Advocacy and Fact Sheets: Guidelines and Tips

High stakes communications
1. Critical communication
2. Action oriented
3. Reader-centric
Guidelines for advocacy
1. Ask for what you want!
2. Make your requests specific
3. Define & describe your vision of success
What do you want?
1. These are your goals…desired outcomes.
2. What is it you want to be done once your message has been heard?
3. Which are long-term goals and which are short-term?
Who can give it to you?
1. Who is in the best position to hear and act effectively on your message?
2. Who has the authority to “deliver the goods?”
3. Who has the capacity to influence those with formal authority?
What do they need to hear?
1. A brief, straightforward statement based on an analysis of what will persuade a particular audience.
2. Understanding and using shared values is critical to the process

Avoid vague terms like:

Appreciate
Attitude
Familiar with
Feelings for
Capable of
Conscious of

Confidence in
Experience
Realize
Recognize
Hear
Interest in

Knowledge of
Listen to
Adjust to
Responsive to
Think
Understand

Who needs to say it?
1. The same message has a very different impact depending on who communicates it.
2. Who are the most credible messengers for different audiences?
  1. In some cases, these messengers are “experts” whose credibility is largely technical.
  2. In other cases, we need to engage the “authentic voices,” those who can speak from personal experience
What do you have?
1. Take stock of the resources that are already there to be built on
2. You don’t start from scratch; you start by building on what you’ve got.
What do you need to develop?
1. What resources you need that aren’t available yet
2. Consider outreach, media and research, which are crucial to any effort
How do you begin?
1. First steps – start at the beginning!
2. What are some things that can be done right away to get the effort moving forward?
3. What needs to be done after that?
Now you know…
1. Where you are
2. Where you want to go, and
3. How you can get there
A Good Message Is
1. Simple
2. To the point
3. Easy to remember
4. Repeated frequently
5. Always oriented to your audience
About Your Audience….
1. What is their purpose?
2. How knowledgeable are they about the issue?
3. What “forces” must they respond to?
4. How many people are in the audience?
Communication model
1. Goal is to express a stated relationship between the problem, its impact and the desired solution or action
2. This message must be built on shared values
3. Shared Values are the common beliefs between the audience and the “developer”
4. Shared values are your connection with your audience
Message guidelines
1. Rule of 3
  1. Three sentences
  2. Three messages
  3. Three times
2. Build towards action
3. Focus on audience… Always.
Assess language for
1. Match
2. Acronyms
3. Sentences
4. Is the message free of jargon, acronyms?
5. Is the message highly readable and inspires to action?
Fact sheets are one type of advocacy tool
1. Distinguish your issue from other issues
2. Educate the audience on the issue
3. Advocate for action
Organizing a Fact Sheet
1. Beginning
  1. Sets the course
  2. Identifies key features or values
  3. Gets the audience in the race
2. Middle
  1. Adds details
  2. Adds examples & interesting information
3. End
  1. Ties things together
  2. Often gives an idea of what can be learned from the experience
  3. Theme or lesson
    1. Implied
    2. Explicit
    3. Encourage thinking
Format considerations
1. “White” space is just as important as “black space”
2. Images, graphics, or logos are powerful
3. Consider font and color
  1. Minimum of 12 pts
  2. Clear font
4. Use bullets
Final reflections
1. Be clear about actions
2. Use bold, textboxes, graphics to add emphasis
3. Must be self-contained
  1. Electronic links for more info
4. Ultimately, this will be 1 page!
5. If you can leave it out and not change the message, delete it.
Onward to the beginning!
1. Identify goal in broad, crisp terms
2. Review audience details to modify, clarify, add information
Run the course
1. Generate a list of shared values
2. Frame your message
3. Choose a few facts or a story to make a point
On to the finish
1. Blend of “brainstorming” and focus on goal
2. Resist the “she can just cut out what she doesn’t need”. It may get lost!
3. Review for:
  1. Language
  2. Spacing
  3. Image suggestions
What to expect
1. Select a spokesperson
2. We will be working for about an hour, have a short conversation and lunch, then another hour.
3. IF possible, please drop your document(s) to a flash drive and put on my computer
4. Group review of fact sheets
Onward...
1. Dissemination
  1. Strategies
  2. Ideas?
  3. Formats
2. Timing
3. Evaluation ideas?

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Last Updated on Monday, 23 August 2010 12:38