Making the world safe for grassroots advocacy

Just saw an interesting article / report on the Center for Lobbying in the Public Interest website discussing the concept of Nonprofit America as a force for democracy. The report outlines work done recently by Johns Hopkins University on the state of lobbying and advocacy in the non-profit community. Here are a few key findings:

• 73 percent of the groups surveyed reported engaging in some type of policy advocayc or lobbying during the year
• Well over half engage in some advocacy activity every month or more, although a very limited amount of resources are devoted to those efforts.
• Most organizations reported that those they serve (clients, members or patrons) are rarely involved in the advocacy efforts of the organization. Most of the work is done by the executive director.
• Most advocacy is directed toward state or local policy makers as opposed to federal.
• People get involved for three reasons: relevance of legislation to the organization itself, relevance of the legislation to the people it serves and interest of the executive director.
• Advocacy involvement is on the rise in the non-profit world, although the funds to undertake advocacy are still very limited.

What all this tells me is that while lobbying and advocacy are certainly an important part of non-profit life, there is SO MUCH MORE that could be done to encourage wider involvement. If one communication from an Executive Director of a group could be considered somewhat powerful, imagine the impact an organization could have with a properly mobilized grassroots army!

The good news is that most of this mobilization can be done with a limited budget using new social media tools. At a minimum, organizations wanting to enhance their advocacy efforts should set up a Facebook group and gather more supporters there. Blogs, Twitter and podcasts are other useful ways to get the word out.

I'll be doing more webinars in the future on these topics -- so stay tuned!

Blogs, Advocacy and YOU!

Just a quick note about a couple sessions I have coming up tomorrow. First of all, I'm doing an "Advocacy 101" webinar tomorrow, August 12th at 1:00pm. Learn more or register by clicking here. Second, I'm doing a session on blogging for First Class here in DC. You can learn more about that session at the First Class website.

Hmmm, what do advocacy and blogging have to do with one another? Well, the answer is communication! Blogging, if used properly, is an excellent way to get one's message out both to those that might be able to influence policy makers as well as to policy makers themselves. It's also a great way to build a business, which is the focus on the First Class session. So, whether you want to altruistically advocate or make some moolah (or both), you'll find something of value in these sessions.

MacGyver's Approach to Grassroots Advocacy

Believe it or not, I did a webinar yesterday on how MacGyver might approach grassroots advocacy. For the uninitiated, Macgyver was a larger-than-life fictional character in 1980's television who was constantly getting out of tough situations with everyday tools -- like he'd attach a ball point pen and a paper clip to a battery to generate a force field (not really, but you get the drift).

I generally think of him as the poor man's James Bond. He didn't have a fancy workshop dedicated to creating special spy devices. He just used whatever was laying around to achieve his goals.

At any rate, I think we have a lot to learn from Macgyver about advocacy, and I boiled down his approach to five basic principles, specifically:

• Leverage: Getting an elected official to move is sometimes as much about the force you apply indirectly as the direct pressure.
• Tools: I outlined some quick and easy advocacy tools that anyone can use -- for free!
• Knowledge: Macgyver always had obscure knowledge about chemistry and the like. The legislative process is almost as obscure and effective advocates (especially those leading campaigns) would do well to have as much background as possible in the process.
• Risks: Macgyver always took risks -- sometimes their necessary in advocacy as well.
• Luck (and persistence): Anyone can make their own advocacy luck through the mastery of leverage, tools, knowledge and risks. The persistent application of these approaches will ensure that any advocate can get out of a bind - just like Macgyver.

If you want to know more about the webinar, you can download the PPT on our social network page. And happy advocating!

I finally found it!: Government Relations Assessment Tool

Several years ago, the ASAE GR Council put together a really fabulous assessment tool for any government relations program. Problem is, it got lost on my hard drive. And I mean really lost. I've been meaning to share this with folks FOREVER and I finally found it! Yippee!

This really useful piece has several "self-assessment" questions that are relevant to any lobbying entity or advocacy campaign. Highlights include:

• Does the association have clearly stated goals and objectives in place for the government relations program? How often are the goals and objectives reviewed and is this procedure aligned with the association’s strategic planning or budgeting processes?
• Do you have a method of tracking grassroots actions taken by your members? Can you name 100 members who have taken action in the past six months? 50 members? (can vary the number depending on size of membership) In the past month?
• How is the relationship between the national/state/local chapter organizations? Is information shared equally? Are advocacy efforts coordinated between the units?

So, if you'd like to share in the joy, click here.

Want input on how citizens communicate with Congress?

Check out the Congressional Management Foundation's report on improving communications with elected officials. They've extended their deadline to July 28th (so ignore the fact that it says "comment by July 18th.") Any grassroots advocacy efforts that struggles with getting messages that have an impact through to your elected officials, this is the perfect opportunity to do something about it! At a minimum, it should be a very cathartic experience.

Also, I read on the Sunlight Foundation's blog about a really interesting visual representation of campaign contributions based on information from OpenSecrets.org. Those who put it together created a depiction of a notice board, such as one might see in a local store or community center, with notes on each "flyer" about the contributions from that sector of the economy.

I think this bulletin board really shows the bewildering array of interests that contribute to election campaigns. Sure, that's not necessarily immediately comforting -- but imagine if you were a legislator who was constantly bombarded with messages from all these folks. Seems to me that instead of having industries that are easily able to "buy and sell" legislators, you might be stuck instead with an unfocused and pretty confusing mess.

Hmmm, sounds like our electoral process.

It's what you say...

... not how you say it. Recent reports from the Congressional Management Foundation, Public Affairs Council (Grassroots Benchmarking Report) and others have many in the Association community a little "freaked-out" about the effectiveness of their grassroots advocacy communications with elected officials.

Why? Many groups spent thousands of dollars on advocacy tools designed specifically to send hundreds of form e-mails to an elected official's e-mail in-box. Turns out, these form communications are not really all that influential. These recent reports (and years of anecdotal evidence) suggest that personalized communications are the way to capture the hearts and minds of any legislative audience.

I hate to say "I told you so", but if you've attended any one of my advocacy training sessions or read anything on my site, including:

• The Advocacy Guru Frequently Asked Questions Page
• Articles on Effective Communications from our Article Vault
• My book
• Anyone of a dozen Tipsheet articles

I, well, told you so!

The important point here is that this isn't to say that e-mail in and of itself is ineffective. It can be a terrific means of getting a message across -- but only so long as the content is personal, relevant and timely. Moreover, even form communications can have their place as a means of learning more about the advocate network. People who are willing to send a form e-mail are great targets for personalized follow-up communications.

Association and grassroots leaders should be looking at what seems like "dire news" about their past efforts in this context, and I have three suggestions for anyone seeking to be more effective in this brave new world:

• Use what we've learned about form communications to inform future efforts. Consider ways to offer all advocates the opportunity to be involved at whatever level they deem appropriate
• Identify and motivate advocates who have been willing to send form communications in the past. Train them in more personalized (and more powerful) advocacy techniques
• Establish metrics (and expectations) that focus less on the quantity of communications and more on the quality

That's my story and I'm sticking to it!

Rock the Vote!

Check out our new "Rock the Vote" link from the Advocacy Associates home page. It's the new, hip place in town to get more information on the elections and register to vote!

You can install a similar button on your site -- just go to the Rock the Vote website for more information.