Advocacy Engagement – 3 Things to Do Next

Last week, we discussed “the great disconnect” – the vast chasm between the majority of activities advocates are mobilized to take (i.e. email petitions) and what makes a difference to decision-makers.

Our point was not that no organization should ever launch an e-mail petition or mobilize on “click here to email your Senator” asks, but that too much of advocacy stops right there.

So, if you’re in that boat, what are the next three things you can do to start better aligning your advocacy activities with the kinds of things that make a difference on policy? How can you (re)train your activists to help them move up your engagement ladder with an understanding of why it matters?

By way of follow up, we offer these three ideas to get you started:

1. Pick 25 people to call.

Find 25 people in a high priority state or congressional district who’ve clicked to take action in the past, and give them a call. Anyone can call them – the Director of Advocacy, an outreach coordinator, a policy intern, the Executive Director – so long as the caller is friendly, knowledgeable about the issue, and wiling to spend five minutes per activist they reach offering profuse thanks, explaining the importance of additional action, and asking that activist to do something else, right now.

The something else can be stay on the line and participate in a call directly to a Member of Congress or Senator.  It can be committing to asking a question at a scheduled town hall with the Governor and sending an email to let you know how it went.  It can be anything that fits two criteria: (1) it’s higher on your engagement ladder, and (2) it’s higher on the “impact ladder” – i.e. it is effective at moving your policy goals forward.

2. Pick 25 additional people to send a personal email to.

In addition to (not instead of) calling your advocates, pick 25 more people in an important political geography to send a personal email. This email should come from an actual person, it shouldn’t go through Convio or Constant Contact or NGP or any of other myriad mass email systems.  It should be a real email from a real person to someone on your list who is near the bottom of your engagement ladder. The email should

• Personally thank the activist for his work in the past;
• Explain why the next step is important;
• Make the ask for the additional action;
• Give specific and detailed instructions;
• Provide direct contact information for the person to use if she has feedback or questions.

It doesn’t need to be HTMLed or fancy – just honest communication.

Again, the email can come from any real person in your organization, and the ask can be anything so long as it meets those two criteria: (1) it’s higher on your engagement ladder, and (2) it’s higher on the “impact ladder.”

3. Schedule an in-person meeting or a conference call to inform, train, and get insight from your top advocates.

Don’t worry at this point about developing an overarching revision of your segmentation strategy or figuring out how to classify all 3,000 or 300,000 people on your list. Just pick 25-50 people who live in a politically important geography  (the Congressional district represented by the chair of the committee that’s considering your priority legislation, for example) who have done more than click, or who have clicked many times if you don’t have people who’ve done more than click.  Make personal outreach to those folks – emails, phone calls, handwritten letters – to invite them to participate in an intimate conversation about the state of the policy priority they care about, the no-kidding advocacy needs to make a difference, and what they feel, think, and need to be leaders in making that difference.

You want 10-30 people on that call or in that meeting, and you want it to be an honest conversation with someone senior and knowledgeable.  Go to the conversation prepared with specifics.  For example, you know from conversations on the Hill that Congressperson SoAndSo is only hearing from the opposition, you need to turn people out to two upcoming town halls, generate 10 in-district visits, and at least one DC visit from people representing such-and-such a population.  The email petitions are helpful to demonstrate numbers, but they’re just not enough right now and you need these activists – these leaders – to help you bridge the gap. Be ready with the organizational back-up to support them.

None of this is easy, and none of it is free.  It takes effort, resources – people, expertise, interest, and yes, money – to mount an effective advocacy operation.  But if we’re to build our progressive advocacy capacity to make a real difference on policy, we need to bridge that “great divide,” and one or more of these three ideas might be the next best step for your organization to start crossing that bridge.

And, of course, we’re here to help.  Give us a call at 202.683.8465 if you need us.

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