Strategy Development

Once you’re comfortable with your pre-advocacy stage efforts, it’s time to look at your strategy.

Most advocacy campaigns take years. Most never achieve their goals. Most give up somewhere along the way. The best advice I can give on how to avoid these kinds of outcomes is to have a clear picture from the start about what your long-term strategy entails.

Long-term planning.

The first stage in planning for the long-term is called ‘level-setting.’ This just means you set the stage for who you’ll need to interact with to achieve your goal. Who are they? Why are they important? Who are they connected to? What’re their stances on your topic? On and on. There are millions of ways to do this, so I’m just going to include on model that I’ve found helpful.

Step one. Put all the Members of Congress you think you’ll need to connect with into five categories:

Detractor. These are your most likely opponents and they’re firmly on the other side of your argument. They will actively work against you (and/or your effort, generally, if not you, specifically) and make your campaign harder.

Skeptic. These Members are ideologically opposite side of you, but not necessarily going to harm your goals.

Considerer. Usually, this is where most members are. These folks need more homework done on them and their district/state to understand where their thought process lies. It’s critical to provide them useful information to come around to your side. These Members can be the hardest ones to move, but you want them to your side and into ‘Believer’ status.

Believer. These Members are ideologically supportive, or have seen your argument and come around.

Advocate. These folks are ideologically in line with you and actively work with you (or your effort) by, for example, sponsoring legislation or speaking out about topic favorably. 

What’s next?

Step two. Plan meetings with Considerers, then look at rest of your universe. You want to ‘build a wall’ of support for your issue area, so look for the ‘pragmatic middle’ Members that can bring value to your campaign.

Start asking yourself questions, like: Which Members are your starting points? When you meet, what topics do you think will come up? How ‘loud’ are our detractors/advocates? 

In short, try to gain a better sense of which topics are going to become issues for your campaign, and where they’ll come from. Be prepared for any ‘red flags’ that you identify.

Also, when I lay out plans like this, I tend to start on a one year scale, which I then split into quarters where I expect changes to come in. For example, if I’m introducing myself to an incoming Session of Congress, I’ll start by planning for my introductory meetings in early to mid-February, which gives those offices time to get settled into their new digs, hire a fresh-faced team of staffers, and align behind some priorities of the Member.