Make Your Hill Day Work for You

We build political and policy campaigns to win. Often, a component of those campaigns is bringing people to the Hill in DC or state capitols across the country to advocate for the issue with the people who make policy. One of our favorite people to work with to ensure Hill Days are smoothly organized and effectively executed is Darcy Scott Martin.  This week we’re thrilled to feature Darcy’s tips on making your Hill Day work for you.

–

Every day thousands upon thousands of people descend on Capitol Hill in hopes of swaying members of Congress to either agree with their agenda or become a champion of their issue.  Hill Days can be a very effective advocacy tactic.  Like all things in politics, on the Hill there is intense competition among hundreds of issues, agendas, and messages.  To compete successfully and make your Hill Day a success, keep these three things in mind as a starting point:

1. Constituents matter.

It is very important to offices that the advocates you bring be from the district or the state whose member you are visiting. If you have members of Congress who are pivotal to your issue through leadership on a committee or as authors of a bill, go out and recruit a constituent to come to your Hill day.  You will get real action from an office as well as the chance to develop an advocate who will work your issue back home. Just because Vermont is next door to New Hampshire does not mean that the New Hampshire members of Congress or staff will be responsive.  And certainly don’t try to pass an advocate off as a constituent.

2. Do I have some materials for you – or, look at our pretty folders!

In a perfect world, you will arrive at the meeting with a single sheet of paper with bullet points that adequately explain your issue. The more likely scenario is that you have been unable to pare your materials down to one page, so you have filled a folder, both sides, with materials about the issue. Hill staff will gladly give long testimonials about how little time they have to look at materials.  Once you have left the office, the chance that your materials will get a good review are somewhere between zero and none.

If it is physically impossible for you to limit yourself to one page, at least create a one-pager that can be taken out of the folder and handed to the staff person, therefore forcing them to lay their eyes on your points.  A hand-delivered, closed folder will most likely go on top of a pile of hand-delivered, closed folders that reaches pretty close to the ceiling back on the staff person’s desk.  And once one more folder is placed on top of it – that is the end of that.  Same for CDs, DVDs and any other item that takes one more step than scanning a one-pager of information.  Your only recovery from this fatal over-delivery of materials is excellent and persistent follow-up.

3. Mine the Hill Day gold.

The gold of a Hill Day is mined in follow-up. Great pictures under the Cherry Blossoms and shots with the Member of Congress that advocates can post on Facebook are always a hit.  But the real reason you spent time recruiting your membership who are constituents to come to Hill Day was to convince legislators that people outside the beltway care.  No matter how many people, coordinated shirts or buttons were on the Hill for your issue on that day, I can guarantee you, there were more for someone else’s issue.  Train your advocates to follow up with the staff members they met that day.  This is a chance for them to reinforce those points that were buried in too much material.  Advocates should also make an appointment with in-district staff as a follow up to the meeting.  Hopefully, you can work with them to create an opportunity for either the Member or staff to come to an event, ribbon cutting, tour, or anything else that creates another chance to feature your issue in the district. The day the Hill staff say, “Hmm, here is some legislation on that issue I learned about.  I better contact my constituent who is an expert on this back home and see how it is perceived,” is the day you hit a home run with your Hill Day.  Heck, with that kind of response, you might even consider having a second one!

–

Darcy Scott Martin has sent thousands upon thousands of advocates to the Hill over the last decade, Susan G. Komen for the Cure, National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization, American Diabetes Association, AARP, ACLU, Habitat for Humanity International, to name a few.  If you would like more information about how to maximize the Hill experience for your advocates, let us know and we’ll put you in touch with Darcy.