270 Strategies has led projects in more than 20 countries and on six continents. As the United Nations General Assembly meets in New York City this week, we’re reflecting on what we’ve discovered about organizing in different countries and cultures around the world, and why we care so much about this work. As the world’s leaders tackle poverty, climate insecurity, the refugee crisis, and many other global issues this week, we consider the role we are fortunate to play in helping governments, organizations, and even companies do this work better.

The first question you may be asking is, does our model really work outside the borders of the United States? It does! The organizing principles we have learned and refined are not just adaptable by accident. Adaptability is baked in. We know that people are best mobilized to take action by people who share things like culture and history. Wherever we work, whether it’s Sacremento or Sao Paolo, we build organizing structures that fit the community and reflect the people who live there. That means anywhere we go, we’re working with people on the ground to figure out who the local leaders are and where the people we want to organize live, work, and play.

So what does this really look like on the ground? Social customs have a huge influence on the strategies and tactics that will work best in a given culture. For example, in Israel people regularly talk to strangers, and there’s a general curiosity and openness to debate someone holding a clipboard. Canvassing on street corners, at the mall, on campus, or anywhere in public is incredibly productive. This approach tends to be less successful in Eastern Europe.

Another familiar tactic, house parties, are a big hit in some countries, especially where people have a hospitality-oriented culture and get really excited about sharing food with their neighbors. But in Hungary, for example, the idea of inviting strangers to your home is pushing beyond comfort levels. Even in the UK, we’ve found the idea of hosting politically tinged events at home to be unpopular — but they’re a hit at the local pub!

270 Strategies does data driven work. It informs our strategy and how we allocate resources to achieve our goals — but different countries have access to different kinds of data. We’ve had to get creative about how we collect, store, and use data, whether that’s building a new CRM from scratch or coming up with creative ways to track down information about the people we need to identify, persuade, and mobilize.

We engage people offline and online, so access to the internet is another important variable in how campaigns and strategies are developed. We have to think about how people get online before we design an effective campaign. In some places, every family or even individual has their own personal computer and smartphone. In places like Ghana or India, people are much more likely to get online on their phones. In some communities, Telegram and Twitter are the channels of choice, in others, it’s WhatsApp, Facebook, or SMS. We have to consider carefully how our audience will see our message and take action based on all of these factors.

Do you dream of a world without political television ads every election season? In many places, political campaigns are prohibited or severely limited in the ads they can place on television. Nice as that may be, this makes it more difficult to easily spread your message to the widest possible audience. Especially in these places, however, online ads have so far mostly been unregulated. The internet is becoming the next frontier for persuasion advertising, and campaigns in Eastern Europe and elsewhere have built online platforms to make sharing ads online even easier.

By remaining flexible, ready to learn, and building on principles that have proven successful, we’ve led all kinds of projects, all over the globe. It’s a thrill to solve each new organizing puzzle thrown our way, but the real privilege is the opportunity to help our clients make a positive impact in the world.