Ways to Advocate
Advocacy can range from making a telephone call to arranging a face-to-face meeting and sitting down with your legislator. We've provided some basic tips on contacting your legislators and arranging an advocacy campaign.
- The Alzheimer's Association has produced an excellent advocacy handbook.
- Telephone campaigns
- Letter writing campaigns
- Virtual lobbying - Internet-based advocacy is on the rise with email the tool used to communicate to constituents and legislators.
- Legislative visits
- Develop resources: An important step in any communications outreach to legislators is to develop simple information to share with them regarding your organization and the impact of proposed legislation on your constituents. You may wish to develop a simple fact sheet about your agency/organization to have on hand for this purpose.This fact sheet should include:
- The name of your organization
- Contact person (including phone/fax/email)
- Type of organization (eg. Not-for-profit, religious, etc.)
- Description of your organization (mission, services provided, number of individuals served, number of employees)
- History
- Community involvement
- Board members
- Volunteer and other program information
- The impact of the proposed action or legislation on your organization (eg. Equate budget cuts to loss of staff/decrease in services provided)