Advocacy Needs a Strategy, Not Just Activity
One-off advocacy asks can drive activity - but not power
Lately, I’ve been seeing more nonprofits and membership organizations encourage their members or advocates to take a single advocacy action.
Send an email.
Make a call.
Contact your legislator.
Sometimes there’s a menu of actions. Sometimes it’s tied to tools like the “Five Calls a Day” model, in which advocates are encouraged to make one quick call to 5 lawmakers on an issue.
I can understand the appeal of that approach.
For many organizations, the biggest hurdle isn’t whether people care. It’s getting them comfortable enough to take that first step and engage at all.
That first action matters.
It lowers the barrier and helps people realize that contacting an elected official is something they can actually do. It builds confidence and participation.
That’s valuable.
But What’s the Actual Strategy?
But I keep coming back to the same question:
What strategy is that action actually part of?
Because if these actions are designed as an entry point into a larger advocacy program, great. You’re helping your supporters build the habit of engagement and creating a pathway toward deeper involvement over time.
But too often, it feels like the action itself becomes the strategy.
An email goes out.
People click a link.
A few calls get made.
Maybe a few legislators’ inboxes fill up.
And then what?
Are we following up with those advocates?
Are we telling them whether the committee vote changed?
Are we identifying who’s ready for deeper engagement?
Are we building relationships with the folks who consistently show up?
Or are we just sending another action alert two weeks later and starting the cycle over again?
That difference matters.
Because advocacy isn’t just about generating activity, it’s about building sustained influence and power over time.
Your Supporters Can Tell the Difference
Your members and advocates can tell when they’re participating in a coordinated effort with a clear goal, and when an organization is simply trying to drive clicks or hit participation numbers.
If someone takes action and never hears what happens next, they eventually stop believing the action mattered.
If every advocacy ask feels disconnected from the last one, members stop seeing how their participation fits into a broader effort.
That’s when engagement starts to flatten out - not because people stopped caring, but because they stopped seeing progress, strategy, or purpose behind the asks.
The Action Isn’t the Strategy
The issue usually isn’t that organizations are asking people to do too much.
It’s that they’re not giving enough context around why the action matters and what comes next.
The action itself is not the strategy.
The strategy is:
What you’re trying to change
Who you need to influence
Why this moment matters
What role your advocates play
And how you plan to build on that engagement afterward
Your supporters do not need a long policy memo. But they do need to understand the purpose behind the ask.
Something as simple as:
“We’re asking our members to contact legislators before Tuesday’s committee hearing because we need visible constituent support before the bill moves to a vote.”
Now the action has context and urgency and feels connected to something bigger.
Start Simple. But Build From There.
There’s nothing wrong with starting with a low-barrier action. And in many cases, that’s exactly the right move.
But there should also be a next step after the action.
Tell advocates what happened.
Show them the outcome.
Invite them deeper into the process.
Give them another meaningful role to play.
Because if you are not building on that engagement, you risk falling into random acts of advocacy: disconnected actions that create activity in the moment but don’t build sustained influence over time.
Here is an example: “We asked you to contact your legislator ahead of Tuesday’s committee hearing, and lawmakers heard from hundreds of constituents before the vote. The bill successfully advanced out of committee, which was a major step forward for this effort.
Thank you for taking action. As we prepare for the floor vote next week, we’ll share additional opportunities for you to stay involved and help keep this momentum going.”
That’s how organizations move from one-time participation to long-term advocacy capacity - and build power over time.
Because if every advocacy effort begins and ends with a single click or a single call, organizations are not really building a movement or strengthening supporter engagement over time.
They’re just generating activity and not building power. And power is what changes laws and systems.
How Snyder Strategies Can Help
If you’re reading this and recognizing some of these same tensions in your own work, you’re not alone.
This is exactly the kind of work I help organizations think through: how to be more intentional about strategy, how to meaningfully engage your supporters, and how to move forward in a way that actually builds power over time.
If that’s where you are, let’s talk.
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