Leveling Up Your State Public Affairs Program: Benchmarking & Strategies
How could I have a greater impact on the policy landscape?
How can I benchmark the effectiveness of my state public affairs program?
What are other teams doing that I could also be doing?
If you find yourself looking for the answer to these questions, this webinar is for you.
Watch the recording and get information about the four tiers of public affairs maturity—from Ad Hoc all the way to Strategic—and get strategies to help you level up from one tier to the next.
State government affairs teams face new challenges as they manage increasing volumes of policy activity and information across multiple states. Here’s how you can benchmark your program, overcome common obstacles, and transition to a more strategic approach based on insights shared during Quorum’s recent webinar.
How to Assess Your Program’s Maturity
Quorum has identified four levels of program maturity that can help you benchmark your state affairs efforts based on the types of challenges your team may face:
Ad Hoc: Tracking is minimal and often chaotic. You’re overwhelmed by the number of bills and regulations.
Reactive: You track policy developments consistently but struggle with bandwidth and aren’t doing much proactive stakeholder engagement.
Proactive: You’ve moved beyond tracking to engage stakeholders more actively, but struggle with resource limitations and aligning the organization.
Strategic: Your program integrates data from multiple sources, aligns internal functions, and engages stakeholders early to shape policy.
Strategies for Advancing Your Program
Reduce Tracking Time with Automation:
Use AI-powered tools like Quorum Copilot’s bill analysis chatbot to quickly understand legislation and cut down on manual analysis.
Proactive Stakeholder Engagement:
Map out key stakeholders and track meeting sentiment to understand support for your issues.
Report engagement metrics to show how relationships evolve over time.
Integrate Across Teams:
Align state teams, grassroots advocacy, and PAC functions to present a unified message to lawmakers.
Use shared dashboards to track engagement across teams.
Case Studies: Success in Action
Alzheimer’s Association: Transitioned from missing policy changes to efficiently tracking developments across all states.
Uber: Improved stakeholder relationships and mitigated policy risks through strategic engagement.
ALS Association: Created alignment between grassroots and state teams to streamline messaging.
Tools to Drive Strategic Reporting
Dashboards: Simplify bill tracking and prioritize the most important developments.
Social Listening: Monitor legislators’ conversations on social media and other channels to anticipate policy changes.
What’s Next?
Evaluate where your program falls on the maturity scale, then:
Automate Tracking: Free up time for strategic engagement.
Build a Strategic Roadmap: Focus on proactive, integrated efforts.
Leverage Data for Better Decisions: Use insights from tools like dashboards and social listening to stay ahead.
Stay ahead of the curve and make your state public affairs program a central strategic asset. Watch the full webinar for a deeper dive into the strategies discussed here.
Meet the Experts
Henry Bowditch: Enterprise Account Executive at Quorum, former lobbyist before the Colorado General Assembly. Henry leverages his experience in state government affairs to guide organizations in optimizing their advocacy strategies.
Dana Meyers: Senior Product Marketing Manager at Quorum. Dana brings a wealth of knowledge in helping clients translate complex policy tracking into actionable solutions.
