WP_Query Object ( [query] => Array ( [name] => ladder-of-engagement [post_type] => resources [resource-type] => public-affairs-dictionary ) [query_vars] => Array ( [name] => ladder-of-engagement [post_type] => resources [resource-type] => public-affairs-dictionary [error] => [m] => [p] => 0 [post_parent] => [subpost] => [subpost_id] => [attachment] => [attachment_id] => 0 [pagename] => [page_id] => 0 [second] => [minute] => [hour] => [day] => 0 [monthnum] => 0 [year] => 0 [w] => 0 [category_name] => [tag] => [cat] => [tag_id] => [author] => [author_name] => [feed] => [tb] => [paged] => 0 [meta_key] => [meta_value] => [preview] => [s] => [sentence] => [title] => [fields] => [menu_order] => [embed] => [category__in] => Array ( ) [category__not_in] => Array ( ) [category__and] => Array ( ) [post__in] => Array ( ) [post__not_in] => Array ( ) [post_name__in] => Array ( ) [tag__in] => Array ( ) [tag__not_in] => Array ( ) [tag__and] => Array ( ) [tag_slug__in] => Array ( ) [tag_slug__and] => Array ( ) [post_parent__in] => Array ( ) [post_parent__not_in] => Array ( ) [author__in] => Array ( ) [author__not_in] => Array ( ) [search_columns] => Array ( ) [ignore_sticky_posts] => [suppress_filters] => [cache_results] => 1 [update_post_term_cache] => 1 [update_menu_item_cache] => [lazy_load_term_meta] => 1 [update_post_meta_cache] => 1 [posts_per_page] => 10 [nopaging] => [comments_per_page] => 50 [no_found_rows] => [order] => DESC ) [tax_query] => [meta_query] => WP_Meta_Query Object ( [queries] => Array ( ) [relation] => [meta_table] => [meta_id_column] => [primary_table] => [primary_id_column] => [table_aliases:protected] => Array ( ) [clauses:protected] => Array ( ) [has_or_relation:protected] => ) [date_query] => [queried_object] => WP_Post Object ( [ID] => 9234 [post_author] => 43 [post_date] => 2023-04-17 21:29:27 [post_date_gmt] => 2023-04-17 21:29:27 [post_content] => Successful grassroots advocacy is more than just sending email or texts, asking people to take action and hoping they respond. Sophisticated organizations have a plan to identify enthusiastic advocates and encourage them to increase their involvement over time. That type of system is often called a Ladder of Engagement. It begins with simple requests, such as signing a petition or writing a lawmaker, and then progresses to more complex actions such as telling their story, volunteering, recruiting other supporters, or leading their own meetings as a grasstops advocate. The ladder represents the full spectrum of your advocates. People at the bottom are moderate supporters who take action when they can. The people at the top are your best advocates, who reliably engage with everything you do. The most involved might even become grasstops ambassadors, who receive training and interact directly with public officials.

The Impact of Laddered Engagement

In theory, the ladder operates on a simple idea: advocates respond best when involvement is nurtured over time. The concept is used extensively in marketing, where the job is to turn leads into sales, and it works. A public affairs team can use this approach to identify enthusiastic supporters and convert them into motivated and reliable “super advocates”—and that’s a very powerful asset. For example, Expedia saw a dramatic increase in activity among super advocates in a campaign it ran in Arizona. Among all state advocates, Expedia saw an open rate of 62 percent, a click rate of 10.5 percent and a conversion rate of almost 5 percent. Among super advocates, the open rate was 76 percent, the click rate was nearly 48 percent and the conversion rate was almost 32 percent. More than 100 super advocates even showed up at a rally. Any organization can build a basic Ladder of Engagement. In practice, the ladder is an exercise in analytics and list segmentation. Public affairs teams monitor campaign performance to identify supporters who reliably open, click, and take action on campaigns. Those people are then placed on separate lists that receive communications designed to encourage additional involvement with more sophisticated actions. Some organizations even use gamification to promote movement up the ladder. While the ladder will look a bit different in every organization, often with many rungs based on levels of participation, here is what a basic ladder might look like, with activities at every level.

