Is the date on your calendar yet? Of course, I mean the day your team will come together to create your organization’s 2026 grassroots strategic plan. This is the exciting, immersive day when your team reaches consensus on your grassroots goals for next year (which should be measurable) and lays out the strategies and tactics to help you achieve them. A big differentiator I see with high-performing advocacy organizations (and grassroots staff) is that they spend the year exec

Is your advocacy team going to get left behind AGAIN? It’s pretty typical that when an organization rolls out a new piece of technology that its focus is on fundraising or membership. In short, the revenue-generating parts of the organization. Don’t let this same thing happen with AI! While you might be shy about using it now, I’m confident those feelings will change over the next 18-24 months. As your leadership team contemplates how the organization should (and shouldn’t) u

Congress is coming! Congress is coming! While we don’t know the exact date, it’s (mostly) certain that, at some point this week, Congress will vote to reopen the government. The only question is: will your grassroots be ready? While the CR is getting a lot of attention, there will be plenty of other bills debated and voted on before the end of the year. Now is the time to start priming your advocacy volunteers and members for action. Be sure you have a strong and deliberate

Has it been 36 days since you communicated with your advocacy volunteers or members? While this might be a record-breaking day for a government shutdown, you shouldn’t be setting records for giving your volunteers the silent treatment. Many organizations are going dark to avoid wading into the highly partisan nature of the shutdown. This is a mistake! It’s okay to avoid discussing the shutdown, but it’s important that you continue engaging your list. There are plenty of thing

It's 4:47 PM on Friday. Your boss just texted that the committee vote has been moved up to Monday, and she needs an action alert sent out...