Deep Dive Breakout 1: Don’t Be a One Hit Wonder: Turning Advocacy Wins and Industry Awards into Sustained Program Funding and Support

Policy wins and industry awards don’t pay the bills. Hear how to build that momentum into compelling campaigns for funding and continued growth of your advocacy program. In a world of small wins and playing the long game, how do you build a narrative from your efforts and show the importance of your work?

Panelists 

• Hannah Wesolowski, NAMI  
• Bethany Dame, American Property Insurance Association
• Kate Tremont, American Coalition of Ukraine 

Notes:

Learning Objective 1: Personal strategies for building trust and reputation as a practitioner

Kate – 

Consistency is a very important aspect of building trust in a brand 

We try to serve our member organizations more than ourselves by boosting our members and advocates 

 

Bethany – 

Build genuine relationships with your colleagues and cross-departments (personally and professionally) 

Participate in coalition building and working groups 

Organization-wide book club to build that internal trust/bonding 

• An attempt to be more inclusive (DEI effort) 

Videos with thought leaders to emphasize the impact of advocacy and validate the program (Member company CEOs) 

 

Hannah – 

Always say yes! Look for opportunities outside of your comfort zone 

Put yourself out there on behalf of your organization. 

 

Brand your initiative and build your coalition to create trust 

Celebrate wins and milestones with internal staff 

Get staff involved and engaged 

 

Be transparent with partners and leadership 

 

Learning Objective 2: What advocacy teams can do to secure internal and external funding support

 

Bethany –

Reporting, reporting, reporting! 

Give your leadership numbers and success metrics 

Spotlight those numbers everywhere you go 

 

Get grassroots on the annual report (show your value) 

Regular justification memo with numbers and narrative of advocacy why 

 

Kate – 

Show your legitimacy to secure donors (for a new nonprofit) 

Wikipedia page is a key tactic to that legitimacy 

Growing out partnerships with other established groups and nonprofit 

 

Hannah – 

Stories are more powerful than numbers with funders at NAMI 

The stories have a huge impact 

Share the stories internally, externally and with the board/funders 

 

Pull media clips and show the influence and voice that NAMI has established on the media 

 

Learning Objective 3: How to promote personal or org wins in a professional way 

 

Bethany – 

Thank people internally and externally who play a role in your grassroots efforts (on social and email) 

Quarterly newsletters and year-end wrap-up email that focuses on celebrating the wins and listing the numbers of PAC and Grassroots 

 

Paid effort for your campaign success after it wraps up 

• Small spend (10k) to communicate the win by geofencing the Capitol 

 

Hannah – 

Share the results of campaigns with advocates (include a low-tier advocacy ask) 

Year-end wrap-up to show the success of the year 

 

How are you building the time internally to celebrate your wins? 

• Emphasize the wins are a group effort (celebrate your wins)
• Use internal channels to make announcements and keep staff motivated
• As leaders, s/o the staff that is doing the work 

 

Kate – 

In a long war, stop to celebrate the wins 

Throw parties to celebrate the wins with the folks who have helped the campaign win

Get your team together and enjoy the people you work with 

Thank the offices of the policymakers that are moving the needle on your bills and using your talking points 

 

Learning Objective 4: How to promote personal or org wins in a professional way

 

Kate – 

Get better at social media self-promotion

Beat imposter syndrome by putting your work out there and getting people involved 

Engage with news outlets more and put yourself out there 

Thought leadership 

 

Bethany – 

Post more thought leadership on LinkedIn 

 

Hannah – 

Lots of media presence 

Push yourself and build the skillset of being a thought leader

Be the face to celebrate your organizational wins