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Reaching, Motivating and Retaining Advocates

Author

Vinay Bhagat

February 17 2004

Summary

This article examines trends in Internet-based advocacy. This means of driving positive change in support of an organisation's mission is growing in the United States. In 2001,

  • 42 million people in the USA used the Internet to research public policy issues;
  • 23 million sent comments to public officials about policy choices; and
  • 13 million participated in an online lobbying campaign.

Key developments cited to explain this trend include:

  1. Easy, quick, and low-cost mobilisation through email - newer groups have online-only advocacy programmes
  2. Easy response mechanisms and personalisation - today's tools allow a constituent to personalise a message and automate message delivery. Gearing messages to constituents by state geography has been found to generate higher response rates (Mothers Against Drunk Driving ran a test sending a generic email appeal to one group of constituents and a personalised appeal based on state geography to another. The latter achieved a 155% higher response rate).
  3. Increased message delivery rate - legislative offices are increasingly requiring submission of information through Web forms.
  4. Integrated approach to managing relationships - an organisation can reach out to a constituent whose profile or database record indicates he or she is a donor, but not yet an activist, and "invite" him or her to join its advocacy network.

This article concludes with a section on the importance of online advocacy. One notable point made here: "Advocacy campaigns are "viral" by nature - advocates generally forward messages to friends. The Million Mom March/Brady Campaign asked people to sign a petition and then forward a message to 10 others. In two months, the group nearly tripled its email list from 39,000 to 117,000 constituents."

Click here for the full article on PNNOnline.

Source

Summary in the Southern African Network for Educational Technology and eLearning (SANTEC) March 2004 Information Update No. 3 - taken from Sound Partners Weekly Digest for February 24-March 1.


Placed on the Communication Initiative site March 30 2004
Last Updated March 30 2004


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