.