In this blog, Jack Madden, Head of Campaigns-Organising at Shelter, explores why celebrating a campaign win isn’t just a nice gesture, it’s a vital campaigning strategy that keeps people motivated, builds momentum, and strengthens future advocacy.
Housing campaigners across the country, including Shelter, recently celebrated a huge moment in the fight for home- the completion of the passage of the Renters Rights Act 2025 through parliament. When it comes into effect as of 1st May 2026, this act contains the most important improvements in rights for renters in almost 40 years- not least the abolition of section 21 ‘no fault’ evictions, which for decades has been one of the leading causes of homelessness in England. The impact for the over ten million renters that these changes make alone should be enough reason to cheer, but from a campaigning perspective we also felt it was important to ‘go big’ and recognise the importance of what has been achieved.
People need proof campaigning works
So often, the way that organisations recruit new people to campaigns is by showing people how bad something is. In the pursuit of more supporters, we forget to recognise what it is that maintains and builds support for a cause and keeps people in the fight-progress. We found the response to our celebration work over the past several weeks overwhelmingly positive, with people getting in touch to say how happy they were, how much this win meant to them, the impact it would have on their lives, and how they were glad to have stuck with it. Celebrating a campaign win is important to keep people motivated, and to show people that all of the actions taken, the meetings attended, the risks taken are worth it- because it works.
Bad news travels further than good news
Actively celebrating a campaign win is an important way to spread the word that changes have happened- rights aren’t worth anything if people don’t know they have them, or if people don’t act on them to assert them. In campaigning, it’s worth remembering that if you don’t speak, your opposition may speak for you and tell the story that they want to- which is almost always the opposite of what you want. If we said nothing about how good the Renters Rights Act is, you can be sure that landlord organisations would have been the dominant voice, telling everyone who would listen that regulating renting would be a disaster- their version of events would stand as the record. Actively going out and sharing the good news helps increase awareness of these new hard-won rights, and means that people might actually be able to stand up for themselves because they know that what’s happening to them.
It’s good strategy
Recognising when you’ve reached a campaign peak, realised a goal, or that you have gotten your campaign target to do as you asked isn’t just a ‘nice’ thing to do, it’s a strategically useful too. Celebration can act as moment of reflection, to gather what you’ve learned, to look at what worked and what didn’t to get you there and help you get better at getting towards your next goal, whatever that may be.
Celebration puts credit where it’s due
Saying thank you, well done, and being a good winner, is also an important part of celebrating your campaign win. Recognising that you got a good result out of our political system gives your targets their dues- and probably helps them want to help you again in the future. This isn’t always a popular suggestion but being able to say thank you or recognise a good job, even one done begrudgingly, is a rare thing. It might even make politicians more likely to want to help you in the future. On the flip side of this, it helps us as campaigners retain our own agency and make clear our own role in making politicians do the right thing and helps set the record straight that good things happen when people and politicians meet to make it happen- politics is something we do, not something that happens to us.
You’ve got to give them hope
We’re all aware that we live in frightening times, and the barrage of bad news we see daily on social media or on news headlines constantly reinforces the message that things are bad, often seem to be getting worse, and makes our campaigning feel hopeless. Celebration is an act of resistance against that hopelessness- celebration is a reminder that if we work together and persist, things can and do get better.
Celebration isn’t just for the end
It’s also important to remember that celebration doesn’t just come at the end of the campaign- the implementation date, royal assent or anything else- it is something that you should make a habit throughout your campaigning. Celebrate the little steps along the way, whether that be the first time you get more than two people to a meeting, or you choose a name for your campaign, or a white paper gets published saying what you hoped it would. It’s these steps that make up the whole journey, and you’re much more likely to arrive if people have a sense of joy in the pursuit of getting there.
No final victories, no final defeats
Of course, we all know that the fight for home isn’t over, there’s more to do. There’s still nowhere near enough social homes being built in this country, private rents keep going up, and hundreds of thousands of children growing up in temporary accommodation which is anything but temporary. The horizon recedes as we move towards it. Campaigning to make the world more like it should be is in many ways is an endless journey, but that doesn’t make celebrating pointless- it means being able to rest for a moment, appreciate what you’ve achieved and the progress made, and find the resilience to keep going. So, when you do get a chance to celebrate in your campaign- whether a huge leap or a small step forward- I recommend you take it, because you’ve probably earned it.