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Does Grassroots Activism Influence Advocacy Group Members’ Perceptions?

Does Grassroots Activism Influence Advocacy Group Members’ Perceptions?

October 2024

by Amy D. Meli
Research Associate, Center for Effective Lawmaking
University of Virginia

Often, public affairs professionals at an association or advocacy group are asked to provide information about how member engagement efforts demonstrate ROI to the organization. Public affairs often responds with information about progress toward policy goals and other milestones that are vital to the organization’s success. But how does member engagement on policy influence people’s perceptions of the organization itself? A recent study explores the connection between advocacy messaging and perceptions of advocacy groups.

It’s relatively easy to test the ways different messages influence advocates’ likelihood of participating in grassroots activities. But A/B testing and similar tools can’t help us understand how different types of advocacy strategies influence advocacy network members’ feelings about the organization itself. With member outreach making up a core component of many public affairs programs, it is vital to understand how the messages people receive influence metrics like membership renewal rates, net promoter scores and other outcomes linked directly to the health of organizations that engage in grassroots advocacy.

Testing How Advocacy Messaging Affects Feelings

Recently, I conducted a survey to better understand how advocacy messaging influences feelings about the organization. People who responded to the survey, who were broadly representative of the U.S. public in terms of demographics, read a call-to-action message from an interest group, then answered questions about their opinion of the organization. Questions were on a range of topics, including the warmth of respondents’ feelings about the organization and their opinions about the organization’s ability to accomplish its legislative goals.

To compare how different types of advocacy messages influence feelings about the organization, respondents were divided into three groups. The first group, which acted as a control group to compare responses against, read the call to action, which provided information about a nonpartisan transportation-related issue and then asked people to write letters to their legislators about it. The second group read the same call to action with an additional paragraph about the value of bipartisanship in advocacy campaigns. The third group read the call to action with an additional paragraph about how members of Congress value communication from their constituents when deciding their positions on issues, which I call a pragmatic message. The bipartisan and pragmatic messages are provided in the box below.

Where the Warm Feelings Are Coming From
Respondents in the three groups had different perceptions of the organization and its ability to accomplish its policy goals. Many of these differences were dependent on the party affiliation of the respondent. In general, Democrats had the warmest feelings for the organization sponsoring the action alert, independents had the coolest feelings toward the organization, and Republicans were somewhere in between.

After accounting for which message the respondents received, responses shifted. Generally, the pragmatic message, which focused on constituents’ ability to influence Congress members’ positions on issues, yielded the warmest feelings toward the organization. While the pragmatic message was effective for both Democrats and independents, it had the strongest effect on Democrats. Republicans’ feelings about the organization did not change based on the message they read; the control, bipartisan and pragmatic groups had similar feelings about the organization that sponsored the message.

Independents Stand Out
Perhaps the most interesting result when looking at warmth of feelings toward the organization is the effects on independents. While, on the whole, independents had the coolest feelings toward the organization, they responded positively to both the pragmatic and bipartisan messages. In fact, independents reading the bipartisan message had feelings about the organization that were on par with Democrats — the highest-scoring group. These effects are notable since, on the whole, independents tend to be less engaged in politics and policy. Methods that can help improve independents’ perceptions of public policy and politics are notable, especially since both messages had a relatively strong effect.

The pragmatic message also influenced survey respondents’ opinions about the organization’s ability to achieve its policy goals. People who read the pragmatic message were slightly more likely to think the organization could communicate effectively with Congress. The pragmatic message also influenced people’s opinions about whether the organization can get its bills approved by Congress, although the results here vary depending upon party affiliation. Democrats and Republicans who read the pragmatic message thought the organization was more likely to get bills passed through Congress compared with the control group, while independents who read the pragmatic message had less confidence about the organization’s ability to get bills through Congress.

What Everyone Agrees On

These survey results suggest that people want to hear positive messages that emphasize cooperation and government responsiveness from the groups asking them to take action on public policy. Organizations that emphasize their bipartisan strategies and educate members about how policymakers respond to constituent communications are likely to receive higher marks than those that do not use these types of messages — particularly among Democrats and independents.

It is likely that the real-world effect of these efforts is even stronger than the survey illustrates. While it is relatively rare for organizations to embed these types of messages in action alert communications themselves, many organizations include this type of information at member events, at advocacy training sessions and during PAC events. Hearing these messages over time and in a variety of venues can help provide important context for advocates and help them understand how organizations work to achieve their policy goals.

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