What is Digital Advocacy and How is it Going to Help Your Nonprofit Mission
In today’s nonprofit world, numerous groups and organizations have started to include a tool in their toolbox called digital advocacy. Advocacy is probably a word you as a nonprofit guru are aware of. Advocating for a cause, a demographic, etc., is your jam. While it’s simple to add the word digital in front of that and call it a day, technically digital advocacy has more of a political spin. Let’s break it down into a timeline.
Digital advocacy started in the era of email. Email newsletters were the original form of digital advocacy that nonprofits used to gather donor information and inform people on upcoming events.
After newsletters, we moved into petitions and forms, letting your voice be heard on a digital platform to take action. MoveOn.org has been especially good at this.
And finally, we land with social media, the new frontier of digital advocacy and virtual signaling.
While political campaigns were the first to utilize the digital sphere (leaders in the SMS campaigning, too), many nonprofits were quick to adapt to this form of visual support. Why? First off, advocating for social change, especially in the world of legislation and law, directly affects the work of many nonprofits. For example, food kitchens often operate under local health laws. Planned Parenthood is consistently fighting against legislation that limits women’s healthcare access. Being involved in local politics or even national politics can seem daunting and possibly a turn-off for founders. Yet, there are nuanced ways to stay neutral while still campaigning for change in your specific sector.(We would argue that all social justice work is political, but that’s a blog for another day.)
Another benefit for nonprofits doing digital advocacy is that it is a great way to demonstrate your mission and have visual data to support it. The goal of digital advocacy is to ultimately turn your audience into advocates for your mission and be ambassadors sharing your work. You want them to do a little bit of the heavy lifting in getting your name out there to others who otherwise might not have ever heard of you.
Tips For Getting Started In The Digital Advocacy World
Set up social media. If you don’t already have social media going, it’s time to set up those accounts. Instagram, Twitter, and FB should be the three you start on.
If you are in the right place for this, start looking for advocacy CRMs to help keep track of petitions and fundraising. Popular ones are VAN (political campaigns), and EveryAction.
Make a road map to what you want to accomplish regarding the number of petitions signed, number of shares, number of actions met. You and your team can determine these goals together and make targets.
Listen, operating the digital communities can take time even if you have the resources; set up a specific team to oversee this work and report on goals. If you don’t have a team available, then look at your goals and make realistic choices.
Build up your thought pieces. You can start out blogging on Medium and your own website. Put out into the web thoughtful articles or lists of why your mission and goals are important.
Synergy is important in all online work. Make sure that you start building up a large email list. Pull your blogs and link them in newsletters; get people to sign up for the newsletter after reading the blog. Make sure that every opportunity you give someone a chance to engage or share your work.
Connected to the previous bullet point, make sure that on every blog post, every newsletter, every social post, and especially all over your website that you have ‘call to actions’ posted. Typical calls to action include signing a petition, signing up for a newsletter, sharing your content, or donating.
Make connections. You can have amazing content but still have no one share or come to you. Starting is going to take some effort on your part. Reach out to influencers or local representatives, asking them to share your work or get involved. Follow people on Instagram or FB. Comment on others' work and express your own opinions. You have to be especially outgoing to get the ball rolling. (A great rhyme to keep in mind).
If all of this feels like a huge ball of stress that you absolutely want to avoid, you’re not alone. You can always take it slow, reach out to your board for help, or reallocate some hours from grant writing or strategic planning to us here at Mockingbird so you can focus on your digital advocacy strategy. Mockingbird would love to get involved in helping you find a pathway to accomplishing your goals online. Looking for more information? Check out our digital advocacy guidebook with more background, roadmaps, and links to keep you informed of best practices.