The First Rung: Supporters

The first rung of the ladder is designed to identify supporters who are motivated and willing to participate. The idea is to ask for simple acts of support, often actions in the digital world that don’t take much time, and then track the advocates who complete these tasks reliably. Some of these tasks might be:

• Signing a Petition. This is a great way to generate action because it is simple. Organizations can easily launch a petition campaign using a system like Quorum Grassroots and advocates can easily sign on. It’s a good way to start your ladder.
• Pledging to Vote. Around election time, many organizations ask their advocates to sign a pledge to vote. This is similar to a petition campaign. It’s a simple, uncontroversial action that many people will be willing to take.
• Writing Your Lawmaker. This is slightly more involved, but systems like Quorum make it easy for advocates to personalize a letter and send it to the right lawmaker using an automated process. They will have to write a few thoughtful sentences, but everything else is done for them. Because this is such a common activity for public affairs teams, it's a good metric when looking for active supporters.

If an advocate opens your email reliably and then signs a petition, writes a letter to Congress and then does the same to a state lawmaker, all in a 45-day window, those are strong signs they care about your cause and may be willing to do more. You can pull them into a list of people who are ready for more opportunities. Using professional advocacy software like Quorum makes this type of tracking and segmentation simple. Overall, it may be helpful to think of this first rung as an exercise in recruiting. You are looking for the people on your list who actively support you so you can give them additional opportunities and recognition. But rather than simply asking if they want to be more involved, you are using a more reliable measure: action. You are tracking what they do, rather than what they say.

The Second Rung: Advocates

Advocates on your new list of active supporters can be sent more advanced calls to action, most of which are tougher requests because they involve either money or time. Signing a petition is relatively simple. It can be done from a desk during the workday and costs nothing. Volunteering to staff a rally at the capitol on a Saturday is a much more difficult undertaking. One way to mitigate these more advanced requests is to provide a menu of options for people to get more active. Advocates contribute to your organization in different ways. Providing a list of different ways to help allows them to contribute in the way they are most comfortable. Some examples:

• Calling a Lawmaker. Calling a lawmaker is more involved than writing an email. It involves a commitment of time and a willingness to interact directly with other people. It is also more effective in many cases because phone calls cannot be ignored or put off until tomorrow. They have to be answered and addressed.
• Contributing a Personal Story. Many of the advocates on your list have compelling stories to tell that relate directly to your agenda. Many even want to tell their story, but are self-conscious about doing so. Writing something down or creating a short video is also a time commitment. But these stories are a powerful asset. Lawmakers need to hear from constituents, and these personal stories become the anecdotes they use to form their own opinions and to sway others.
• Attending an Event. Whether it is a rally, an annual conference, or a fundraiser, organizations often need to fill seats. The ability to create an audience on demand is useful. But for advocates, it represents a time commitment and that is always a tough sell.
• Making a Donation. Asking people to part with money is one of the toughest requests to make—and the field is crowded. The number of organizations asking for charitable gifts grows every year. But prospecting for donors among those who already passionately support you is a strong move.

The advocates who bite on these activities and do so consistently can make a real difference for your organization. They may also be candidates for even more advanced work that can be far more helpful. The process for moving them to the next rung is the same: track those who take action and create a new list of active supporters who are candidates for the upper rungs on the ladder.

The Third Rung: Super Advocates

The people who land on the top rungs of your ladder go beyond advocates who take action and transcend into people who are part of the fabric of your advocacy program. These are the people who work to make things happen. Some of the activities on this upper rung include:

• Education and Training. People who want to play more advanced roles are often willing (and required) to participate in education and training. This might be watching a series of videos and then taking a short quiz or it might be attending a webinar once a month. For example, the American Society of Anesthesiologists uses Quorum to identify advocates who are ready to take on more responsibility and send them a series of video education modules and quizzes. The result has been a larger and more capable grassroots network.
• Fly-ins and Lobby Days. Some who are actively writing or calling lawmakers will be willing to take the next step and meet with them directly. Fly-ins, whether virtual or in person, are a big time commitment. Even if there is no travel involved, there is almost always training. But having constituents make your argument to the lawmakers who represent them is a high-impact tactic.
• Fundraising. Some of the people on your list who donate may be good candidates for peer-to-peer fundraising, tapping their personal and professional networks for additional contributions. Many organizations raise a great deal of money this way, but it is a major time commitment for those involved.

At this level, recognition and rewards start to play a role. Successful programs often reward the advocates who do all this hard work. The rewards may be simple, such as branded merchandise, special briefings, access to your organization’s leadership or a thank-you dinner. The approach will be different at every organization. Just make sure you thank and reward those who participate.

