How to start

a Humanist organization

Membership guides 1/4 Contents and foreword

GARY MCLELLAND • Goals and scope (p. 3) • Naming and branding (p. 8) IHEU Chief Executive

Look for consensus on your aims One organization, many names Short and long term goals Tips for the name is growing faster than ever, everywhere. How wide is your horizon? About the branding Strategic plan outlines Logo guidelines Well-established humanist organizations are growing and broadening their work, while new communities rise up in every Examples from our Member Organizations • Foundation (p. 11) part of the world.

• Constitution and bylaws (p. 5) Tell a story We conceived this guide primarily for new and developing Your values, your identity Target your audience humanist organizations. In a spirit of solidarity and Bylaws Registration international cooperation, we asked all our existing Member Organizations to provide their advice and examples of real-life Examples from our Member Organizations • Online/social media presence (p. 13) experiences for the new generation of humanist organizations.

• Internal Rules (p. 7) Your new business card It is with their help that we created this guide in six chapters, Basic tips for media reputation Roles which is only the first of a 4-part resource to help Humanist About Facebook organizations at all levels. Elections Our Member Organizations online General Assemblies The IHEU publishes this guide with the hope that it will further Membership fees the ongoing development of Humanism worldwide. The A graphical example of a possible structure growth and development of organized humanism may seem unstoppable, but it does depend on the daily efforts of each of us to go on.

London, 31 August 2017 Click on most logos and thumbnails to open links Goals and scope to documents and websites

Look for consensus on your aims Let’s say for instance that one of • In the third year - create a your main purposes is to introduce campaign, the aim of which Before even thinking about the humanist ceremonies in your is to gain legal recognition of name of your organization and country. In that case a possible list humanist ceremonies in your its constitution, you should think of goals could be: country. carefully about your purposes. The purposes of the organization will • By the end of the first year - train This way of conceiving your determine its goals and its range 10 humanist celebrants; purposes, and the goals needed to of activities. The more clearly you • By the same date - create a achieve your purposes, not only will can state your purposes the more website to promote and manage help you drafting a strategic plan easily everything else will follow. humanist ceremonies; (see the paragraph below), but it will • By the end of the second year - also allow you to find a good balance Hopefully you will have a group celebrate at least 30 ceremonies; between idealism and realism. of founding members. At this Short and long term goals stage you should try to obtain consensus on your purposes Once you have decided your main among the founding members of long-term purposes, fix some your organization. intermediate goals.

Of course, in the future, there will Think of it like a sports game: probably be debate about how your purpose is to win the game, you will achieve your goals. But so you have to score the goals at this stage everyone has to be along the way! “on the same page” concerning the purposes of the organization, Some will be shorter-term goals, because what you want defines like getting the organization who you are, especially in the started, while others will be The incredible growth of members of the Norwegian Humanist Association in case of a brand new humanist longer-term. organization. between 1956 and 2017 - click on the image for more information

3 • On a national scale, working in your case, for plenty of factors - forbes.com/sites/ for humanism in your country, for example because maybe in your davelavinsky/2013/10/18/ no matter where your country people is not familiar with strategic-plan-template-what-to- headquarters are; the term “Humanism”, or because include • On an international scale, of the government hostility, etc. coordinating the work of Examples from our MOs different national organizations That said, to write a good strategic on a same humanist subject. plan you can use some standard Click on the images to download conceptual tools that have proven examples of strategic plan, one Strategic plan outlines to be valid for all situations. from the American Humanist For example, a powerful tool to Association, the other from the Writing a good strategic plan understand your organization’s : is the key for every successful potentiality and criticalities is the How wide is your horizon? organization in all fields. Indeed, so-called SWOT analysis. it allows you to better understand While defining your purposes, the specificity of your situation you need to think about fixing the and, consequently, how you could scope of your organization, that best adapt to it in order to reach is, how wide your operating range your goals and purposes. will be. This is not about how many active members your organization Think about it: to achieve the can count at the moment, nor how same exact goal, two organizations many resources you have at your around the world can be forced disposal, but rather how wide the to adopt two radically different extent of your action will be. strategies, given that every country has a different history, its own For example, you can work - from particularities, its unique social, SWOT helps you to identify in the smallest to the largest scope: cultural, and political tradition. a graphically useful way your That is why you have to carefully organization’s internal strengths • On an urban scale, organizing ponder what approach to use. and weaknesses, as well as its local events and humanist external opportunities and threats. campaigns in your city; Be aware then that adopting the • On a regional scale, doing the same strategies used by other Follow the link for more info on same in your region, county, or bigger, consolidated organizations SWOT and on how to write a good state in case of federal states; worldwide may prove to be wrong strategic plan:

