advocacy gap - big picture
DESCRIPTION
The big picture findings and "so what" from the 2012 Advocacy Gap research, as presented to Salsa, a research sponsor.TRANSCRIPT
The Advocacy Gap: What Congress Really Does With All Those Emails
Not much.
AdvocacyCongressional policy process, decision-making
Advocacy
GAP[ ]
Research:Senior Hill StaffActivists
SOPA75% of online traffic
Single message
NO
Imminent legislation
Constituents only
Consistent, tight, imminently relevant ask
Win-Win In-District
Advocacy is like health care.Think ahead.
constituent visitsconstituent stories
constituent callsDC media
DC visibility
mass emails
postcardsTwitter/FB
district mediadistrict visibility
WHAT ACTIVISTS DO:
Email through an org
Sign an online petition
Email an elected
FB or Twitter
Call an elected
Meet with an elected
Town hall
Write a letter-to-the-editor
Rally or protest
Regularly Never
WHAT ACTIVISTS THINK IS EFFECTIVE:
Meet with an elected
Call an elected
Email an elected
Email through an org
Town hall
Rally or protest
Sign an online petition
FB or Twitter
Write a letter-to-the-editor
Very Effective Not Effective Don't Know
MAYBE IT’S LIKE DIET AND EXERCISE?
Meet with an elected
Call an elected
Email an elected
Email through an org
Sign an online petition
FB or Twitter
Effective Regularly
The advocacy gapis a chasm.
But not located where we thought it might be.
Hill: Meet with us
Activists: Meetings are effective ... but we don’tdo them.
Gap is action,not education or access.
So what?
List building through low-impact activities is just list building.It’s not advocacy.
1
Heavily invested in making low-impact activities easy.
2
Invest in making high-impact activities easier for activists.
FTW
Reorient out of DC.
3
The relationship between voters and leaders hasn’t changed.
4
We just forgot it in the big list arms race.
This is good news.5
englin.net/AdvocacyGap