History

Strategic renewal and sustained impact: 2024 has been a transformative year for NEON, one that capped nearly a decade of growth with fresh vision. NEON undertook an organisation-wide mission and strategy review in collaboration with its board, charting out bold changes to implement in 2025 and beyond. As part of this, the Movement Building and Comms Hubs developed new five year strategies that will shape the work they do going forward. 2024 also saw NEON scale up our Worker-led Transition project, experiment with placed-based work - such as 18 months of support and training in strategy and organising for economic justice organisation in Birmingham - and design and deliver a new set of media trainings. We also brought together organisations from our network to share knowledge on operational and financial resilience, encouraging generosity and building movement capacity. By the end of 2024, NEON had around 26 staff and dozens of active projects, standing as a key piece of the movement infrastructure in the UK. As NEON enters its next chapter, it does so with a rejuvenated strategy, a strong values-driven culture, and an unwavering activist spirit. From humble beginnings to a nationwide network, NEON’s journey (2016–2024) showcases the power of organising, training, and solidarity to spark lasting change – and it’s only just getting started.

New training and bold campaigns: 2023 saw NEON continue to break new ground. In March, we launched a brand-new Anti-Oppressive Facilitation training to help organisations handle conflict and equity in movement spaces. NEON also moved decisively into the intersection of climate and worker justice: partnering with the Trades Union Congress, it began a Worker-Led Transition project to ensure climate solutions put workers first. Meanwhile, with an eye on the upcoming general election, NEON responded to movement needs by demystifying UK electoral law. Starting in July 2023, it convened expert seminars and training that reached over 150 organisations (500+ people) on how campaigners can push their issues in the election period without legal barriers. NEON’s Transformative Organising work also evolved, providing one-on-one coaching to organisers in housing, trans rights, racial justice and more – reflecting rising demand for personalised movement support - and engaging in sustained placed-based work. Through all this, NEON kept nurturing its activist network and coalitions, ensuring that voices from the grassroots were trained, connected, and ready to win. 2023’s accomplishments – pioneering conflict-inclusive training, uniting labour and climate movements, and powering up civil society for elections – embodied NEON’s role as an agile, visionary hub for UK social movements.

A powerhouse for movements: 2022 was a year of record impact for NEON. The network now supported over 1,000 organisers and campaigners across the UK, working on issues spanning climate, housing, healthcare and migration. With three robust hubs driving its work, NEON ensured “thousands of opportunities for progressive messages to reach the mainstream” through media appearances and communications campaigns. It also produced influential guides and training that helped shape public narratives on economic and social justice. NEON’s incubator bore fruit: Just Treatment scaled up its patient-led campaigns (winning expanded access to cystic fibrosis and breast cancer drugs), and new initiatives blossomed. Nurses United, another incubated group, hired organisers and amplified nurses’ voices in national debates on health care. Importantly, NEON doubled down on practicing our values – fostering an internal culture centred on joy, care and justice even as it expanded. 2022 showcased NEON as a mature powerhouse: sustainable, highly networked, and driving forward a vision of social and economic transformation on multiple fronts.

Expansion and innovation: In 2021, NEON built on the lessons of the previous year to further scale up its support for movements. With social movements re-emerging from lockdowns, NEON ramped up activities both online and in-person. It launched new initiatives like the Transformative Organising programme, offering training and tailored coaching to organisers building power and fighting on issues from housing rights to trans justice. Internationally, NEON’s reach quietly grew as well, with its training resources and narrative guides being picked up by allied groups overseas.The organisation emerged from the tumult of 2020 with greater capacity, new funding, and an ever more diverse network. 2021 was about growth, but also about sharpening NEON’s focus on strategic priorities – preparing the ground for the big campaigns and collaborations to come.

