Building Your Volunteer Network: Retain and Motivate

This is the second post in a series about how any organization with 501(c)(3) status can build a grassroots advocacy network and do lobbying within the confines of the law.

Step Two: Retain and Motivate

Be very specific about what you want your volunteers to do and give them lots of support. I’ve watched advocacy programs struggle because staff members don’t set concrete requirements and measure how well their volunteers meet them.

If the volunteers’ job is to send letters or emails to legislators, help them get access to websites that provide legislator contact information. (Project Vote Smart is an excellent resource for information about lawmakers and candidates for office.) If you want volunteers to visit legislators or their staff, help them prepare for the meetings with talking points and background information.

For your advocates to be effective when you need them, you have to keep them engaged and involved when you don’t. Engage your volunteers throughout the year – not just during legislative sessions. This will help them feel connected and keep them informed about the issues. And don’t just send them emails. Invite them to community events or legislative forums.

The Homeless and Housing Coalition of Kentucky worked on homeless and low income housing issues for years, all the while building and nurturing its statewide grassroots network. For more than a dozen years the coalition used its member organizations and a cadre of loyal volunteers to raise the organization’s profile. They lobbied on housing-related issues during each legislative session, held and participated in rallies showcasing the need for low-income housing, and in the last several years, organized an annual conference on housing and homeless issues.

When a bill that would double funding for Kentucky’s Affordable Housing Trust Fund was considered in the legislature in early 2006, the coalition used its network to generate scores of phone calls to legislators during each week of the legislative session and staged two rallies at the capitol with about 350 people at each. Throughout the session, core members of the network scheduled dozens of face-to-face meetings in which homeless people, industry supporters, and advocates met with their lawmakers. The bill passed with broad, bipartisan support.

Another way to keep volunteers involved and motivated is to recognize the good work they are doing. Brief thank-you notes as well as acknowledgment at meetings and in your newsletter can serve to reinforce the behavior that gets things done. These efforts can culminate with a volunteer being recognized as grassroots “Volunteer of the Year.”

Look for ways to get volunteers who can’t make it to legislative hearings or advocacy events involved. A few years ago the Tobacco Free Mass Coalition thought of a novel way of delivering constituents’ messages to legislators. They provided their volunteers with a toll-free number where they could tape-record statements about why legislators should support a bill prohibiting smoking in workplaces, restaurants, and bars. The coalition put the 12 best stories on a CD that they gave to legislators, and mounted them on their website.

“It was a way to get volunteers involved without having them at the hearings,” Pickles said, “It is hard to get someone to take a day off of work and come into Boston.”

In July 2004 the Tobacco Free Mass Coalition succeeded in helping Massachusetts become the sixth state to pass a comprehensive no-smoking law. The coalition saw the victory as another way to engage their volunteers. The coalition posted a “Thank you journal” on its website and asked volunteers to log on and say why they were thankful that Massachusetts had become smoke free. Volunteers wrote about how the new law had changed their lives – for example, how their asthmatic kids were now able to eat in restaurants. Then the coalition printed copies of the best stories and delivered them to the state senate and house leadership.

The Grassroots Advocacy Network of the Children’s Hospital of Denver is a textbook example of how nonprofits can establish themselves as legislative powerhouses. The 4,000-member network is a coalition of health professionals, community leaders, educators, parents, and hospital employees whose members have relationships with legislators across the Colorado. Staff at the hospital routinely ask network members to speak to community groups; volunteer at rallies, press conferences, and other advocacy events; and write letters to the editor about issues affecting children – even when proposed legislation isn’t pending.

When quick action is needed, these volunteer advocates can be counted on to mobilize quickly. Some of the volunteers even operate at an advanced level – leading recruitment efforts, strategizing about the best way to engage legislators, or participating in meetings with legislators with whom they have personal relationships. Advanced volunteers who are well-informed and can speak articulately about the issues can be a terrific resource when it is time to meet with legislators – or, more often, their staff members – at state capitols or in Washington D.C.