Services
The International Center on Nonviolent Conflict (ICNC) is a leading organization advancing the study and practice of nonviolent civil resistance to achieve rights, freedom and justice around the world.
ICNC’s distinguished education and training programs have attracted thousands of participants from more than 100 countries. Our research support and publications make cutting-edge knowledge accessible to diverse practitioners and scholars. Our website is a global clearinghouse of information, with resources in over 70 different languages and dialects.
Building on our record of impact, we support activists, NGOs, the policy community, philanthropies, and scholars to deepen their understanding and help popular nonviolent movements become more effective worldwide.
We also work with movement funders to develop and implement meaningful monitoring, evaluation, and learning (MEL) processes that deliver value to movements, donors, and their allies.
Education and Training
Our education and training work draws on cutting edge research, case studies, and insights from practitioners to help participants gain knowledge, identify opportunities, overcome challenges, and build effective strategy. We cover a range of topics, including:
• Core principles of effective civil resistance.
• The historical record of civil resistance movements, and current trends.
• Movement building and varieties of movement leadership.
• Strategic and tactical planning.
• Responding to repression and making it backfire.
• Messaging and communications.
• Consolidating victories and preventing backsliding.
• Effective practices in movement support work.
Options for online and in-person services are outlined below, and suitable for a wide range of practitioners.
1. Interactive Workshops:
ICNC draws from a cohort of world class in-house and international trainers who have delivered workshops around the world for many years. These workshops can be in a standard or customized format, based on client and workshop participant needs.
• Checklist Workshop:
Ideal for movements that have “hit the wall” following initial mobilization, this interactive two-day workshop helps participants rapidly assess the state of their movement and current circumstances using a methodology developed by Dr. Peter Ackerman in his book Checklist to End Tyranny. The checklist workshop format enables them to brainstorm solutions, quickly aggregate and synthesize the most popular options, and strategize their way out of the cul-de-sac.
• Strategic Planning Workshop:
An intense workshop of two or more days focused on campaign planning, this training helps movements at any stage of development identify clear goals (internal and/or external) and plan thoroughly to achieve them. Based on the book The Path of Most Resistance by Ivan Marovic, it offers a structured process of analysis, goal setting, strategic planning, and message development, towards the formulation of a ready-to-use campaign plan.
• Movement Design:
This interactive workshop of two or more days engages participants in building the core components of a future movement, ranging from formulation of a vision to development of the movement identity and operating principles, as well as goal setting.
• Customized Workshops:
Designed for specific audiences and developed with input from partners, these workshops cover a range of topics related to civil resistance and nonviolent movements, tailored to address the perspectives and needs of workshop participants. Customized workshops may be offered for activists, journalists, and members of NGOs, the policy community, philanthropies and other groups that engage with civil resistance movements.
2. Staff Training:
ICNC offers staff training for governments and nongovernmental organizations on a variety of topics related to civil resistance, based on the needs of our clients. Engagements can range from short presentations to multi-day professional development seminars, and offer guidance ranging from fundamentals of civil resistance to customized content for incorporating movement support into specific field programs.
3. Coaching:
We offer on-call or regular coaching sessions to help practitioners from diverse backgrounds improve their work related to civil resistance movements. Coaching can be especially helpful as a follow-up activity after an individual or group has gone through an ICNC education and training program and is subsequently working to implement a plan or apply lessons learned to their own context.
4. Training of Trainers (ToT):
Often based on longer-term (3+ months) engagement with ICNC, ToT programs help movements build their own training capacities—enabling individuals to become knowledge redistributors, and offering experienced trainers the opportunity to improve their skills. Our ToT programs are based on tried and tested methodologies employed in ICNC’s Learning Initiatives Network project; USIP’s Strategic Nonviolent Action and Peacebuilding program; Rhize’s Global Coaching Fellowship; and the African Coaching Network. ICNC personnel played a critical role (either in their ICNC or independent capacity) in building and leading each of these successful past programs.
5. Online Courses:
Now entering our second decade of offering online courses, ICNC has a sophisticated and customized educational platform for engaging international audiences. Online courses take three forms:
• Participant-led Courses:
Our standard “Civil Resistance Struggles” course is a seven-week unmoderated (participant-led) course in which up to 60 participants learn the fundamentals of civil resistance and strategic thinking for movements.
• Partnership Courses:
To customize courses, ICNC engages with clients and/or potential course participants ahead of time to discern needs and adapt course curricula to specific contexts. In the past, together with local partners, we have developed courses with a regional focus and also in languages other than English.
• Fellowship Courses:
ICNC can coach fellows from around the world to develop and lead their own courses for participants in specific countries, regions and local languages. Fellowship courses are sometimes a follow up option after individuals have already experienced an ICNC participant-led or partnership course.
Movement Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning (MEL)
Monitoring, evaluation, and learning (MEL) processes should deliver value for grantees, donors, and their allies.
However, effective MEL processes for movements can differ from those of more traditional NGOs, since movements may be less-formally structured, have fewer dedicated personnel with MEL expertise, or have security concerns about acquiring and sharing certain forms of data.
Through years of experience, particularly with our blog and publications, ICNC excels in working with activists and grassroots organizers to distill their experiences and learning into published products that offer valuable insights to domestic and international audiences. Through this process, activist-authors may also gain confidence in their abilities as writers, and the resulting products can further bring validation and attention to them and their movements.
In some cases, we have also helped movement-support organizations develop their own blogs, to better tell the stories of the activists whom they serve.
Rates and Modes of Engagement
We work on an hourly basis or a project basis.
Hourly:
We are available to work on an hourly basis for ad hoc consultations.
Project basis:
Most of our work is done on a project basis. Each project is tailored to the needs of our clients, so prices for our services are developed based on an initial consultation.
Price quotes for workshops are based on numerous factors. In addition to the task of leading/facilitating a training workshop itself, our work can also involve advance preparation (background research and content preparation), content customization, logistical planning, on-site administration, and follow up. In some cases clients or other partners take on some of this work, and in others they ask ICNC to do so.
Online courses similarly are based on a variety of factors, including whether clients want ICNC to assist in participant recruitment and selection, content modification, course moderation, and/or offering other forms of participant engagement (i.e. presentations and mentoring sessions).
Sliding scale:
ICNC is a mission-driven non-profit organization. We will consider a sliding cost scale for potential clients who are mission-aligned and do not have sufficient financial resources to pay according to the above cost structure.