For our final session of the Civic Engagement Brown Bag series, we took a deeper dive into networking, leveraging influencers and additional avenues for citizen involvement. We discussed more ways to activate our "grass roots" and also how to connect with "grass tops."
Accomplished activists Tara Gallagher Brock and Allen Hancock joined us to share their insights as well as a few great anecdotes. A long-time Surfrider volunteer, Tara is currently the Pacific Council for Oceana, where she works with non-profits across the Northwest to help public interest campaigns develop policy, increase capacity, and flex their grassroots muscle. Allen is a resident of Eugene, OR, where he has decades of experience fighting for natural resource protection, sitting on citizen committees, organizing campaigns, and more.
Scroll down to the bottom of the screen to watch the full recording of the live Zoom meeting and read below for some of the key takeaways.
Grasstops advocacy involves enlisting the help of individuals who have personal connections with the decision makers you are targeting. Examples of this might be political donors, current and former political leaders, celebrities, or other influential people. Grasstops advocates reach out to the targeted decision makers in a number of ways, like in-person meetings, emails/letters, social media posts, and giving testimony.
Grassroots advocacy involves getting ordinary citizens to start powerful conversations around the issues they care about with their elected officials. By combining and channeling many voices around a single issue, you have a better chance of getting leaders to sit up and listen. These efforts often come in the form of rallies, testimony, calls, and letters.
Power-mapping can help you to identify targets (aka the people you want to influence) and focus your strategy. The idea is to map out your potential targets, and the institutions and individuals who influence your target, so you can begin to understand possible ways to impact them. A power map can be a useful visual tool to help your team understand power, and see possibilities for campaigning.
First, know your policy and know what you are asking for. Then lay out for them why it might make sense for them to support it. Make your case for why their voice will stand out.
Ask yourself: What are we trying to get done? And why might they care? And how can I convince them?
Instead of asking for general support on an issue, make a pointed request. For example, if approaching a radio station, you could ask for quarterly interviews or or a set number of public service announcements. People are more likely to help if they are told exactly what to do, especially business owners and other busy people. If you ask someone to write a letter, offer to help draft it. Walk people carefully through any steps they need to take. If you ask someone to post on social media, present them with a tool kit of content, appropriate hashtags, and so forth. Make it easy for people to help support the cause.
Oceana, a non-profit that works on global efforts to protect the oceans, is lucky to have several celebrities within their network. They are a core part of Oceana as they sit on the board, make promotional videos, and generate interest. There can be challenges such as navigating publicists, working with busy schedules, and tailoring messages to fit with the celebrity image. But sometimes those efforts really pay off, such as when Jeff Goldblum volunteered to spend a day lobbying and commenced follow-up outreach with the legislators. Events like this get politicians excited and stir up attention for important campaigns.
If there is a particular legislator you are trying to influence, take time to do some research into their interests. Oceana discovered that one of their key opponents on a bill was a big fan of the show "The Office." With that morsel of knowledge, they were able to recruit actor Oscar Nunez to post a tweet urging him to vote. Although the legislator ultimately did not vote for the bill, the tweet was funny, eye catching and hit a nerve with a larger audience, making the whole effort worth it. This is one example of power mapping legislators and attempting to influence them. Sometimes decision makers are swayed by celebrities, but often they prefer to hear from key industry voices or grassroots groups. Determine what voices are willing to support your cause and who they will most influence.
C’mon @Evan_Low, I know you’ve got the moves join me and @Oceana in saying no to single-use plastics flooding our oceans. Vote #Yeson54 and #Yeson1080 and let’s get this done today! #CAMustLead pic.twitter.com/lViioVpZxW
— Oscar Nunez (@OscarNunezLA) August 31, 2020
Tara notes that while Oregon is not as teeming with celebrities as some states, you might be surprised to find out which famous people your network is connected to once you start asking...
Influencers do not need to be famous to have a strong effect on decision makers. As an organizer and activist, you can help amplify voices that make an impact. This could be someone who can carry an important message, like a waste management worker who sees the crisis of plastic pollution first-hand; a restaurant owner who has proven that converting to reusable dining ware is not a hardship; someone who holds sway over a particular policy maker; or anyone who has direct experience and can share their story in a persuasive way.
A great example was when the Portland Surfrider Chapter was working on the "Ditch the Straw Campaign." What began as a program to urge businesses to stop providing single-use straws eventually turned into a policy campaign. Surfrider brought a sampling of better sustainable straws to Mayor Ted Wheeler's favorite milkshake shop in an effort to connect with him, bring attention to sustainable alternatives, and reach a wide audience in a fun way. You never know what will influence a decision maker, but it is worth trying a variety of tactics!
Work to build relationships with reporters and radio personalities. This can take time and effort because you have to build trust. If you are knowledgeable about all sides of an issue and not completely biased towards one side, reporters will come to trust you more. Share your understanding and empathy for the other side and make sure to present the full story, but clearly make the case for your position. Anticipate arguments and preemptively address them. Understand all sides of the argument before going in to such a conversation.
Speaking your point during interview is a fine art--you might talk for 30 minutes, but then they only publish a 90 second clip. They won’t rearrange your words but they may cut out key points or focus on specific moments, so you have to be careful when talking about what the other side is saying. However, if you have already built a good relationship with a reporter, they are more likely to capture the true meaning of your words. If you are trying to give some background information that you do not want published, clearly state when you want to be on or off the record.
