How many advocacy volunteers does your organization have? No, I’m not asking how big your email list is. What’s your REAL number of advocates?
Many organizations are scared to face the reality of their advocacy list. They would rather send emails to thousands or even hundreds of thousands of inactive records than have to cope with the truth about their “grassroots powerhouse.”
Great advocacy organizations continually run re-engagement campaigns to try and reactivate dormant volunteers. They then purge the records of people who don’t respond or mark them as inactive. Each organization uses different criteria for retention with varying levels, types and date ranges of activity.
These organizations realize that continually sending emails to a bloated list of inactive records is actually hurting their advocacy program in several ways:
Crushing your email deliverability metrics which leads to more of your emails landing in junk folders than inboxes.
Providing your lobbyists and leadership with a false sense of power which will be damaging when they call upon your grassroots list and are met with only a tepid response.
Hurting your leverage to argue for more budget dollars for paid acquisition. The purse strings tend to loosen a bit after you’ve reported the true number of active advocacy volunteers in a key district or state that’s far different than what they previously thought to be true.
And if that’s not enough, you’re probably paying for your advocacy technology platform based on the number of emailable records. Those inactive records are costing you money.
Strengthen your organization by being realistic and truthful about your advocacy list, and acting accordingly. If you need help analyzing your data and creating a re-engagement series, then please don’t hesitate to reach out.
Comments