The Fourth Rung: Ambassadors

The highest rung on any Engagement Ladder is usually participation in a grasstops program. This involves transitioning volunteer advocates into leadership roles, though the responsibilities can look different at every organization.

• Coordinators. Some organizations use their best advocates as city, state or regional coordinators, in charge of working with local supporters to conduct advocacy. Many develop relationships with state and local officials, recruit advocates, hold their own meetings and conduct campaigns that are relevant in their locale.
• Ambassadors. Some organizations create ambassadors for the organization, working directly with members of Congress or state legislatures. Large organizations often attach one ambassador to every member of Congress, encouraging them to immerse themselves in advocacy, become experts on issues and build relationships with staff members.

These advocates often have a very personal connection to the mission, and they generally receive the most training and the biggest rewards. And why not? Very few start at the top of the ladder. Far more often, they begin by writing letters and signing petitions, and are nurtured by the organization to play more important roles. Many work at this for months or even years. It requires a commitment from both the organization and the advocate, and that commitment becomes the foundation of a real and beneficial relationship. When advocates climb the Ladder of Engagement, good things happen for both organization and advocate.

Putting the Engagement Ladder to Use

So, how does this all work in practice? This will likely look different at every organization, but we can look at a practical example to illustrate how the ladder translates into action. Let’s say that a bill is introduced in Congress that contains a mixed bag of provisions, some of which your organization supports and some of which are objectionable. Your public affairs team is asked to try to reach out to the relevant lawmakers, make your policy arguments, and convince them to modify the language. This is a fairly common scenario and it can involve advocates on every rung of the ladder:

• Ambassadors Seek Out Meetings. The first step is to have ambassadors (the top rung on the ladder) use their existing relationships to secure meetings with relevant lawmakers quickly. Together with policy experts from your organization, these ambassadors will bring the arguments and the requests directly to lawmakers. These ambassadors likely have a personal connection to the issue and can bring an authentic and engaging appeal.
• Super Advocates Contribute Stories. Super Advocates, who have undergone training or perhaps attended a fly-in, might be asked to contribute personal stories explaining how this policy will impact them. This is a solid follow-up to an in-person meeting.
• Advocates Make Calls. If the bill moves forward without the requested modifications, your team may decide to activate your grassroots in an effort to amend the bill or defeat it altogether. Advocates who have been trained to call lawmakers can be asked to conduct a phone campaign. When constituents call the office, it is hard for lawmakers to ignore them.
• Supporters Write Letters. Letter campaigns are standard, but an organization using an Engagement Ladder can increase efficacy by identifying supporters who are extremely active. Appealing to these supporters with a special campaign can insure that personalized, high-quality communications flow into lawmaker offices as constituents themselves make your argument.

Overall, an Engagement Ladder does not guarantee success, but it does provide structure to your advocacy efforts and ensure that you are harnessing the support you have available. Because you are identifying and activating people who are passionate about your cause, it can dramatically increase impact. As many organizations already know, the Engagement Ladder works. [post_title] => How to Create a ‘Ladder of Engagement’ and Why You Need One [post_excerpt] => [post_status] => publish [comment_status] => closed [ping_status] => closed [post_password] => [post_name] => ladder-of-engagement [to_ping] => [pinged] => [post_modified] => 2023-04-25 14:52:46 [post_modified_gmt] => 2023-04-25 14:52:46 [post_content_filtered] => [post_parent] => 0 [guid] => https://marketing-staging.quorum.us/?post_type=resources&p=9234 [menu_order] => 0 [post_type] => resources [post_mime_type] => [comment_count] => 0 [filter] => raw ) [queried_object_id] => 9234 [request] => SELECT wp_posts.* FROM wp_posts WHERE 1=1 AND wp_posts.post_name = 'ladder-of-engagement' AND wp_posts.post_type = 'resources' ORDER BY wp_posts.post_date DESC [posts] => Array ( [0] => WP_Post Object ( [ID] => 9234 [post_author] => 43 [post_date] => 2023-04-17 21:29:27 [post_date_gmt] => 2023-04-17 21:29:27 [post_content] => Successful grassroots advocacy is more than just sending email or texts, asking people to take action and hoping they respond. Sophisticated organizations have a plan to identify enthusiastic advocates and encourage them to increase their involvement over time. That type of system is often called a Ladder of Engagement. It begins with simple requests, such as signing a petition or writing a lawmaker, and then progresses to more complex actions such as telling their story, volunteering, recruiting other supporters, or leading their own meetings as a grasstops advocate. The ladder represents the full spectrum of your advocates. People at the bottom are moderate supporters who take action when they can. The people at the top are your best advocates, who reliably engage with everything you do. The most involved might even become grasstops ambassadors, who receive training and interact directly with public officials.

