May 2002

Work with future governors and legislators now, learn what resonates with voters, and move beyond the traditional role of banging on legislators' doors. These are among the elements of a strategic advocacy campaign on behalf of children's issues, says Margaret Blood, president of Strategies for Children. The bottom line: build a sophisticated political campaign in order to get the legislature and governor to act on an issue.

Speaking at the Urban Health Initiative annual meeting from her nearly two decades of experience developing policies, programs and campaigns to help children and their families, Blood discussed five broad elements of a sound policy-change effort:

1. Powerless children need powerful friends.
2. Develop an effective message and media strategy.
3. Build a new constituency.
4. Build a new organization.
5. Think long term.

Powerless children need powerful friends

Interviews with state legislators show that they genuinely want to help children, but they often need to hear from influential voices that are familiar to them. These voices help a legislator understand the best things to do from among the myriad proposals from many, often-fragmented advocacy groups that are not in regular contact with or familiar to the legislator. Advocacy groups need to know whom these powerful voices, or "political cognoscenti", are and get them to lend their voice to the cause of children. The political cognoscenti typically include leaders from the business, labor, health care and religious communities.

"As child advocates, we need to do more than the traditional role of banging on doors of legislators," says Blood. "We need to put together coalitions of people with clout to meet with the key decision-makers."

Message and the media

Developing messages that resonate and persuade is key. But how can you know what messages will resonate with voters and opinion leaders? "Poll and interview," says Blood. "It is imperative that organizations find out where voters and opinion leaders are on an issue."

For her work for Early Education for All, a statewide campaign to make early childhood education available to all young children in Massachusetts, Margaret did 48 interviews herself, of the Speaker of the State House of Representatives and many other policy makers, as well as leaders from business, labor, religion, education and the media. She found that childcare ranked relatively low on the priority lists of these individuals, but that education ranked very high. With that information she could, through her campaign's messages, connect childcare to concerns about education (thus childcare becomes "early childhood education"). The willingness of voters and policymakers to support investments in young children went up when the issue was framed with regard to education.

But it wasn't just what she learned in these interviews that was important, it was also how she did it. Blood hired a well known and influential pollster to conduct the interviews with her - that in and of itself raised the salience of the issue with the legislators, as they realized a member of the "political cognoscenti" was involved.

Blood found other ways to involve opinion leaders in the state in her message development by, for example, asking many of them to help design the survey questions. This not only helped with the message development but, because it was a fairly easy "ask" that did not involve contributing money, it got these opinion leaders interested in the campaign early.

Build a new constituency

Blood has found that for children's issues, such as childcare, there are often an incredible number of players with their own lobbyists and own messages - but too often they don't work together. One technique she has used successfully is to hold forums with all of the interested groups to discuss common issues and to create an umbrella organization in order to provide a more unified, louder voice on the issue.

Organizations often have trouble working together because once revenue streams are created, organizations work to protect them. The key is to provide a neutral table, where people can work on common goals without getting bogged down by issues of turf and resources.

Then it is important to bring in other, non-traditional allies such as business and labor. How can advocacy groups get them on board? ASK, says Blood. She says leaders in these areas feel that no one ever asks them, other than to make financial donations, to work on children's issues, even though they are often willing to do so. Plus, advocates should give them achievable tasks, given their expertise and available time. For example, get business leaders to talk to other business leaders about the issue.

If the legislature is hearing from children's advocates (the "usual suspects"), as well as, for example, the teacher's union, the Academy of Pediatrics, the Chamber of Commerce and others, an issue is far more likely to survive the legislative process.

Blood says to consider something as mundane as a brochure. Legislators are not persuaded as much by the content on the issue as they are by the names of people and organizations listed as members or supporters - so make sure to list these names prominently.

Finally, work with both political parties. For example, Blood's campaign has rallied volunteers to attend both the Republican and Democratic caucuses nominating candidates for governor of Massachusetts just to get the issue in front of the caucus attendees. Volunteers handed out the brochure (with the list of non-traditional supporters) and signed up caucus attendees to the cause. Whenever possible, it's important to incorporate the advocacy group's agenda with the parties' agenda.

Build a new organization

To accomplish all of the above, Blood thinks it's important to hire or contract for at least three key positions - ones which advocacy groups don't always have on board:

• Research and policy director: Someone who knows and keeps up with what's happening on the issues in the legislature and throughout the state - what's being proposed, what policies have worked and not worked, etc. This person also follows what's happening on the issue in other states and gathers all the pertinent data that is invaluable to convince business leaders and attract media attention.
  
  
• Field director: This person knows how to run the advocacy campaign like a political campaign by building an "army" of supporters (creating the neutral table for advocacy groups and attracting non-traditional groups), keeping all staff and volunteers on-message, training them to do so, and managing other standard political campaign activities. Advocacy group leaders may not know what "standard political campaign activities" are much less how to do them - so hire someone who does.
  
  
• Media consultants: Hired to work with the media to get both coverage of the issues and solutions and editorial comment. It's important to hire a firm with actual political campaign experience, not a general public relations or advertising firm.

Think long-term

Blood says it is important to have a phase-in strategy in mind. Rarely would a legislature make sweeping changes all in one "bite," and having an "all-now" attitude is usually counterproductive. A phase-in makes an issue more digestible for legislators. Often a preliminary step - such as getting the legislature to appoint a special commission or commission a study - is valuable in raising the profile of an issue and creating the political will for ultimate enactment.

Also, start now to work with individuals who may have influence over an issue later. Work with future governors and state legislators now, and start building the new coalition right away, as it may take time to come together.

Margaret Blood is the founder and President of Strategies for Children, a new non-profit organization affiliated with the Stride Rite Foundation. She is presently spearheading Early Education for All, a statewide campaign to make early childhood education available to all young children in Massachusetts. She can be reached at mblood@strategiesforchildren.org. Website: http://strategiesforchildren.org.