From defending water and trees to hosting ballot parties to participating in lobby days, Allen has been an activist since he was a child. For him, finding ways to protect the earth and encourage others to do so is simply a way of life. He shared many experiences and nuggets of wisdom he has amassed over the years.
Really focus in on a couple of areas that are very important for you and stick with it. If you are a person who cares about a lot of issues, it can be easy to get stretched thin. When Allen looks back at the most effective campaigns he’s been involved with they are inevitably the ones where he really "stuck with it" and put in the time to build relationships. There’s that saying that you have to meet someone six times before you really gain familiarity. You have to put in the time before you can gain trust, whether with a government official or media representative. One of the challenges when you have an ongoing campaign that might take years (and might not ever really resolve) is that your players are going to be different over time. The government officials and media and neighbors might change. Keeping continuity and having a way to keep those people informed and know who you are is a challenge.
For example, Allen has worked to protect some of University of Oregon's riverfront property--an effort that has gone on for over 30 years. There is this challenge that while students almost universally care about protecting this piece of land, they cycle through and you have to keep educating the new waves of students. Even faculty and administrators change over that time and have to brought up to speed, because the issue only resurfaces every few years when a new change or planning action is proposed. When the threat reappears, then suddenly you have to find your coalition people again and bring people together. Where are they? Do you still have their email addresses? And you also have to bring new people on board who don’t know anything about it. These are issues to keep in mind while organizing for longer efforts.
You have to know the time frame and scope of what you are working on. From there, you can strategize.
Ask yourself: Is this going to be short term, ad hoc campaign where you throw a lot of energy at it till the bitter end? Or do you need to pace yourself? And those long term issues that are especially important for building relationships.
Although Allen pursued acting and improv purely as a hobby, his background in theater has happily helped him in his frequent talks with politicians and the media. The two interests have dovetailed nicely and he reflects on the incredible life skills gained from doing improvisational theater, including having presence with other people and being able to assess what other people around you are wanting. He’s also not nervous in front of people and cameras, but recognizes that many people are.
Allen also acknowledges that as a white male, he does often have an easier rapport with other white males that are decision makers and that people are generally comfortable around him, "for better or for worse." As organizations are increasingly recognizing systemic injustices, we see how difficult it is for decision makers and people who don't look like them to build trust and rapport. Allen recognizes that fact and the work that we all have to do to practice inclusion at the decision making level.
Allen has been on a number of committees for the environment and active transportation. There’s overlap between many of these issues and in smaller communities you start to see people involved in many of these realms. If you join a committee, expect a learning curve: there's history, there’s jargon, there’s key players and people to know. There's this whole geography and landscape about whatever the subject is, and it takes awhile to learn it...but just jump in and learn along the way! Don’t be afraid to ask questions about simple things like acronyms. And definitely dig in about the backstory of an issue.
If you need to gather information that is not readily available, you may need to do a public records request and other forms of research. Allen recommends displaying a disposition of “pleasant fierceness.” Remember that being respectful of everyone is so important for achieving your goals. When people get worked up on a topic and become adversarial, they often build walls instead of bridges. So having the ability to see your “opponents” as real people who are just trying to get through the day like everyone else, and being respectful to them, is very beneficial. They are often the gate keepers of information you might need. For coastal issues, that might relate to land use. This often involves long term campaigns, and complex legal and administrative laws that are unique to Oregon. Obtaining that information and having someone be able to interpret that law for you is very important, so it is vital to maintain those relations.
Oregon Field Manager Bri Goodwin noted that learning Roberts Rules to facilitate committee meetings can also be a tricky learning curve, especially if you are coming from the non-profit world. But she’s working on trying to change the culture of her city committee, including creating more accessible and inclusive meetings. Committees can be a great place to spark systemic change from within the government structure.
Know what you are good at and your best role within a group, whether that’s shifting culture, facilitating, organizing, or something else. Having been on the active transportation committee for years, people often want to nominate Allen to be chair of the committee. Although it is flattering, he realizes that in the chair role he would have to focus more on facilitation and would not be able to fully express his breadth of knowledge on the subject, which is truly his greatest skill to offer.
Know what you want to accomplish. The effort to protect the riverfront was an interesting coalition of faculty, citizens, students, alumni. Each one of those groups has their own way to be influential, but they were not always great at speaking to each other. Allen found his role in organizing people and bring diverse groups together who might not otherwise speak to each other. Roles in a grassroots efforts are not usually as formalized as in a non-profit, but it's still helpful to to think about roles, and it's good to stay within those limits so others can take on their own portion of the work.
A fun and easy way to get your community engaged in local politics is to host a ballot part. Whether gathering in person or virtually, this is a great way to bring people together to discuss candidates and measures. Attendees learn from each other and have a chance to share their insights on specific issues. And if there is something or someone that no one is familiar with, you can all do research together. A ballot party is not a way to convince people to vote a certain way, but rather to ensure that people are informed and that they vote. These events are a great format for community building, and if you host one, there is good impetus to do some research yourself!
Because Allen has been on Oregon League of Conservation Voters (OLCV) steering committee for years, he has gotten to know a lot of the candidates and whether they truly support environmental causes. He can't say enough about how great an opportunity it is to sit on this or similar committees! It’s a very intimate arrangement where one legislator at a time talks to your committee and you can really get to know them. Legislators are very present for you because they want your endorsement. They can be so different from paper to real life, and Allen was able to share that experience with his ballot party participants. Sitting on one of these committees is a good way to get your foot in the door to gain access to legislators. And it’s a good way to hold legislators accountable, by reminding them about what they said they would do.