Summertime is almost here. Congress won’t be voting on much. It must be time to take a break from emailing your advocacy volunteers. ⚡WRONG!!⚡ The biggest mistake you can make is to stop engaging with your list just because Congress will be more focused on campaigning than legislating. (Okay, there are bigger mistakes but this is still a pretty big one.)
The next few months are the ideal time to invest in your grassroots. Here are a few summertime projects that you should begin preparing for now:
✅ Run a listening campaign. Survey your volunteers or members about their interests and increase your understanding of what motivates them to be involved in advocacy with your organization.
✅ Advance your volunteers/members to the next level of your engagement pyramid. You can start by analyzing your action-taking data to identify advocates who might be interested in taking on a leadership or larger offline role.
✅ You don’t have a structured, multi-level volunteer program? Launch one! Use the summer to have conversations with key staff and volunteers, and design a program customized to your organization’s needs and opportunities.
✅ Train your volunteers on key skills and priority issues you want them to have for future campaigns.
✅ Recruit storytellers by asking your volunteers/members to share their experiences related to your priority issues.
November and December are going to be chaotic and fast-paced as it seems the answer to most legislative questions right now is, “It’s going to be handled in the lame duck.” Don’t get caught with a cold, disengaged list. Keep your volunteers productive and maximize these summer months to strengthen every aspect of your grassroots advocacy program.
Of course, if you need help with any of these efforts, we’ve done it for many of the most effective advocacy organizations in the country. We would love to help you, too, so please don’t hesitate to reach out.
Comments