The Impact of Laddered Engagement

In theory, the ladder operates on a simple idea: advocates respond best when involvement is nurtured over time. The concept is used extensively in marketing, where the job is to turn leads into sales, and it works. A public affairs team can use this approach to identify enthusiastic supporters and convert them into motivated and reliable “super advocates”—and that’s a very powerful asset. For example, Expedia saw a dramatic increase in activity among super advocates in a campaign it ran in Arizona. Among all state advocates, Expedia saw an open rate of 62 percent, a click rate of 10.5 percent and a conversion rate of almost 5 percent. Among super advocates, the open rate was 76 percent, the click rate was nearly 48 percent and the conversion rate was almost 32 percent. More than 100 super advocates even showed up at a rally. Any organization can build a basic Ladder of Engagement. In practice, the ladder is an exercise in analytics and list segmentation. Public affairs teams monitor campaign performance to identify supporters who reliably open, click, and take action on campaigns. Those people are then placed on separate lists that receive communications designed to encourage additional involvement with more sophisticated actions. Some organizations even use gamification to promote movement up the ladder. While the ladder will look a bit different in every organization, often with many rungs based on levels of participation, here is what a basic ladder might look like, with activities at every level.

The First Rung: Supporters

The first rung of the ladder is designed to identify supporters who are motivated and willing to participate. The idea is to ask for simple acts of support, often actions in the digital world that don’t take much time, and then track the advocates who complete these tasks reliably. Some of these tasks might be:

• Signing a Petition. This is a great way to generate action because it is simple. Organizations can easily launch a petition campaign using a system like Quorum Grassroots and advocates can easily sign on. It’s a good way to start your ladder.
• Pledging to Vote. Around election time, many organizations ask their advocates to sign a pledge to vote. This is similar to a petition campaign. It’s a simple, uncontroversial action that many people will be willing to take.
• Writing Your Lawmaker. This is slightly more involved, but systems like Quorum make it easy for advocates to personalize a letter and send it to the right lawmaker using an automated process. They will have to write a few thoughtful sentences, but everything else is done for them. Because this is such a common activity for public affairs teams, it's a good metric when looking for active supporters.

If an advocate opens your email reliably and then signs a petition, writes a letter to Congress and then does the same to a state lawmaker, all in a 45-day window, those are strong signs they care about your cause and may be willing to do more. You can pull them into a list of people who are ready for more opportunities. Using professional advocacy software like Quorum makes this type of tracking and segmentation simple. Overall, it may be helpful to think of this first rung as an exercise in recruiting. You are looking for the people on your list who actively support you so you can give them additional opportunities and recognition. But rather than simply asking if they want to be more involved, you are using a more reliable measure: action. You are tracking what they do, rather than what they say.

The Second Rung: Advocates

Advocates on your new list of active supporters can be sent more advanced calls to action, most of which are tougher requests because they involve either money or time. Signing a petition is relatively simple. It can be done from a desk during the workday and costs nothing. Volunteering to staff a rally at the capitol on a Saturday is a much more difficult undertaking. One way to mitigate these more advanced requests is to provide a menu of options for people to get more active. Advocates contribute to your organization in different ways. Providing a list of different ways to help allows them to contribute in the way they are most comfortable. Some examples:

• Calling a Lawmaker. Calling a lawmaker is more involved than writing an email. It involves a commitment of time and a willingness to interact directly with other people. It is also more effective in many cases because phone calls cannot be ignored or put off until tomorrow. They have to be answered and addressed.
• Contributing a Personal Story. Many of the advocates on your list have compelling stories to tell that relate directly to your agenda. Many even want to tell their story, but are self-conscious about doing so. Writing something down or creating a short video is also a time commitment. But these stories are a powerful asset. Lawmakers need to hear from constituents, and these personal stories become the anecdotes they use to form their own opinions and to sway others.
• Attending an Event. Whether it is a rally, an annual conference, or a fundraiser, organizations often need to fill seats. The ability to create an audience on demand is useful. But for advocates, it represents a time commitment and that is always a tough sell.
• Making a Donation. Asking people to part with money is one of the toughest requests to make—and the field is crowded. The number of organizations asking for charitable gifts grows every year. But prospecting for donors among those who already passionately support you is a strong move.

