Decision-Maker Advocacy

Finding a way to connect through these details is a positive way to have a memorable conversation with a lawmaker or their staff. You may know someone who went to the same college or both have spouses in the health care profession.

This is a critical aspect of advocacy, as lawmakers want to hear from their own constituents on issues. In addition, knowing what issues are most pressing for the communities they serve will help you understand how to connect your campaign to their district. Mobilizing grassroots advocates or key contacts who live and vote in a lawmakers’ district is important. When setting up in-person meetings with lawmakers, try to plan group meetings with at least one constituent.

Understanding which issues key decision makers care most about is very helpful. Knowing their motivation – whether it is education, public health, or aging populations – can help you connect your bill to their interests. This can include:

• Legislative history: The kinds of bills that lawmakers support and committees they serve on can tell you more about issues they are passionate about.
• Family life: This may include their spouses or children’s careers, their children’s schools, or what their family life was like growing up.
• Community involvement: Organizations lawmakers champion, their place of worship, and memberships they hold can give you a sense of this.

When you go to meet with a decision-maker the first time, it is important to go in planning to learn, rather than “convince.” You want to learn as much as you possibly can during that conversation to help shape the rest of your campaign’s interactions with that decision-maker.

Make sure that someone is taking notes at every lawmaker meeting and sending them back to campaign managers to track. Those meeting notes can be really insightful and help plan next steps. Click here for a Decision-Maker Meeting Feedback Form that you can adapt for your campaign.

Here is some guidance on how to approach your meeting with lawmakers.

When you go to meet with a decision-maker the first time, it is important to go in planning to learn, rather than “convince.” You want to learn as much as you possibly can during that conversation to help shape the rest of your campaign’s interactions with that decision-maker.

Make sure that someone is taking notes at every lawmaker meeting and sending them back to campaign managers to track. Those meeting notes can be really insightful and help plan next steps. Click here for a Decision-Maker Meeting Feedback Form that you can adapt for your campaign.

To schedule meetings with lawmakers, look up their contact information. In some cities and states, lawmakers have full-time staff to help schedule meetings, but in others, you may be contacting the lawmaker directly (which could be during dinner or when they are putting their kids to bed). Be patient and respectful and ask for a good time to talk. Make sure to share your own contact info so they can get back to you easily.

In your meetings, make sure to:

• Let them know that you have done your research. howing that you have done a little homework on them and their district conveys respect and that you put time and effort into this meeting. So, for example, you say, “I read that you attended State U or Local High School,” or “I saw in your campaign literature that you are really interested in children’s health issues or children’s mental health. I care about that too and here’s how it connects to the issues I am working on in terms of body confidence.”
• Ask them how they get their information. You want to find out what sources of media they use to get information about health or about child-related issues in their community. Where do they go, what sources do they trust? Make sure to write it down. They might tell you that there are particular blogs or newspapers, radio shows, or Facebook groups they belong to and trust as sources of information
• Try to meet them with constituents. Go back to your list of grassroots advocates and see if you have any advocates who live and vote in the lawmaker’s district. If so, invite them to join your meeting. If they can’t join you, ask them if they would contact their lawmaker ahead of time and let them know that they are unable to join the meeting but that they, as a constituent, wanted to weigh in to voice support for the bill. Your goal in meeting with lawmakers or their staff is to build a bridge and make a meaningful connection. It’s possible that the person you’re meeting with shares their own personal story of a loved one’s struggle with an eating disorder or poor body image. Listen and empathize. Make sure to let the staff who are leading your campaign know what you learned because that lawmaker might be a good ally in the future and might be willing to share their own experience with their peers or the media.

If your lead sponsors do have staff, get to know them. Staff can be your best and quickest source of information. They can keep you up to speed on the legislative process, help you strategize, and alert you to any threats that weaken your bill. Even if you do have a scheduled meeting with a lawmaker, their schedules change quickly so you may meet with staff. This is still a great opportunity, as staff inform views on legislation!

Your campaign might be able to bring in issue experts, provide lunch, or have celebrity supporters. This can help your bill sponsors look like heroes – and speakers and celebrities can have influence on other decision-maker attendees. There are many different people who care about body confidence – and particularly about youth – including athletes, actors, models, physicians, teen advocates, or any and all of the above. Think about who might come into the building that is going to get people to leave meetings or busy schedules to show up to listen.

Working very closely with your champions to make sure an event like this comes off well is really important, and it takes time. Be prepared to do 90% of the work yourself, to be the one with the action plan and agenda and be responsible for making sure tasks are assigned and completed. As this is in service to your cause and campaign, with support and leadership of your key allies, think about the proper care and feeding of your leaders and the folks who are with you. You cannot take them for granted! Giving them the opportunity to show up, look good, do good, while you have done most of the work behind the scenes is okay. In fact, it is better than okay, it is a success!

