Successful Advocacy = Influence
"Every policy output is the result of a political input."
Bradley Tusk
If you are using BillTrack50, you are likely interested in influencing policy - legislation and/or regulations - in some way.
But how do you do that? And what tools - in addition to BillTrack50 - can you use to do that? Direct lobbying is one way. But let’s explore some others.
Grassroots Advocacy
Grassroots advocacy is the art of building broad-based support for an issue or organization. This is coalition building. This is changing hearts and minds. And then leveraging those advocates to make your case to elected officials for you.
This can be done the hard way - organizing, “fly-ins” or “advocacy days” and press conferences. But often today, it is done with “e-advocacy” - petitions, emails to elected officials, comments to regulators and even virtual fly-ins.
Grassroots advocacy software and services come in many levels - from DIY to white glove service. Some services that I’ve used and can recommend are:
OneClickPolitics is a trusted BillTrack 50 partner and provides award-winning solutions for both local, state and federal advocacy. Utilizing tools such as email, patch thru calls, video, social media, regulatory comments, and petitions, they are fully committed to your advocacy success. Consulting and advocate acquisition programs are also available.
Muster is another great e-advocacy solution. Muster’s tagline - Grassroots Advocacy Made Simple. Muster is highly rated for its ease of use, analytic tools and service.
Care2, a BillTrack50 partner, is a social network with an e-advocacy bent. Care2 can help you build a larger coalition and then deliver those messages to elected officials and policymakers through petitions or direct messages. Associations, coalitions, and nonprofits use Care2 to acquire new email and SMS list members for fundraising or advocacy campaigns: Quickly, reliably, and with consent! Win your next big advocacy victory by accessing our 60 million member Care2 community.
IssueVoter, a BillTrack50 partner, is a different kind of solution. They offer a free public service making civic engagement accessible, efficient, and impactful. They focus on driving voter participation and communication with elected officials. In particular, from the grassroots advocacy point of view, IssueVoter offers a partner program which includes tools to create bespoke IssueVoter pages to gather intelligence and/or drive action.
What If Media Group is a full white-glove service. Their Politics and Advocacy team can design and execute a complete grassroots advocacy campaign strategy, and have years of experience in the business.
Grasstops Advocacy
While grassroots advocacy tries to use numbers to influence public officials, grasstops relies on relationships. Grasstops advocates are your “super advocates” usually due to access or pre-existing relationships.
These are the people that are hardest for an elected official to say no to. These are the people that I call “the path of least resistance.” These could be neighbors, or former classmates or colleagues, maybe even relatives and don’t be afraid to leverage other elected officials.
Every organization should have a grasstops advocacy program. You can do it yourself, or outsource some of the work.
We highly recommend RAP Index, a BillTrack50 partner, as the gold standard for grasstops advocacy. RAP Index uncovers valuable, actionable intelligence on your stakeholders, their relationships with key policy makers and their advocacy potential. With RAP Index’s Advocate Relationship Management (ARM) program you can easily identify, manage and engage your top advocates. It empowers personal outreach to officials, earned media, new coalition opportunities, voices for public hearings or a variety of other advocacy goals.
Non-Traditional Advocacy Avenues
All of your advocacy efforts don’t matter if your stakeholders don’t vote. That is why so many organizations focus on Get Out The Vote (GOTV) programs. Until recently, this was a resource heavy function. But that is changing.
Motivote helps voters navigate the process with user-friendly planning tools, personalized text reminders, gamification and celebration. Help your employees or stakeholders to vote, and enhance your GOTV ground game.
BIPAC, a long time partner of BillTrack50, empowers and enables organization grassroots, PAC, and voter engagement initiatives in a community built on education programs, web tools, curated resources, political analysis, and dedication to member and partner success.