Alliance for Girls (AFG) is an association of girl-serving organizations and leaders who provide a strong voice for girls across the San Francisco Bay Area. They have more than 60 member organizations that collectively serve over 90,000 girls.
Last week’s ASAE Annual Meeting was my first, and we were busy in Booth 809. I had over 50 conversations with association executives, and there were so many advocacy-related educational sessions that I would have had to clone myself to get to them all. Several themes emerged.
The first thing that struck me was the theme I often hear at nonprofit conferences: “We are not nonprofit, we are for purpose." As someone who comes from the for-profit sales and marketing world, I see this as something that gives associations an advantage. This isn’t about widgets and stock prices, this is about people and purpose, and making the world a better place.
Safe Passage is based in Yarmouth, Maine. The organization works to bring education, opportunity, and hope to at-risk children and families who live in extreme poverty near the garbage dump in Guatemala City. The organization is made up of dedicated professionals, teachers, staff, sponsors, and volunteers from various countries all over the world. They help over 550 children that range anywhere from 2 to 21 years old.
It might seem counterintuitive for a company that designs and builds online advocacy software to write about all the reasons our software won't work for a business or an organization.
There are a lot of reasons for this that range from voter fatigue to absolute disgust with the current administration, congress, and the political process in general. Indeed, the attitudes and proclivities of the average American voter present some major challenges for organizations seeking to increase their member engagement this year. Still, these challenges are not insurmountable and with some careful consideration and planning they can be overcome.
Now, if your organization has any interest in the 2nd Amendment and gun rights, you can stop reading this article right now. Your base and anyone who would be interested in your message is already fired up following the speech. Indeed, the NRA and firearms manufacturers are so hot right now that the only thing they need to do to mobilize their membership is say "Hi, please call..."
For everyone else, it is going to be a little trickier and will require a little more finesse to increase member engagement this year.
Before taking a closer look at some of the best online advocacy tools currently available for advocacy purposes, let's take a closer look at just why these tools are of such importance for advocacy groups, trade associations, chambers of commerce and a whole range of other organizations.
Essentially, the key factors of successful advocacy are recruitment, education/ information on, retention of, and two-way communication with members. Invariably based on the formation of relationships - whether through inter-personal friendships or branded messages - these factors combine to fuel participation in the attempt to influence political/ policy decisions, fundraising efforts, volunteering campaigns and voting.
Employing online advocacy tools like social media networks; petition sites; RSS feeds, instant messaging and, of course, specifically designed advocacy software enables educated male or female members of the public to rally adequate support in order to influence local, state and even world-wide decisions/ policies.
Throughout history, American citizens have joined together in interest groups - from advocacy groups through chambers of commerce to trade unions - to make their views, needs and ideas known to their respective elected officials. Their missions were aided by American politics' formal structure, as well as the informal traditions, the combination of which provides fertile grounds for such groups.
Groups are encouraged to form and subsequently empowered to publicly address and act upon issues of concern - which may involve laying out their positions to members of Congress - by a combination of factors.
When such legislation arises, it's imperative that the organization educate its members about the pending laws so they can organize; to rebuke them before they are passed or to help push for their passage. But where do you turn when such a need arises? If your advocacy software provider doesn’t have a Managed Services division, then you hire an advocacy management agency. They specialize in obtaining pertinent information, distributing it to members and effectively stopping legislation that will negatively impact the mission of the organization. Before you hire such an agency, here are some key questions that you should have answered before entering into a contract.
Creating an organization, which not only fuels your passion, but others as well, is typically the number one goal of someone who wants to affect change.
