Design An Advocacy Pipeline and Leadership Program

Evermore is a national nonpartisan nonprofit dedicated to making the world a more livable place for bereaved families. We believe in a healthy and prosperous society for all. Where losing a loved one does not alter the health, social and economic trajectory of a life. Our work creates transformational systems change by raising awareness, advancing the science, advocating for meaningful policy change and seeding innovation in bereavement programming. We are located in Washington, D.C. Over the last three years, thousands of people have asked to “be part of our movement,” but engaging our base in a consistent and structured fashion remains a significant challenge. We are seeking a collaboration with NYU to design a systematic advocacy pipeline with clear benchmarks, activities, and competencies to filter “shoppers” (a person with short-term interest or inconsistent engagement) from “leaders” (those who are interested in long-term engagement and increase skill aptitude).
Successful completion of the project should include a strategic plan that: + Designs a pipeline to operationalize a holistic plan that welcomes newcomers and advances them systematically toward leadership capabilities, if demonstrated. + Develops an engagement strategy for each volunteer level with advancing sophistication, abilities, and expectations. + Develops a communications plan for each volunteer level with appropriate messaging that aligns with the cohorts knowledge base and fluency on advocacy, policy, and bereavement. + Delineates specific actions for each cohort (or tier) of the pipeline. These activities complement one another while advancing the knowledge of the volunteer base. To date, we have not found any quality or well-designed program that educates the general public on how to advocate lawmakers in various ways. For example, many programs singularly focus on advancing legislation which is limiting and often unproductive. In many cases, our work is not about advancing a specific piece of legislation, it is advancing policy associated with other bills (eg, paid bereavement leave within the context of paid maternity/paternity leave) or urging congressional leaders to champion bereavement. Another example, we have successfully advanced legislative language as part of the U.S. budget process, but it was not a formal appropriation (or dollar-allocation), it was a directive included in the joint explanatory state. In short, our work is more nuanced and complicated as we seek to truly engage and empower our base, not simply advocate on their behalf. Additionally, when polling our base, only 66 percent understand basic U.S. government structure. One-third do not understand they have more than one elected official representing them. Further, some have voiced confusion between state and national leadership and their roles and responsibilities. Our issue is personal and our base is passionate, but we need a structured engagement mechanism to ensure that as we advance people in the advocacy program (or pipeline) that they have demonstrated competencies and are set to lead successfully.
1) A clearly defined pipeline/program with tiers to differentiate sophistication and competencies between volunteers, associated metrics for each tier and competencies. + Each tier would include specific metrics on engagement (eg, a basic function would be following us on social, while the next tier may be a social media ambassador). + Each tier would include a specific communications plan that would match the fluency and competency of the target audience (eg, the most basic tier may give a 101 on government or how we talk about bereavement, whereas the next tier encourages their voice on social, and the next tier with their local media). + Each tier would include specific action steps to match a volunteers’ ability and competency (eg, at the most basic level it may be emailing The White House as to why this issue is important; whereas more senior volunteers may host an event in their community to grow the base). 2) The NYU team would work in conjunction with the Evermore team to implement and test the pipeline as it is being developed. 3) The pipeline and its associated metrics would be incorporated into our CRM (our staff would undertake this portion of the project). 4) Defined metrics on how many volunteers are in each tier, increase in conversion rates from advocacy signup to advancement, increase in advocacy base, etc. 5) The base grows, people remain engaged and they spread the word. Collectively, a positive experience will result in increased engagement, awareness and funding.