4 Constitution and bylaws

Your values, your identity A definitive point of reference for In future your organization may Humanist values is the Amsterdam consider to join the IHEU as a All Humanist organizations share Declaration. This is the official Member Organization - we will a common set of Humanist values. defining statement of world show you how to do it in the second However, every organization is Humanism. First made in 1952 in section of the guide. unique because of the cultural and Amsterdam during the first World political context, the individuals Humanist Congress and updated For now, you may want to involved, and the situation in on the 50th anniversary in 2002, consider that in joining the IHEU, which you find yourself. the organizations agree that their describes what Humanism is and own objects (purposes) must be Your constitution should what humanists stand for. You can compatible with the objects of the reflect both the universality of find multiple translations of the IHEU, which are (Bylaws 2): the humanist values and the Amsterdam Declaration here: to promote Humanism throughout A constitution can be defined as a list circumstances which are unique to iheu.org/humanism/the- your organization. amsterdam-declaration/ the world, to develop Humanism as of basic principles and laws of a social a , to represent organized group that determine the powers and Humanism in international bodies, to duties of the members and guarantee defend and the rights certain rights to the people in it. The Amsterdam of humanists, to develop organized Humanism in every part of the world You can draw on the examples on Declaration and to build a strong and effective next page to inform your constitution. global organization. the offi cial defi ning statement Indicate in your constitution the of World Humanism A local or national organization values that you want to promote and would not have the exact same defend. These values will define the objects as this, but as an IHEU identity of your organization and in Member Organization your objects the future will always be there when should not contradict the objects of you have to take hard strategic and the IHEU. executive decisions.

5 • your values and principles will stand above your internal rules, as a more general guide, which will need to be amended less often; • usually a constitutional change will require democratic input from the members, whereas an elected board or executive committee may be empowered to make changes to your internal rules when the situation requires. Bylaws Examples from our Members Once you have listed your basic On most websites of IHEU Member principles and values, you will Organisations you can easily find need to define the internal examples of constitutions and rules of your organization. This bylaws - to see the list of our MOs may include the roles within websites follow the link below: the organization, the rules for elections, the frequency of general http://iheu.org/membership/our- meetings, the procedure to members/ become a member, and so on. Clicking on the images aside you At this stage, you can decide to can download instead examples either include the internal rules of different constitutional in your constitution or to write documents from 4 IHEU Member a separate document named Organizations: “Bylaws”, “Internal rules”, “Statute”, or similar. It is up to you whether • HELU Uganda to differentiate between your • Human-Etisk Forbund Constitution and your Bylaws. • Conway Hall Ethical Society The advantage in keeping this • Free Society Institute documents separate are that:

6 Internal rules the General Assembly

paying members non-paying members You can have as many internal procedures for voting and a with voting rights without voting rights rules as you need, customizing the definition of who is eligible to vote. bylaws to your particular needs, but in general, as a democratic General assemblies SETS THE GENERAL POLICIES organization, you should include AND DEMOCRATICALLY ELECTS at least the following: An article stating the procedure and the frequency with which your Roles organization will hold a General Assembly (or General Meeting). the Board An article specifying in detail the different roles in your This should also state the powers organization. Most civil society and duties of the General Assembly, organizations will have at least a procedures for proposing motions President Vice-President Treasurer Board members President or Chairperson, a Vice- to the meeting, defining who can President, a Treasurer, a fixed take part, and how many votes are number of Board members, and need for a quorum. Individual supporters. Membership fees WHICH DECIDES THE STRATEGY In this article you have to include AND GIVES THE EXECUTIVE MANDATE TO for how long the office will be held An article defining the methods by by someone elected into that role, which an individual can become how they will be elected, and the a member of your organization, the Staff responsibilities of each position. the amount of money he/she has to pay, what goes with the Elections membership fee, etc.