Organising through a pandemic: 2020 tested social movements like never before, but NEON rose to the challenge. As COVID-19 shut down physical gatherings, NEON swiftly pivoted to online training and digital community support so organisers could continue strategizing and learning together. Movement Builders and other workshops were retooled for virtual delivery, allowing NEON to reach activists in every corner of the UK despite lockdowns. In the midst of the pandemic, NEON also threw its weight behind calls for a just recovery – amplifying campaigns to protect workers, renters, and the vulnerable from the economic fallout. Through mutual aid networks, online rallies, and policy campaigns, NEON members pushed for community care and systemic change. This year also underscored NEON’s internal strength: the organisation prioritized staff wellbeing and sustainability during the crisis, modeling the resilient and caring culture it advocates.

Broadening the movement ecosystem: 2019 saw NEON consolidate the previous years’ momentum and forge new alliances. Building on the success of incubating Just Treatment (which by now was winning access to lifesaving drugs for NHS patients), NEON brought in fresh campaigns to broaden the progressive ecosystem. It began supporting projects like Nurses United UK, a budding network of frontline nurses advocating for the NHS and healthcare justice, and climate organisers who would soon form Breathe.

NEON significantly expanded its Communications Hub, hiring new staff and launching innovative programmes to shape narratives. The Spokesperson Network and a new Press Officer Network ensured progressive messages reached mainstream media over 1,000 times by the end of 2018. In November, NEON convened 70 communications strategists from movements around the world (from Ireland’s repeal the 8th campaign to South Africa’s housing justice organizers) to design winning messages on climate, inequality and resisting the far right.

NEON members rallied for causes like the Stansted 15 (preventing deportation flights) and Grenfell fire justice. Crucially, 2018 saw NEON go nationwide with trainings – taking Movement Builders to Manchester, Glasgow, Leeds and Cardiff, and hiring staff outside London to truly become a UK-wide network. By the end of 2018, NEON was hosting and incubating new movement organisations – for example, supporting the first summit of KIN (a network for Black activists) and acting as the home for Just Treatment, a patient-led campaign taking on Big Pharma. NEON’s rapid growth was matched by its outsized impact.

A strategic leap: 2017 was a breakthrough year as NEON embarked on a new 2017–2020 strategy to supercharge its growing membership. NEON had three flagship programmes – Movement Builders, OrgBuilders, and the Spokesperson Network – to connect and skill-up organisers for social and economic justice. The impact was immediate: Movement Builders ran its first intensive training in London and Manchester, equipping 60 organisers with skills in building aligned and powerful social movements. OrgBuilders kicked off monthly coaching for leaders from 11 organisations, strengthening everything from their fundraising skills to strategy (participants called the support “invaluable”). NEON also co-led the Framing the Economy project, bringing together a cohort of comms professionals and messengers and training 400 people to reframe economic debate. By focusing on “battleground” issues (housing, migrants’ rights, precarious work, energy democracy), NEON fostered new coalitions. This year NEON truly hit its stride as a movement builder, ending 2017 with expanding resources and a vibrant network of over 1,600 activists across 900+ groups.

NEON goes independent: After a ‘conscious decoupling’ from the New Economics Foundation NEON established itself as an independent network of progressive organisers in 2016. With a small core team and a big vision, NEON began uniting activists across issues – from climate and racial justice to housing and workers rights – under one banner. This first year apart from NEF was about building community and ambition, crafting NEON’s activist culture of solidarity, generosity, and respect that would underpin our work for years to come. We hosted the ‘Bridges Not Walls’ coalition as people came together to resist a Trump Presidency.

NEON launched on 14 March 2013 as part of the New Economics Foundation. We were inspired by some amazing organisations such as Momentum, AYNI and Media Matters. We rolled out our first programmes, began monthly socials and became a network - focused on supporting social movements to replace neoliberalism with an economy based on social and environmental justice.

We ran political economy training and summer schools in 2013-2015 with trade unions, politicians, prospective MPs and leaders from across issues to give a groundwork in economics and fighting austerity. We also started Campaign Lab in 2013 - training up a series of key leaders across the field, including many leaders in the progressive space and new economy movement organisations.

In 2014 we launched the Spokesperson Network - our flagship programme which trains and books spokespeople into the media.