The goal of the document is to identify best practices for speaking with various stakeholders in the public sphere.
- Best Methods for Influencing ______
- What Kind of Data Best Sways This Person?
- How do I find out who my ____ are?
- General Resources on Being an Active Citizen
- Channel
- In person, representing a larger group you're part of
- Going to public hearings, town halls - and you’ll get 3 minutes to talk
- Speech is very important - phone calls!
- Thinking about who uses which channels
- RESOURCE: Metafilter Thread about Best Channels
- RESOURCE: Indivisible
- Issues
- Not knowing the demographics about who IS and ISN’T contacting representatives (whose voices aren’t being heard?)
- Sometimes difficult/inconvenient to call elected officials
- Representatives can easily ignore emails and online petitions
- Some community organizations interface more easily with elected representatives
- How to reach people who aren’t represented in classic organizations
- RESOURCE: University of Wisconsin-Extension, Cooperative Extension : Tips for Working with Elected and Appointed Officials
- Message
- Partisan vs. non-partisan
- FOIA request for demographic data and topics people called their representatives about
- OR at least zip codes to find the places people are/aren’t calling from
- To give to advocacy groups to increase/promote increased advocacy
- Alternative ways to promote
- Very similar to elected officials, though they sometimes require indirect pressure.
- Social media presence
- Larger campaigns
- Smaller interactions
- Tweet chats
- Word of mouth
- Attend events
- Meetups!
- Whether in support or in protest
- Marching
- Speaking with $$$
- Find out who board members are
“Speaking TO a group vs speaking ABOUT a group. Both are public actions.”
- Boycotts
- Shareholder vote!--buy stock then vote in their elections
- Endorse (Speaking with wallet)
- Price cutting (e.g., CVS is currently buying a different EpiPen like product from company other than Mylan)
- Social Media: public shaming!
- Yelp
- Positive reinforcement for doing the right thing (through any channel)
- Get smaller companies to boycott larger ones they use
- Better Business Bureau
- Court of Law
- Unionization
- Through politicians
- Billboards, advertisement, etc.
- Customer surveys
- Word of Mouth
- Talking points, scripts
- “Can I speak with your manager”
- Talk to them
- Attend
- Social media
- Find out board members
- Earmark your donation for certain programs
- Write a letter
- Learn; have your religious institution reach out to other religious institutions
- Volunteer
- "Advocacy" is the usual term used within the Non-Profit world to talk about employees who advocate on behalf of the non-profit's clients & the larger legal structures that relate to that issue. i.e. if you want the nonprofit to take an issue to government on your behalf, you go talk to their advocacy department.
- Usually they do letter-writing, protests, petitions, mobilization
- 501(c3) nonprofits try to keep the amount of time spent on advocacy under 10% (this might be slightly higher). They have to make their primary purpose providing services. But surveying their clients is very time-consuming
- As a result, most non-profits don't have the capacity to do extensive surveys
- If you can talk to the nonprofit's clients on their behalf and get them written down, e.g. doing a survey, this doesn't count as time the nonprofit is spending on advocacy, so you can just hand them the survey results and they can take them to lawmakers.
- They can also use the results:
- To improve their service provision
- For storytelling
- Sara suggests: email them.
- How to make it interesting to the journalist:
- Specificity
- knowing what the journalist already covers. The story should be relevant to their work.
- Earned media: make a lot of noise and they'll come find you (e.g. a protest)
- Localized data about constituents
- Approval ratings
- Votes
[PLEASE ADD CONTENT]
- Crime data
- Permits
(see also Burgh’s Eye View
- Sales/bottom line
- Info about sales of competitors
- Salaries
- Positive/negative customer reviews
- Donations
- Sins
- Congregational demographics
- Attendance/Membership #s
- Utility bills
- Information about local needs (e.g., hunger data localized to the neighborhood)
- Numbers about how many people used their services (e.g., food pantry, clothing ministry, cold weather shelter)
[PLEASE ADD CONTENT]
- Show data relevant to their agenda
- Show how data can influence contributions and volunteers
- Allow nonprofits to amplify your voice on topics you both care about
[PLEASE ADD CONTENT] Getting journalists to care about a dataset with a story:
- Talk to people, go to community meetings. Show up
- Find out which journalists care about the subject matter
- Use visualizations to raise interest
- http://www.commoncause.org/take-action/find-elected-officials/?referrer=https://www.google.com/
- http://www.whospeaksfor.us/
- http://whoismyrepresentative.com/
- https://www.callmycongress.com/
- https://whoaremyrepresentatives.org - includes local representatives
- [PLEASE ADD GUIDANCE - this one stumped everyone, beyond googling the office to which that person reports.]
- Social Media
- Research tax filings
- Websites
- Social Media
- Research tax filings
- Research political donations
- Guidestar
- 501c3 Lookup or other public data lookups.
- Keyword search
- Non-profits tend to have a .org domain, though some have .com
- Bylines. Also most journalists seem to be on twitter (and prefer it over other mediums?)