An article specifying how often Right you can see a possible CEO Secretary Staff members Volunteers there will be elections for the organization structure - it is only one above-specified roles, the example among the many others.

7 Click on logos Naming and branding

Now that you defined the basic principles and the internal rules it is time to find the right name and a good brand that describe and reflect the identity of your organization.

You have plenty of options available, as the variety of names and logos chosen by IHEU Member Organizations testifies - see examples aside.

One organization, many names

The IHEU has Member Organizations from across the non-religious spectrum. There are many organizations with “Humanist” in the name, as well as organizations that use “Atheist”, “”, “Secular” and so on. We also admit organizations which embody humanist values but which define themselves in some other way, for example the “Centre for Civil Courage” (Croatia), and “Urban House” (Suriname).

8 Tips for the name About the branding

Notice that in general there has As you can see below, many IHEU organisations, independent been a tendency in recent years to Member Organizations use the groups or individual humanists. adopt shorter names, for example “” symbol, as well as This can be very important in the British Humanist Association the IHEU itself. The symbol in used in company and charity law. became “Humanists UK”, and the various forms, colours, shapes, and Guatemalan Secular Humanist flavours. Below you can find the slightly Association became “Humanists re-designed, curved version of the Guatemala” - see aside. A shorter It is up to you whether you prefer Happy Human that the Norwegian name maybe easier to remember to use the “Happy Human” in your Humanist Association offered the and more effective in your official logo and branding. Humanists UK world in 2005, used also by the written and oral communications. holds the trademark for the original IHEU - you can download it from: Happy Human symbol and freely You may want to consider licenses the original 1965 design humanism.org.uk/wp-content/ adopting both a “legal name”, for use by bona fide humanist uploads/modern.jpg longer and more detailed, and organisations around the world - you a “business name”, shorter and can download it from: more immediate, as in the case of “Bogotá Corporation for the humanism.org.uk/humanism/the- Advancement of Reason and happy-human-symbol ”, better known as simply “Bogotá Atea”. Similarly, Some organizations use a distinct many organizations are known by variation on the Happy Human their acronym, such as “Center for symbol as part of their own logo. Inquiry”, widely known as “CFI”. These variations on the original should be treated as belonging Anyway, what really matters is that to that organization only and you will be consistent in how your not copied without permission - name and your logo are used, to organizations need to protect the reinforce your identity as a stable boundary between their work/ and competent organization. identity and that of other humanist

93 Logo guidelines

Once you decide which logo to adopt, it is useful to write down the guidelines for using it consistently, so that everyone inside and outside your organization will use in the right way in all different possible situations.

If you want to have an idea of how a brand guide should be structured have a look at the one of the Humanist Society Scotland, downloadable here: iheu.org/wp-content/ uploads/2017/08/HSS_ BrandGuidelines.pdf

As you can see, a brand guide should include precise indications on at least:

• format of the logo file (JPG, JPEG, PNG, EPS, etc.) • logo size and allowed variations • colour palette • list of fonts used in your official communications • incorrect logo usage (see the example aside).

10 Foundation

The foundation of your • what your organization wants On the contrary, strive to create and drinks, games, live concerts, organization is an important to do, and why it is necessary; an emotional story that compels films, etc. moment, both for its symbolic • how you are going to achieve people to join your organization meaning and for the publicity your your goals; or to support it within their In this regard, a great resource is organization can receive from such • why you need the help and the capabilities. the Young Humanists “Practical an event. Once you have defined contribution of supporters. guide to organising a launch party”, and agreed with your members all Given that at this stage your downloadable clicking on the image below or the following link: the above-mentioned points, you mission is an aspiration, try to shape your message in the most are ready to organize an official humanism.org.uk/wp-content/ event that will formally signal the compelling way possible. uploads/FINAL-Young-Humanists- birth of your organization. launch-party-guide.pdf Target your audience Tell a story Another key point is “targeting This foundation event can be your audience”. Audiences might structured in any possible formal include: your existing members, or informal way, but we suggest your potential members, the wider that you can use the event as public, lawmakers you want to the first occasion to draw the lobby, and so on. Depending on attention of the public and of the the audience you are addressing, you need to adapt the tone and press on your organization. content of your message. When trying to achieve public You may be able to include some For example, if your know that your attention, it is important to tell numbers, for example if there is a organization will work mostly with a story. You need a good and good estimate of the non-religious young people and students, think inspiring story that demonstrates population in your country. But about a viral way to share your in the clearest and most don’t get into much detail in a announcement on social networks, convincing way: press release! organize an event with free snacks

