Civic groups require a variety of skills and capacities for this kind of work, including strategic planning, mapping the political terrain, building relationships, develop credible narratives and drawing on evidence to support policy positions. In addition to these skills, groups must also learn to take appropriate actions at each stage of the political cycle. Understanding how to take advantage of the political openings created by elections is critical to long term organizing strategies. Once you have determined your issue organizing strategy for upcoming elections, the following tools drawn from the country cases presented on this site, as well as those developed by other activists around the world, may provide inspiration as you implement your own activities.