The advocates who bite on these activities and do so consistently can make a real difference for your organization. They may also be candidates for even more advanced work that can be far more helpful. The process for moving them to the next rung is the same: track those who take action and create a new list of active supporters who are candidates for the upper rungs on the ladder.

The Third Rung: Super Advocates

The people who land on the top rungs of your ladder go beyond advocates who take action and transcend into people who are part of the fabric of your advocacy program. These are the people who work to make things happen. Some of the activities on this upper rung include:

• Education and Training. People who want to play more advanced roles are often willing (and required) to participate in education and training. This might be watching a series of videos and then taking a short quiz or it might be attending a webinar once a month. For example, the American Society of Anesthesiologists uses Quorum to identify advocates who are ready to take on more responsibility and send them a series of video education modules and quizzes. The result has been a larger and more capable grassroots network.
• Fly-ins and Lobby Days. Some who are actively writing or calling lawmakers will be willing to take the next step and meet with them directly. Fly-ins, whether virtual or in person, are a big time commitment. Even if there is no travel involved, there is almost always training. But having constituents make your argument to the lawmakers who represent them is a high-impact tactic.
• Fundraising. Some of the people on your list who donate may be good candidates for peer-to-peer fundraising, tapping their personal and professional networks for additional contributions. Many organizations raise a great deal of money this way, but it is a major time commitment for those involved.

At this level, recognition and rewards start to play a role. Successful programs often reward the advocates who do all this hard work. The rewards may be simple, such as branded merchandise, special briefings, access to your organization’s leadership or a thank-you dinner. The approach will be different at every organization. Just make sure you thank and reward those who participate.

The Fourth Rung: Ambassadors

The highest rung on any Engagement Ladder is usually participation in a grasstops program. This involves transitioning volunteer advocates into leadership roles, though the responsibilities can look different at every organization.

• Coordinators. Some organizations use their best advocates as city, state or regional coordinators, in charge of working with local supporters to conduct advocacy. Many develop relationships with state and local officials, recruit advocates, hold their own meetings and conduct campaigns that are relevant in their locale.
• Ambassadors. Some organizations create ambassadors for the organization, working directly with members of Congress or state legislatures. Large organizations often attach one ambassador to every member of Congress, encouraging them to immerse themselves in advocacy, become experts on issues and build relationships with staff members.

These advocates often have a very personal connection to the mission, and they generally receive the most training and the biggest rewards. And why not? Very few start at the top of the ladder. Far more often, they begin by writing letters and signing petitions, and are nurtured by the organization to play more important roles. Many work at this for months or even years. It requires a commitment from both the organization and the advocate, and that commitment becomes the foundation of a real and beneficial relationship. When advocates climb the Ladder of Engagement, good things happen for both organization and advocate.

Putting the Engagement Ladder to Use

So, how does this all work in practice? This will likely look different at every organization, but we can look at a practical example to illustrate how the ladder translates into action. Let’s say that a bill is introduced in Congress that contains a mixed bag of provisions, some of which your organization supports and some of which are objectionable. Your public affairs team is asked to try to reach out to the relevant lawmakers, make your policy arguments, and convince them to modify the language. This is a fairly common scenario and it can involve advocates on every rung of the ladder:

• Ambassadors Seek Out Meetings. The first step is to have ambassadors (the top rung on the ladder) use their existing relationships to secure meetings with relevant lawmakers quickly. Together with policy experts from your organization, these ambassadors will bring the arguments and the requests directly to lawmakers. These ambassadors likely have a personal connection to the issue and can bring an authentic and engaging appeal.
• Super Advocates Contribute Stories. Super Advocates, who have undergone training or perhaps attended a fly-in, might be asked to contribute personal stories explaining how this policy will impact them. This is a solid follow-up to an in-person meeting.
• Advocates Make Calls. If the bill moves forward without the requested modifications, your team may decide to activate your grassroots in an effort to amend the bill or defeat it altogether. Advocates who have been trained to call lawmakers can be asked to conduct a phone campaign. When constituents call the office, it is hard for lawmakers to ignore them.
• Supporters Write Letters. Letter campaigns are standard, but an organization using an Engagement Ladder can increase efficacy by identifying supporters who are extremely active. Appealing to these supporters with a special campaign can insure that personalized, high-quality communications flow into lawmaker offices as constituents themselves make your argument.