Even if no reporters show up (which is very common), you can create a buzz after the fact with photos, social media posts thanking and tagging sponsors, and even letters to the editor (with photos) to the local press. Making noise and making sure your champions and allies look good yields positive feelings and draws the attention of key decision makers to your champions. You make champions look good and you become noted as an organization that is good to work with. Key decision-makers understand that good will multiplies, that hero opportunities exist for them, and that the groups involved are wonderful friends to have.

The Benefit of Special Events

Working very closely with your champions to make sure an event like this comes off well is really important, and it takes time. Be prepared to do 90% of the work yourself, to be the one with the action plan and agenda and be responsible for making sure tasks are assigned and completed. As this is in service to your cause and campaign, with support and leadership of your key allies, think about the proper care and feeding of your leaders and the folks who are with you. You cannot take them for granted! Giving them the opportunity to show up, look good, do good, while you have done most of the work behind the scenes is okay. In fact, it is better than okay, it is a success!

Even if no reporters show up (which is very common), you can create a buzz after the fact with photos, social media posts thanking and tagging sponsors, and even letters to the editor (with photos) to the local press. Making noise and making sure your champions and allies look good yields positive feelings and draws the attention of key decision makers to your champions. You make champions look good and you become noted as an organization that is good to work with. Key decision-makers understand that good will multiplies, that hero opportunities exist for them, and that the groups involved are wonderful friends to have.

Finally, when thinking about decision-maker advocacy it is important to think about how other decision-makers influence your target lawmakers. If you think about your own world and the people you listen to on a daily basis – your colleagues and friends have a lot of influence over your thinking and over your decisions. The same thing is true inside a city council or state legislature. Your champion lawmakers, the ones who have signed on as sponsors or co-sponsors, can be potential bridges to that key decision-maker who will need to give the green light for your bill to move on to the next committee or put up for a vote.

Develop a robust co-sponsor list. Ensuring you have a robust list of co-sponsors for the legislation you are supporting can be helpful. Asking your sponsors to jointly sign on to a letter to a committee chair or other key decision-maker can be influential.

Set up caucus meetings. Caucus meetings can be great ways for your sponsors to bring attention to this issue with the key decision-maker. Many caucuses could have an interest in body confidence-related issues – including a Mental Health Caucus, Public Health Caucus, Children’s Caucus, LGBTQ Caucus, Black & Latino Caucus, or Women’s Caucus, to name a few. Find out which caucuses exist, if any, and ask your sponsor if the subject matter is of interest. Offer to present information to the caucus at a meeting. If you are able to meet with the Caucus, ask them if they will endorse the proposed legislation. If they become endorsers, let key decision-makers know these important legislative groups are on board!

You may be working with staff at a government agency who support your position and have a valuable perspective on your proposed policy. For example, the agencies that oversee public health, education, labor discrimination, and health care may have special insight into your issue. But, as public employees, they may not be allowed to testify on behalf of your legislation. So how do you get them to go on the record?

The best workaround solution in most states is to have your legislative champion (bill sponsors) and/or committee chair formally invite that agency staffer to testify to provide information pertaining to the policy. They will usually only be able to provide data, not opinion, but if the data supports your case, you want them to testify on the record. This can be critical, for instance, if the governor in your state opposes your legislation but the health department has data about eating disorders among young people by race and ethnicity. One way of getting that important data into the public record with the authority of government behind it is to have an agency staff person present that data at a public hearing. But you need to compel them to do so with a formal invitation from the committee and/or bill sponsor. Remember, your job is to make it easy for others to give you what you want. If you want an agency staffer to testify, make it easy by having them formally invited to testify. Make sure to get your request in early because there can be a lot of red tape in the approval process, but it’s worth it to get a public agency on record to provide context to the policy you are pursuing.

Depending on how much time you will spend meeting with lawmakers, it is important to check with state and federal lobbying laws to make sure you do not run into violations. Nonprofits including 501(c)(3) organizations certainly can and do lobby all the time. It is both legal and permissible. Our democracy benefits when organizations with expertise and real-life experience help shape public policy. We don’t just want corporations shaping our laws. Nonprofits have a critical voice in policy change and should be doing everything they can to influence policy in ways that advance their mission.

The rules are generally pretty simple to comply with; they may include:

• Filing a registration fee
• Reporting a few times a year on the money you have spent on lobbying efforts
• The hours of lobbying efforts
• Any political contributions you have made during that time period

A favorite resource for lobbying laws is Bolder Advocacy at the Alliance for Justice . You can also ask your city or state government what the lobbying laws are and make sure you follow them.

Tips for Avoiding Electioneering

• Tips for Avoiding Electioneering
• If you have invited a lawmaker or candidate to speak at one of your events, provide them with written guidelines that expressly prohibit them from talking about their campaign in that setting.
  • Let them know that they cannot wear buttons, hats, t-shirts or anything else at the event that might imply your organization supports that candidate.
  • You can thank your lawmaker champions for their work on behalf of your organization and can encourage your grassroots advocates to also thank them. But your organization cannot encourage others to vote for your champion or to support their campaign.
  • The same is true of your opponents. Non-profits are not allowed to tell people who to oppose or vote against.
  • Do not share your advocate contact lists with any candidate.