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What is a grassroots advocacy?
Grassroots advocacy engages people that support your institutions, such as students, alumni, faculty, staff, parents, and community members, to urge elected officials to support public funding that is vital to your institution. As constituents, these groups can have a tremendous impact at influencing legislators.
Grassroots advocacy does not replace traditional lobbying and public relations. It is designed to complement those existing outreach efforts by engaging elected officials through a different medium.
These individual supporters can develop personal relationships with elected officials that are extremely valuable to your institution. Through those relationships your supporters can gain valuable information about what elected officials are thinking, including their concerns and priorities. Those supporters can also provide you a perspective on what matters to the larger community. This feedback can be a very useful way to evaluate messaging and help identify areas that need to be addressed with elected officials and the community at large.
Engaging the grassroots can also help increase awareness of the value that your institution provides to your community. Recent studies have shown that the best way to reach individuals is through word of mouth communication. By providing information to grassroots groups of supporters, your institution can do a better job of educating the public. |
