Step 3: Identify your campaign beneficiary

Your campaign beneficiary

Better understand your campaign beneficiary and your potential biases. You may already be working on suicide prevention with a particular population that experiences higher rates of suicidal thoughts and behaviors. The following questions can help you as you begin a new campaign or add to existing work.

Exercise 3 in the Brainstorm Book will help your team clarify who and what you will be addressing.

1. Which campaign beneficiary can we best serve with a campaign right now?
2. Why did we choose this/these group[s]?
   1. What data do we have to support this choice?
   2. How does this align with or complement existing efforts?
   3. Is it duplicative of similar work our organization or others have conducted? If yes, how will our work further contribute or amplify other efforts?
   4. Is this a hard to reach or easy to reach audience?
   5. What biases might be driving our choice? Have we chosen a group we are comfortable and have experience with? Have we chosen a group that is easier to access rather than the group who most needs support?
3. What groups or sub-groups did we not consider? Why?
4. What unique contributions can we make to serve the campaign beneficiaries?
5. What are our assumptions about suicide risk among our potential campaign beneficiaries?
6. What unconscious biases or assumptions might I or we hold about the proposed beneficiary group(s)? How might that affect our ability to create a meaningful campaign? Consider using this resource from the Veterans' Administration to learn more about unconscious bias.