Advocacy Best Practices

Learn effective legislative advocacy strategies with our step-by-step guide and discover how to influence policy in your community. 

When you’re a part of an advocacy campaign, spotting issues and fixing them are not always easy. In the realm of advocacy, there will always be bumps in the road, that is the nature of making change. Identifying common advocacy hurdles and proactively planning for solutions is a good strategy that can improve your campaign. 

Executing a successful and impactful advocacy campaign requires time, dedication, and organization. In today’s day and age, there is strong competition from various advocacy issues fighting for attention, so to run a successful campaign, you will need to be ready to hit the ground running.

Zvi Band is focused on building tools to bring folks back together. He’s currently building GoodSphere, Relatable, and The Sphere. These four projects are all resources focused on building relationships, and communities in a variety of mediums. ZVI co-founded Contactually and led it as CEO from an idea in 2011 to an enterprise SaaS company that was acquired by Compass. He served as general manager at Compass from 2019 to 2021 when he left to pursue his current projects. This week we asked him 7 questions about his experience and career path. 

Brian Johnson is the CEO of Equality Illinois, an organization that has been fighting for LBGTQ+ civil rights since 2016. However, inspired by his tenures as a first-grade teacher in Baton Rouge and a Teach for America Corps member, he has fought for equity in his leadership as the Vice President of Regional Impact at the Leadership for Educational Equity, where he recruited teachers to run for public office and launched community organizing initiatives across major cities with his leadership in, with his history of leadership in nonprofits, including as the executive director of Teach for America in Los Angeles. Brian fostered educational excellence and diversity in our public schools, drawing from his extensive social justice and LGBTQ+ advocacy experience. His book, The Work is the Work, is a testament to the ongoing fight for justice across realms like environmentalism, anti-racism, and community empowerment. It is inspired by his daughter and the next generation of change-makers. This week, we interviewed Brian.

Joe Sangirardi is involved in LGBTQ+ activism and professional nonprofit and political fundraiser. Previously, Joe served as a Director of Leadership Giving at The Human Rights Campaign and was the Director of Development at the LGBTQ+ Victory Fund. Currently, Joe serves as the Development Director for California YIMBY, California’s state-wide housing policy reform and advocacy organization. He is heavily involved in his local community as the secretary for the Eureka Valley Neighborhood Association and  Membership Co-Chair for the Alice B. Toklas LGBTQ+ Democratic Club. He also serves on the Retail Strategy Committee for the Castro Community Benefit District. Joe is deeply passionate about climate change, housing, public transportation, good government, and revitalizing the LGBTQ+ legacy of his chosen home, the Castro. This week, we asked Joe questions about his career path.

Advocacy strategies can be time-consuming to create and difficult to execute. We have written often about the core elements of an advocacy plan, but taking the time to develop your advocacy strategy is an important step. But where do you begin? Try using strategy tools.

Have you been implementing SMS for advocacy, or texting for advocacy, into your issue advocacy or public affairs campaigns? Texting for advocacy is an important tool for nonprofits and organizations creating an issue advocacy communications program.

Advocacy message development can be challenging, so we are here to help! You and your team will want to develop a consistent message that aligns with your values, but at the same time, you will want to craft one that will be applicable to any number of audiences you are reaching out to. How do we begin to boil all that down for messaging?

Developing an advocacy plan with clear goals strategy and tactics is often overlooked - especially in the busy world of non-profits. Organizations that put energy into writing a clear and comprehensive advocacy plan will tell you a thoughtful strategy and a strong plan are critical to campaign success, as well as short-term and long-term organizational growth.

Nadia Belkin is the founding Executive Director at the Asian American Power Network (AAPN) where she works to help build progressive political power in Asian American communities and across other communities of color. AAPN is a 501(c)(4) organization devoted to increasing voter engagement, addressing Asian American Pacific Islander (AAPI) racial justice, and moving progressive policies to improve the living standards of folks belonging to the community.