11 • Non-profit organizations • Cultural/Social associations Click on the photo and the logo for links We will come back to this subject more in detail in the second part of the guide, “How to run a Humanist organization”. Sti

Still, it is important that you consider this option already at this stage to ensure that you are complying with any legal obligation - and, moreover, because in some Registration countries there may be advantages to formally registering as an Normally, at this stage it is not organization, for example certain strictly mandatory to think about tax exemptions, or the opportunity the legal registration of your to apply for certain grants. organization. However, in some countries it may be. On the right column, a photo from 2013 capturing the day when Many of our MOs started operating Siðmennt, the Icelandic Ethical in their countries years before Humanist Association, was officially they officially registered as a recognized by the Icelandic legally recognised organization. Governement as the first secular life Nonetheless, our advice is to stance organization in Iceland. carefully check the laws operating in your own country, looking for This was just the final step of a long the procedure to register as one of process started in the winter 1988- the following groups: 1989, when a small group organized the first civil confirmation in Iceland. • Civil society organizations • Charities One year later, in February 1990, • Non-governmental that same group officially founded organizations (NGOs) what we now call Siðmennt.

12 Click on images and videos for links Online and social media presence

In the digital era, your online and social media presence is one the most important aspects of your branding and operations that any new Humanist organization must consider.

The web and social media presence of an organization is so important that we decided to create a whole guide on “How to run a Humanist website and Facebook page”, which will be delivered as the last section of this 4-section guide.

Your new business card

All details and tips will be included in that section, but for the moment it is crucial that you understand how strategically important is to create and to keep updated your website and your social media profile. In fact, your presence online defines the reputation of your organization.

It is a business card, a showcase of your work, values and goals, a

13 platform for communicating with potential supporters, and for them to communicate with you.

At this stage you have to carefully define who will be responsible for the administration of the website and of the Facebook page of your organization.

About Facebook

Above you can see the Facebook cover photo used by UAAR for its recruitment campaign back in 2015 Basic tips for media reputation and, below it, an image shared in occasion of UAAR’s participation to Consistency Image consolidation the 2017 Gay Pride in Bologna.

Of course you can decide to use Define with accuracy the Be consistent in your Notice that the main writing of other social platforms, but at communication line you want to communication style so that your the cover photo is at the top of the moment Facebook is usually adopt and stick to it as much as followers can trust you, relate to the framework so that it won’t be the most appropriate forum in possible. you, and know the underlying covered by the profile picture once widest use for any kind of social values that you represent. uploaded on the page. organization. Reliability Consolidating the image and For this kind of tips, please have Click on the logo or the link to know You should aim to be known the identity of your organization a look at the official Facebook how to set up a Facebook page: as reliable, so be sure to check you will secure the loyalty of the engagement guide: your stories and sources visitors of your website and of the Facebook.com/business/learn/set- before posting anything - you followers of your page, who may facebook.com/business/ads-guide/ up-facebook-page absolutely want to avoid to be then decide to become individual engagement known as “fake news”! supporters of your organization.

14 Our Member Organizations online

As already announced, we will come back to this specific subject more into details in the fourth part of the guide. YouTube Still, here is a short preview of how remains the best platform for uploading and sharing long HD videos and why our Member Organizations are using all the different social networks - click on all pics for links.

Instagram is the perfect platform for sharing high quality photos and images

Twitter is ideal for sharing news and updates from live events

Meetup is used by many local groups worldwide, especially in big cities

15 Guide contents & layout: Contacts and info Giovanni Gaetani

On the right side of the page you can see a map of IHEU presence worldwide, updated to August 2017 - click on it to see the list of our 140 Member Organizations.

Below the map, you can find all links to our website and social networks profiles - you can click on each icon to be riderected to them.

For any enquiry related to this guide or to simply have more information on the IHEU, you can write us at [email protected]

If you already part of an organization and you want to let www.iheu.org it join our international humanist family, you can apply here: /iheunion iheu.org/membership/join /iheu If you want to become an individual supporter of the IHEU [email protected] you can do it following this link: iheu.org/support/join +44 20 7490 8468