Grassroots Advocacy

Grasstops and grassroots are both an important part to any successful advocacy campaign. Maybe you’ve heard the term and have asked, “What’s the difference?" They sure sound the same. Well, you're not the only one scratching your head.

We originally wrote this blog post on how to build a grassroots movement in 2016, and it’s amazing how much things have changed in the last four years. For most campaigns in 2016, canvassing was still the go-to way to build your grassroots movement and was a tried and true way of connecting with people. Some smaller campaigns had built their entire programs around a relentless canvass strategy and talking to every voter in their turf.

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. So Here are some of our favorite non-political books. 

Advocacy strategies have changed a lot over the last 20 years. When I was a chief of staff in the New York State Legislature, I don't remember there ever being a real advocacy campaign around public support of an issue that focused on legislators. The main way groups moved legislation was to hire a lobbyist and that was really it.

How much should a campaign training cost? Here at The Campaign Workshop, we believe it's important to train campaign staff by providing individuals who want to become campaign operatives the opportunity to go out and gain hands-on experience. If your goal is to work on a campaign, we suggest finding a training program with a strong track record and high attendance.

Your organization has developed a strong campaign supporter list. That’s great news! Now let’s make sure we keep your campaign supporters involved with your campaign or cause. Email is undoubtedly one effective method of communicating with your campaign supporters. There are, however, a variety of other ways to engage with your campaign supporter list as well. Here are a few suggestions: