Build an army of advocates

Advocates (or activists, depending on your organization) form a powerful army to show support for your organization en masse.  Here are three ways to cultivate advocates:

In person: Gather emails and phone numbers from every person who shows an interest in your organization (clients, volunteers, donors, service providers, etc.). Your organization should have a routine sign-in form or business card exchange before meetings or other work, and each person should be added to your advocate list. 

Via the web:  Every organization’s website should include a way for people to sign up for more information. A simple web form that asks for emails, addresses, and telephone numbers will suffice.  Also, every organization should have a Facebook page and push those you come in contact with to “Like” it. 

The Nature Conservancy has a great link to sign up for email updates right on its homepage. 

Once you have advocates, what do you do with them? You should regularly send electronic newsletters that update them on the organization’s overall progress.  Monthly or weekly emails provide a good frequency. Any more and you border on spam; any less and people forget you exist. 

Paying for email marketing services is worth the investment.  Companies like RTP-based iContact can help you easily design and send attractive messages to your advocates and track how effective they are. I have also used MailChimp, Constant Contact, and Convio. 

Action alerts are special emails or social media posts that ask your advocates to influence public policy by doing something.  You explain the situation and can ask people to show up to a meeting or event, but most likely, you ask them to email and call elected officials.  

The Latin American Coalition has a good example via Facebook, and PETA provides another example on the local level. 

Some organizations invest in software like Roll Call's CapWiz or Convio’s Advocacy Tool to manage action alerts. These allow your advocates to read your action alert, write an email, and send it to elected officials all on one web page.  

The North Carolina Conservation Network has a good example using Convio.

We will spend more time on action alerts during a more detailed discussion on communications for advocacy.