Overall, an Engagement Ladder does not guarantee success, but it does provide structure to your advocacy efforts and ensure that you are harnessing the support you have available. Because you are identifying and activating people who are passionate about your cause, it can dramatically increase impact. As many organizations already know, the Engagement Ladder works. [post_title] => How to Create a ‘Ladder of Engagement’ and Why You Need One [post_excerpt] => [post_status] => publish [comment_status] => closed [ping_status] => closed [post_password] => [post_name] => ladder-of-engagement [to_ping] => [pinged] => [post_modified] => 2023-04-25 14:52:46 [post_modified_gmt] => 2023-04-25 14:52:46 [post_content_filtered] => [post_parent] => 0 [guid] => https://marketing-staging.quorum.us/?post_type=resources&p=9234 [menu_order] => 0 [post_type] => resources [post_mime_type] => [comment_count] => 0 [filter] => raw ) ) [post_count] => 1 [current_post] => -1 [before_loop] => 1 [in_the_loop] => [post] => WP_Post Object ( [ID] => 9234 [post_author] => 43 [post_date] => 2023-04-17 21:29:27 [post_date_gmt] => 2023-04-17 21:29:27 [post_content] => Successful grassroots advocacy is more than just sending email or texts, asking people to take action and hoping they respond. Sophisticated organizations have a plan to identify enthusiastic advocates and encourage them to increase their involvement over time. That type of system is often called a Ladder of Engagement. It begins with simple requests, such as signing a petition or writing a lawmaker, and then progresses to more complex actions such as telling their story, volunteering, recruiting other supporters, or leading their own meetings as a grasstops advocate. The ladder represents the full spectrum of your advocates. People at the bottom are moderate supporters who take action when they can. The people at the top are your best advocates, who reliably engage with everything you do. The most involved might even become grasstops ambassadors, who receive training and interact directly with public officials.

The Impact of Laddered Engagement

In theory, the ladder operates on a simple idea: advocates respond best when involvement is nurtured over time. The concept is used extensively in marketing, where the job is to turn leads into sales, and it works. A public affairs team can use this approach to identify enthusiastic supporters and convert them into motivated and reliable “super advocates”—and that’s a very powerful asset. For example, Expedia saw a dramatic increase in activity among super advocates in a campaign it ran in Arizona. Among all state advocates, Expedia saw an open rate of 62 percent, a click rate of 10.5 percent and a conversion rate of almost 5 percent. Among super advocates, the open rate was 76 percent, the click rate was nearly 48 percent and the conversion rate was almost 32 percent. More than 100 super advocates even showed up at a rally. Any organization can build a basic Ladder of Engagement. In practice, the ladder is an exercise in analytics and list segmentation. Public affairs teams monitor campaign performance to identify supporters who reliably open, click, and take action on campaigns. Those people are then placed on separate lists that receive communications designed to encourage additional involvement with more sophisticated actions. Some organizations even use gamification to promote movement up the ladder. While the ladder will look a bit different in every organization, often with many rungs based on levels of participation, here is what a basic ladder might look like, with activities at every level.

The First Rung: Supporters

The first rung of the ladder is designed to identify supporters who are motivated and willing to participate. The idea is to ask for simple acts of support, often actions in the digital world that don’t take much time, and then track the advocates who complete these tasks reliably. Some of these tasks might be:

• Signing a Petition. This is a great way to generate action because it is simple. Organizations can easily launch a petition campaign using a system like Quorum Grassroots and advocates can easily sign on. It’s a good way to start your ladder.
• Pledging to Vote. Around election time, many organizations ask their advocates to sign a pledge to vote. This is similar to a petition campaign. It’s a simple, uncontroversial action that many people will be willing to take.
• Writing Your Lawmaker. This is slightly more involved, but systems like Quorum make it easy for advocates to personalize a letter and send it to the right lawmaker using an automated process. They will have to write a few thoughtful sentences, but everything else is done for them. Because this is such a common activity for public affairs teams, it's a good metric when looking for active supporters.

