Once in a while, I have the opportunity to look in the rearview mirror at my 20-plus-year career working at organizations such as Catholic Charities USA and Goodwill Industries International as an advocacy and government affairs professional.
Identifying advocacy leaders within the network was always a headache. While local agencies had a footprint in key legislative districts, we often didn't know who within the agency (besides a ridiculously busy CEO) to contact when we needed that agency to reach out to their Member of Congress about an important issue. Furthermore, once we were lucky enough to identify the advocacy leader at the key agency, that person often lacked the existing relationship with the congressional offices and the skills to effectively engage them.
There are a number of factors that make it difficult to identify rising leaders in advocacy networks. A big one is that it is hard for grassroots advocacy organizations to consistently detect, track, and monitor most grassroots activities (short of emails sent to congressional offices through online legislative action centers) conducted by their citizen advocates. Another challenge is that budding grassroots/grasstops supporters can quickly grow apathetic when they receive frequent calls to action to send form emails to Congress. Just how many times can an advocate hear about a supposed advocacy emergency before they start to tune out all appeals from your organization?
In other words, they feel that they have been left in Form Email Purgatory.
Offer Your Advocates an Alternative to Another Ineffective Form Email Campaign
Research conducted by the Congressional Management Foundation proves that citizens who take the time to build strong relationships with Members of Congress and staff have a great deal more influence than simply participating in form email campaigns. By investing in efforts to break your advocates out of Form Email Purgatory, you increase your organization's influence and your influence on policy decisions that matter to your cause. Get in touch now to explore how your organization can forge more grassroots supporters into influential advocates.
** This article, written by Seth Turner, was originally posted on the Congressional Management Foundation's website on February 26, 2019. For more information about CMF, go to www.congressfoundation.org.
