Communicate with your representative

Grassroots advocates can communicate their message and exert pressure in a wide variety of ways, depending on the willingness to take risks, the available resources and the dynamics of the issue.

A creative spin in the most traditional tactics can separate your effort from the rest. Below are some effective tactics to consider when trying to influence the legislative process:

• Letters to the editor, editorials and commentary.
• Petitions.
• Phone calls to the targeted decision maker.
• Faxes to the targeted decision maker.
• Emails to the targeted decision maker.
• Personalized letters and postcards to the targeted decision maker.
• Personal visits with the targeted decision maker.
• Rallies and demonstrations.
• Political theater.
• Press conferences and other earned media events.
• Direct action strategies

When deciding which mobilizing activities that you will undertake, it is important to balance your grassroots resources with the tactics you select. In general, the more personal the tactic, the higher the impact, and therefore the fewer people you will need to demonstrate grassroots power. For example, a postcard campaign in which people simply stamp and sign a pre-printed message will be recognized as generic and orchestrated. Therefore, you will need to generate a very high number of them to get on the decision maker's "radar screen." Conversely, a personal visit in a legislator's home district with five constituents who tell their personal story about the issue has very high impact, and requires fewer grassroots advocates.

In the process of developing tactics to use in your grassroots advocacy campaign, keep these tips in mind:

• Dominate something. Concentrate an action in a small period of days, for example, to concentrate its potency.
• Do a few things well rather than many things poorly.
• Make the strategy personal.
• Force multiply. Find ways to leverage your existing volunteer advocates to get more volunteer advocates.
• Keep recruiting. Keep a laser focus on building, sustaining, and expanding your base.
• Follow up. Select strategies that are conducive to reporting back to volunteer advocates