If an advocate opens your email reliably and then signs a petition, writes a letter to Congress and then does the same to a state lawmaker, all in a 45-day window, those are strong signs they care about your cause and may be willing to do more. You can pull them into a list of people who are ready for more opportunities. Using professional advocacy software like Quorum makes this type of tracking and segmentation simple. Overall, it may be helpful to think of this first rung as an exercise in recruiting. You are looking for the people on your list who actively support you so you can give them additional opportunities and recognition. But rather than simply asking if they want to be more involved, you are using a more reliable measure: action. You are tracking what they do, rather than what they say.

The Second Rung: Advocates

Advocates on your new list of active supporters can be sent more advanced calls to action, most of which are tougher requests because they involve either money or time. Signing a petition is relatively simple. It can be done from a desk during the workday and costs nothing. Volunteering to staff a rally at the capitol on a Saturday is a much more difficult undertaking. One way to mitigate these more advanced requests is to provide a menu of options for people to get more active. Advocates contribute to your organization in different ways. Providing a list of different ways to help allows them to contribute in the way they are most comfortable. Some examples:

• Calling a Lawmaker. Calling a lawmaker is more involved than writing an email. It involves a commitment of time and a willingness to interact directly with other people. It is also more effective in many cases because phone calls cannot be ignored or put off until tomorrow. They have to be answered and addressed.
• Contributing a Personal Story. Many of the advocates on your list have compelling stories to tell that relate directly to your agenda. Many even want to tell their story, but are self-conscious about doing so. Writing something down or creating a short video is also a time commitment. But these stories are a powerful asset. Lawmakers need to hear from constituents, and these personal stories become the anecdotes they use to form their own opinions and to sway others.
• Attending an Event. Whether it is a rally, an annual conference, or a fundraiser, organizations often need to fill seats. The ability to create an audience on demand is useful. But for advocates, it represents a time commitment and that is always a tough sell.
• Making a Donation. Asking people to part with money is one of the toughest requests to make—and the field is crowded. The number of organizations asking for charitable gifts grows every year. But prospecting for donors among those who already passionately support you is a strong move.

The advocates who bite on these activities and do so consistently can make a real difference for your organization. They may also be candidates for even more advanced work that can be far more helpful. The process for moving them to the next rung is the same: track those who take action and create a new list of active supporters who are candidates for the upper rungs on the ladder.

The Third Rung: Super Advocates

The people who land on the top rungs of your ladder go beyond advocates who take action and transcend into people who are part of the fabric of your advocacy program. These are the people who work to make things happen. Some of the activities on this upper rung include:

• Education and Training. People who want to play more advanced roles are often willing (and required) to participate in education and training. This might be watching a series of videos and then taking a short quiz or it might be attending a webinar once a month. For example, the American Society of Anesthesiologists uses Quorum to identify advocates who are ready to take on more responsibility and send them a series of video education modules and quizzes. The result has been a larger and more capable grassroots network.
• Fly-ins and Lobby Days. Some who are actively writing or calling lawmakers will be willing to take the next step and meet with them directly. Fly-ins, whether virtual or in person, are a big time commitment. Even if there is no travel involved, there is almost always training. But having constituents make your argument to the lawmakers who represent them is a high-impact tactic.
• Fundraising. Some of the people on your list who donate may be good candidates for peer-to-peer fundraising, tapping their personal and professional networks for additional contributions. Many organizations raise a great deal of money this way, but it is a major time commitment for those involved.

At this level, recognition and rewards start to play a role. Successful programs often reward the advocates who do all this hard work. The rewards may be simple, such as branded merchandise, special briefings, access to your organization’s leadership or a thank-you dinner. The approach will be different at every organization. Just make sure you thank and reward those who participate.

The Fourth Rung: Ambassadors

The highest rung on any Engagement Ladder is usually participation in a grasstops program. This involves transitioning volunteer advocates into leadership roles, though the responsibilities can look different at every organization.

• Coordinators. Some organizations use their best advocates as city, state or regional coordinators, in charge of working with local supporters to conduct advocacy. Many develop relationships with state and local officials, recruit advocates, hold their own meetings and conduct campaigns that are relevant in their locale.
• Ambassadors. Some organizations create ambassadors for the organization, working directly with members of Congress or state legislatures. Large organizations often attach one ambassador to every member of Congress, encouraging them to immerse themselves in advocacy, become experts on issues and build relationships with staff members.

