How Change Happens: Why Some Social Movements Succeed While Others
Don’t
By Crutchfield, Leslie R.
July 24, 2018
Social movements are nothing new. People always seem to be marching for — or against
— something. Part of this is due to the fact that social movements often take decades to achieve
the change they seek, while many never get there.
While there is no simple recipe for social movement success, Leslie Crutchfield,
executive director of the Global Social Enterprise Initiative (GSEI) at Georgetown University's
McDonough School of Business, and her research team have identified a number of patterns that
distinguish successful social movements from those that didn't succeed and shares them in her
latest book, How Change Happens: Why Some Social Movements Succeed While Others Don't.
The six she identifies are a focus on the grassroots; a recognition of the importance of state and
local efforts; a commitment to changing norms and attitudes as well as policy; a willingness to
reckon with adversarial allies; acceptance of the fact that business is not always the enemy and
often can be a key ally; and being "leaderfull."
Crutchfield argues that successful social change leaders invariably recognize the
importance of advocating for a shift in social norms, not just policy reforms, and that they never
prioritize one over the other. To support that contention, she shares some key insights from
successful change leaders. In the movement for marriage equality in the United States, for
example, LGBT advocates used polling research to reframe the focus of the campaign's
messaging from "rights" to "love" and "commitment," which in turn led to the dissemination of
now-familiar slogans such as "Love is Love" and, eventually, a change in marriage laws.
To further illustrate how change happens, Crutchfield highlights a number of instances
where a movement prevailed over a determined counter-movement that strayed from one or
more of the patterns. Most telling, perhaps, is the success the National Rifle Association has had
"in defending and expanding the gun rights of gun owners in the United States" through a
relentless focus on grassroots organizing. Indeed, "[t]he gun rights movement's grassroots army
is the reason why, despite the waves of angry anti-gun protests, heartbreaking vigils, and
pleading calls for reform that erupt after each tragic mass shooting…gun violence prevention
groups still largely lose ground." Over the years, NRA leaders have been laser-focused in
growing and emboldening their grassroots base through community events such as barbecues and
town hall meetings. In contrast, gun safety advocates have been more oriented "toward elite
politics at the national level" and in "push[ing] a comprehensive gun control bill through
Congress." The dichotomous results of the two approaches speak for themselves and serve as
additional support for Crutchfield's contention that the single most important decision movement
leaders have to make is whether "to let their grassroots fade to brown or...turn [them] gold."
A more recent trend benefiting social movements is the growing willingness of the
private sector to get behind and support so-called "double-bottom-line" values. According to
Crutchfield, businesses increasingly are interested in demonstrating their social and
environmental bona fides — in part due to pressure from activists and in part in pursuit of
increased profits — and sometimes both. From beverage and car companies working with groups
like MADD to promote safer drinking and driving habits to businesses increasingly opting for
more inclusive choices in their branding strategies, businesses have proven to be an influential
force in driving social change.
At the end of the day, however, a social movement is only as effective as its leaders, and
the most effective leaders, writes Cructhfield, are those willing to share power and "lead from
behind." Indeed, a "leaderfull" movement (a term inspired by the thinking and writing of civil
rights activist Ella Baker) successfully harnesses the energy of many, rather than a few, and
channels that energy into a common cause. According to Crutchfield, leaderfull movements
share three traits: they empower local grassroots leaders to step forward; they are built around
coalitions of like-minded and "unusual suspects"; and they are filled with people who have a
"lived experience" of the problem and are empowered to speak and act on behalf of the
organization. Indeed, we can see the idea in action in recent movements like #BlackLivesMatter
and the gun control advocacy work propelled by the students from Parkland High School in
Florida.
All this sounds good on the theoretical level, but young people and activists are looking
for more than theory. Fortunately, each chapter of How Change Happens offers practical advice,
tactics, and long-term strategies designed to help movement leaders and participants advance
their cause. In the chapter on reckoning with adversarial allies, for instance, Crutchfield stresses
the importance of forging consensus, building trust, and settling on concrete goals. She also
warns readers about the traps of policy disagreement, personality conflict, and arguments over
who gets credit. (It will be interesting to watch #BlackLivesMatter and the student-led gun
control movement — both strong at the grassroots but without a unifying policy objective —
wrestle with these traps as they continue to advance their respective causes.)
So what do the findings in How Change Happens mean for social change? According to
Crutchfield, it depends on where you sit. Foundations and high-net-worth donors, policy officials
and agency heads, business leaders, and citizen activists all bring specific assets and have
different roles to play in the process. The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the nation's largest
healthcare philanthropy, committed $700 million over a decade in support of tobacco control
initiatives and played a critical role in that movement's success. Few entities have those kinds of
financial resources at their disposal, however, and cash is no guarantee of success. (In fact, over-
generous donors have been known to smother, undermine, and destroy movements.) Instead,
each of us needs to reflect on the unique assets we bring, as individuals or organizations, to the
table and think creatively about how we can "operationalize" those assets in service to the cause.
As Crutchfield makes clear, movement building is process-oriented, relational, and
iterative. With a diverse set of examples that spans decades, issue areas, and organizational
composition, her book is a reminder that the past holds countless lessons that can inform how we
create meaningful, sustainable change today — and into the future. And while the examples she
shares are largely drawn from the U.S., her findings will resonate with today's movement leaders
and the legions of activists driving movements around the world. That's a good thing because, as
Crutchfield puts it, "change rises up to the top, not the other way around."
Works Cited
Crutchfield, Leslie R. “How Change Happens: Why Some Social Movements Succeed While
Others Don’t.” Philanthropy News Digest, 24 July 2018, https://philanthropynewsdigest.org/off-
the-shelf/how-change-happens-why-some-social-movements-succeed-while-others-don-t.
Accessed on 12 July 2018.
