ADVOCACY ASSOCIATES | CASE STUDIES

Case Studies

Empowered advocates

Stress free lobby days

Advocacy networks and campaigns

Keeping an eye on Washington

Empowered advocates

A Comprehensive Advocacy Training Program -- That Generates Results!

Stephanie Vance, the Advocacy Guru at Advocacy Associates, and the Advocacy Associates team have worked over the last several years with a large national association with tens of thousands of members nationwide on a comprehensive advocacy training program designed to encourage members to participate in policy advocacy -- and give them the tools they need to be effective. In the past three years we have provided:

Dozens of online training sessions, attended by over 1,500 advocates
In-person training sessions at the organization's conferences, resulting in better quality advocacy communications and increased interest in the advocacy network
Online advocacy toolkits designed to walk advocates through every step of the process, from conducting site visits to using the legislative action center to crafting a winning message
An online classroom that advocates use to learn new skills in their own time
An ongoing podcast series with interviews from advocates "in the field."

As a result, the organization has seen an increase in the numbers of advocates engaged in advocacy as well as a higher comfort level with the process of communicating with legislators. And the board members and executive staff are happy as well!

Stress-free lobby days

Health Care Reform: Spring 2009

In the Spring of 2009 during the lead-up to the summer health care debate, Advocacy Associates helped a large group of medical professionals with their annual Washington fly-in. In the weeks prior to the fly-in, Advocacy Associates worked closely with the medical association staff to coordinate the requests of their members with the association’s fly-in goals. Advocacy Associates submitted 306 meeting requests to Congress for participants and confirmed 100% of the meetings.

Stephanie Vance, Advocacy Associates’ Advocacy Guru, trained their members in the most effective way to communicate with their Representatives and shape the health care debate. Advocacy Associates staff were on hand during the conference to hand out meeting itineraries to their members, answer questions and make on the spot schedule changes, freeing up the association staff to deal with other aspects of the conference. Because of their fly-in day, the medical association networked with over half of all Congressional offices right before they tackled major health care reform.

Advocacy networks and campaigns

911 Advocacy Mobilization (District-based)

Looking for ways to get your members communicating from the safety of their own offices? Thinking it would be nice to facilitate high-quality, personalized communications that truly make an impact? We can help! In early 2008, Advocacy Associates worked with a major public broadcasting organization to facilitate in-district communications based on a specific policy event. Over the course of a month our strategies helped generate over 100 high-quality citizen-to-Congress communications in 30 targeted states. The activities undertaken by advocates included site visits, attendance at community town hall meetings, drafting and submittal of proposed Congressional Record statements and personalized phone calls, letters and e-mails.
How did we help? Advocacy Associates:

• Developed strategies for identifying and reaching out to the most likely participants
• Made hundreds of personalized phone-calls to encourage action
• Conducted webinars and other online approaches to encourage participation
• Created templates, samples, scripts, toolkits and other materials for use by participants

After the event, a majority of participants indicated that as a result of the effort they were inspired to undertake additional advocacy activities throughout the rest of the year.

Keeping an eye on Washington

Appropriations Analysis: Impact of FY 2010 Budget

Appropriations season begins every February when the President submits his budget to Congress. Immediately, all of Washington is in a frenzy to see how the Administration’s request will affect their issues.

After this comes a rash of budget hearings followed by the passing of the annual Budget Resolution, no later than April 15th. Hearings get more specific by Tax Day, although it will be at least several more weeks before any of the twelve appropriations bills are passed by Congress. All of spring and half of summer could be spent figuring out how much funding Important Programs A, B and C will receive, never mind unearthing the numbers from last year and determining if advocacy over the past year has been effective.

In 2009, Advocacy Associates worked with several clients to analyze the President’s budget request and each appropriation bill as it moved through the legislative process. We provided our clients with an overview of the situation in terms of the programs and issues that matter most to each of them.

For the FY 2010 appropriations season, we provided our clients with budget information for over 50 programs of significant interest through detailed written summaries and straightforward, comparative charts. The clients, being coalitions and associations, were able to send out immediate calls to action to their members when it looked like important funding might be in danger.

How did we help? Advocacy Associates:

Created a chart of key programs and gathered budget information from 2008 and 2009Analyzed the Administration’s budget request and found specific numbers for each of the client’s key programsAttended, watched and reported back from budget hearings on how key programs were faring in committeesExamined each appropriations bill as it was introduced in the House and Senate and moved through the legislative processUpdated clients regularly with straightforward, comparative chart including base numbers and percentage change over 2009 funding

Provided detailed written analysis of funding changes and nuances by agency and department

Our clients were able to provide their members with timely, comprehensive information on the progress of the appropriations process and the status of funding for the programs that matter most to them, ensuring that no opportunities for advocacy were lost.