These advocates often have a very personal connection to the mission, and they generally receive the most training and the biggest rewards. And why not? Very few start at the top of the ladder. Far more often, they begin by writing letters and signing petitions, and are nurtured by the organization to play more important roles. Many work at this for months or even years. It requires a commitment from both the organization and the advocate, and that commitment becomes the foundation of a real and beneficial relationship. When advocates climb the Ladder of Engagement, good things happen for both organization and advocate.

Putting the Engagement Ladder to Use

So, how does this all work in practice? This will likely look different at every organization, but we can look at a practical example to illustrate how the ladder translates into action. Let’s say that a bill is introduced in Congress that contains a mixed bag of provisions, some of which your organization supports and some of which are objectionable. Your public affairs team is asked to try to reach out to the relevant lawmakers, make your policy arguments, and convince them to modify the language. This is a fairly common scenario and it can involve advocates on every rung of the ladder:

• Ambassadors Seek Out Meetings. The first step is to have ambassadors (the top rung on the ladder) use their existing relationships to secure meetings with relevant lawmakers quickly. Together with policy experts from your organization, these ambassadors will bring the arguments and the requests directly to lawmakers. These ambassadors likely have a personal connection to the issue and can bring an authentic and engaging appeal.
• Super Advocates Contribute Stories. Super Advocates, who have undergone training or perhaps attended a fly-in, might be asked to contribute personal stories explaining how this policy will impact them. This is a solid follow-up to an in-person meeting.
• Advocates Make Calls. If the bill moves forward without the requested modifications, your team may decide to activate your grassroots in an effort to amend the bill or defeat it altogether. Advocates who have been trained to call lawmakers can be asked to conduct a phone campaign. When constituents call the office, it is hard for lawmakers to ignore them.
• Supporters Write Letters. Letter campaigns are standard, but an organization using an Engagement Ladder can increase efficacy by identifying supporters who are extremely active. Appealing to these supporters with a special campaign can insure that personalized, high-quality communications flow into lawmaker offices as constituents themselves make your argument.

Overall, an Engagement Ladder does not guarantee success, but it does provide structure to your advocacy efforts and ensure that you are harnessing the support you have available. Because you are identifying and activating people who are passionate about your cause, it can dramatically increase impact. As many organizations already know, the Engagement Ladder works. [post_title] => How to Create a ‘Ladder of Engagement’ and Why You Need One [post_excerpt] => [post_status] => publish [comment_status] => closed [ping_status] => closed [post_password] => [post_name] => ladder-of-engagement [to_ping] => [pinged] => [post_modified] => 2023-04-25 14:52:46 [post_modified_gmt] => 2023-04-25 14:52:46 [post_content_filtered] => [post_parent] => 0 [guid] => https://marketing-staging.quorum.us/?post_type=resources&p=9234 [menu_order] => 0 [post_type] => resources [post_mime_type] => [comment_count] => 0 [filter] => raw ) [comment_count] => 0 [current_comment] => -1 [found_posts] => 1 [max_num_pages] => 0 [max_num_comment_pages] => 0 [is_single] => 1 [is_preview] => [is_page] => [is_archive] => [is_date] => [is_year] => [is_month] => [is_day] => [is_time] => [is_author] => [is_category] => [is_tag] => [is_tax] => [is_search] => [is_feed] => [is_comment_feed] => [is_trackback] => [is_home] => [is_privacy_policy] => [is_404] => [is_embed] => [is_paged] => [is_admin] => [is_attachment] => [is_singular] => 1 [is_robots] => [is_favicon] => [is_posts_page] => [is_post_type_archive] => [query_vars_hash:WP_Query:private] => 9cc8b6f4cffdd5acdd791eb6c09c3b48 [query_vars_changed:WP_Query:private] => [thumbnails_cached] => [allow_query_attachment_by_filename:protected] => [stopwords:WP_Query:private] => [compat_fields:WP_Query:private] => Array ( [0] => query_vars_hash [1] => query_vars_changed ) [compat_methods:WP_Query:private] => Array ( [0] => init_query_flags [1] => parse_tax_query ) )

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