our work

An alternative approach to creating change

Current efforts to address social and environmental challenges rarely appear adequate considering the scale of the problems that we face. In order to cultivate the widespread public demand required to successfully and durably tackle issues such as climate change and inequality, we need to engage the long-held (but often overlooked) cultural values that underpin our concern for one another and the wider world.

At Common Cause, we support a growing, global community of people and organisations who are working to strengthen and uphold intrinsic values, such as social justice, freedom and unity with nature. We do this by enabling deeper values literacy: conducting research, developing resources and running learning programmes for cultural influencers across a broad range of sectors. We also collaborate directly with partners, helping them to bring intrinsic values to life in their work, and sharing what we learn from these collaborations.

Some of our projects are summarised below, and we love hearing from prospective partners, so do get in touch if you have an idea for potential collaboration that you would like to explore with us. Together we can co-create cultures with community, environment and equity at their heart.

Our three goals

Growing knowledge and motivation to engage at the level of values

Our work begins by advocating for the importance of human values in creating durable change. We support people to examine their own personal values, as well as the values that they find championed within their work and the wider culture around them. Through exploration of the research, and opportunities to come together with others to question and reflect, we build greater values literacy amongst cultural influencers and encourage a deeper commitment to strengthening intrinsic values in our collective work.

Developing capacity to adopt a values-led approach to work

We know that simply being aware of values research is not enough to put this thinking into action. As well as offering workshops, learning programmes and resources to help build greater knowledge of values, we also support the practical application of values-thinking in real life projects. We do this by partnering with organisations across the UK and Europe, including NGOs and arts and culture organisations, to develop and test ways to further champion and strengthen intrinsic values.

Key Projects

The Values of Greater Manchester

Values in the Media

Becoming More Than the Sum of Our Parts

Our network

Many causes are intricately connected through the values upon which they draw. We support people from a broad range of issue areas and cultural roles, to connect to one another, discover their shared values and work together to strengthen them across society. We know that we must advocate for our shared, intrinsic values in order to help build a new culture that champions equality and justice rather than ambition or financial success. With this in mind, we aim to support our network – those connected to Common Cause and interested in putting values-thinking into action – by arranging opportunities for people to share and learn from one another, tackle challenges and find inspiration from each other’s work.

Check out some of the ways we support our network below and do reach out if you have other ideas on what we could offer. We’d love to hear from you!

These are informal, online opportunities for people who have attended a Common Cause workshop or training event to come together, share updates about how they are applying values-thinking to their work and troubleshoot any challenges with others in a friendly environment. These monthly meetings have a specific theme either selected by the Common Cause team or suggested by members of the network. To find out about upcoming Meet Ups be sure to sign up to our newsletter.

We have a dedicated slack channel for those who are interested in values to explore questions and share examples of engaging values-led content.

To join the Slack channel, please email us on info@commoncausefoundation.org.

Every month we send a newsletter that includes links to the latest thinking on values. We also try to share news relating to values from within our network. If you are working on a particular values-led project, do let us know and we’d love to share what you’ve been up to. Subscribe to the newsletter here.

Common Cause works to share new ideas and best practice about how to reinforce and animate intrinsic values

– if you are working in ways that support this, we’d love to hear about what you are up to, and perhaps find ways to help others learn from your experience

What our partners say

It's no exaggeration to say that the New Citizenship Project wouldn't exist without the work of Common Cause. Their evidence-based approach to understanding the true nature and unlocking the huge extent of human potential, and their constant commitment to reminding all those working for a better world of the "common cause" we all ultimately share, represent the foundations on which all of NCP's work is built.

In my entire career, this is the first time I’ve felt I can clearly see a way ahead: that’s what the Common Cause analysis has done for me. And everywhere I go I meet people who are coming to the same conclusion. It seems to me that there’s an opportunity here to create something the environment movement has been lacking all this time: a strategic framework for action, with the capacity for translation into societal change.

Common Cause’s work is vital in communicating the solid scientific evidence base for the importance of compassionate values in shaping how we can better relate to our environment and each other. With their talent and energy in reaching the public with simple, engaging information, Common Cause is altering mindsets and broadening perspectives. Thanks to the team’s dedication, space is emerging for sharper dialogue on how to build a better, more sustainable future.

I admire the evidence-based approach of the Common Cause Foundation. Capitalising on individuals' intrinsic motivation is important to encourage wide-scale sustainable behaviour change.

Common Cause’s work on values and frames is foundational to PIRC's work on framing and narrative! Common Cause taught us the importance of having our values run through everything that we do, from organisational strategy to collaboration and partnership, from project design through to evaluation, your values should be the foundation of everything you do. Values aren't a "statement" they're living, breathing, evolving, guiding principles or they're nothing.

Common Cause's research and insights have been very influential in our work at The Workshop. Our approach to researching, developing and testing public narratives has been informed by the research done by the Common Cause team, as has our work to help people implement the insights of our research. Our Narratives for Change training courses feature Common Cause's work because they do such a great job of making complex ideas about values and frames accessible and useful to people.

SUPPORT THE WORK OF COMMON CAUSE

Donations from supporters help us to develop new projects and keep our resources free for anyone to use. One-off donations are crucially important, and regular donations help us plan for the future even more.

We are a small team and make the most of the resources we have. Help us expand the insight and impact of working with values, to create the ambitious and durable responses needed for the challenges our world and societies face.