One way to move the needle in your advocacy campaign is to highlight the human impact of your issue. By recruiting community members who have been directly affected by your issue to share their stories, you can make the seemingly arbitrary stakes of policy decisions more tangible for people.
Here are some great community advocacy campaigns started by young people:
*Originally written by Joe Fuld and updated by Elena Veatch 4/3/18
When you get into politics, it’s hard to resist the all too common tunnel vision of focusing only on politics. But be careful – binge watching Veep or The West Wing is not going to help you run a better campaign or organization; nor will reading solely political books.
The fact is, you are running a business. And while we like to think of politics and business as totally separate realms, it’s tough to run any political operation without a Business 101 crash course. So, take a break from the latest Clinton campaign staffer or Obama aide memoir you are probably reading, and check out some of our non-political book recommendations. Below are ten non-political books that will be helpful to any politico running a campaign, a non-profit, or really any operation.
Good political campaign photography is a must.
Good political campaign photography is the cornerstone of a quality communications program. We’ve all seen bad political advertising. It’s a kind of bad that transcends the traditional meaning of the word. But it doesn’t have to be all European stock photos misused in Kentucky or stock photos of supposed endorsers (good grief, do NOT do this!). We can do better.
Advocacy email is a powerful tool. For many groups and organizations advocacy email can amplify their message in a positive way. As you are probably well aware, these days everyone uses email for both work and personal use, so communicating with your supporters this way is a logical choice. Email is fast, efficient and relatively cheap. You are also able to link your supporters to their legislators and other influential people as well as provide them with an easy way to take action and donate.
As the dominant search company in the world, Google has the potential to change traditional, political, and advocacy research. As phone surveys become more and more challenging, using digital polling and testing will become more commonplace. But are Google tools going to replace polling and focus groups in the short term? Not likely. The need for smaller polls and statewide samples, and the understanding and knowledge that comes with a good political pollster, still make traditional polling and focus groups attractive in political and advocacy campaign research. But Google’s digital tool set is impressive and it does allow you some interesting options.
Our team is made up of amazing creative, organizational, and political consulting talent committed to achieving political and advocacy goals. We have worked for candidates and causes, big and small, all across the country.
