Election Year Communications: A Potential Check List

At the January 17, 2012 meeting of Public Policy Communicators NYC, members came together to share their experiences doing advocacy communications and their organizations’ plans for advancing issues during the 2012 election cycle.  The session did not have a discussion leader and was designed to be an informal exploration of what works and what doesn’t in issue advocacy during periods when election year politics can provide opportunities to educate, inform and build support. Many of the specific tactics and campaigns shared by members were still in the development stage and others were discussed by members as being “off the record.” But as the conversation evolved, it became clear that many of the tactics being employed during election season and more generally in issue advocacy are those that most of us in social change related communications should be using to maximize our effectiveness.  In fact, one of the key pieces of learning from the day was that many foundations and nonprofits that may not see themselves as being involved in public policy work per se may indeed already be doing many of the things that are crucial to effective election-year communications. The list of activities that participants came up with could also serve as a handy check-list of potential activities for any communicator working on social change efforts.  The activities members discussed in their election-related communications campaigns included:

• Panel discussions
• Nonpartisan issue guides
• Mobile App versions of issue guides
• White papers/Fact sheets/Issue backgrounders
• Developing a separate (c)(4) to further separate basic operations and political work
• OpEds
• Fact-checking political speech – acting in “truth squad” role/Debunking myths
• Public opinion surveys
• Developing “talking points” among like-minded organizations so that all partners speak with a coordinated voice
• Targeting issue advocacy to geographic areas where key races are taking place
• Issue framing – working to change the terms of debate to favor one’s position, e.g. “Economic Security” rather than “jobs” or “poverty”
• Spokesperson training
• Coalition building
• Creating “Action Briefs” that are essentially just repurposing meeting notes
• Developing compelling stories of people effected by social issues to use in communications
• Disseminating “Take Action” messages to the organization’s constituencies
• Blogging about issues surfacing in election debates
• Creating easily digestible charts and infographics to be used in communications campaigns

It should be noted that none of these activities would fall into the categories of electioneering or lobbying, even though most nonprofits are indeed allowed to do a certain amount of lobbying under the law.  All the activities discussed by participants could be pursued by both nonprofits and foundations. These activities are surely just a portion of those which a foundation or nonprofit could be utilizing to advance their issues during election season.  If you think of others, please share them in the comments section of this post!