This is the first of three posts in our series about ways to make legislative impact using online petition tools.

While online petition engagement is a great awareness and coalition building tactic, it certainly isn’t enough on its own to grab your Member of Congress’ attention. From the advocacy group’s view, it seems like a massive group of passionate supporters are letting their voices be heard.

But to that elected official in Washington, he or she is just being bombarded with thousands of template emails from people that do not have to be their constituent to sign the petition.

We already know there is a disconnect between how activists and Hill staff think advocacy should work. Our report, The Advocacy Gap, co-partnered by Englin Consulting and Lincoln Park Strategies, identified several ways activists can better position themselves for success with federal legislators.

Today’s post focuses on organizing locally and utilizing the power constituents hold over their federal representatives.

Raise Your (Local) Voice
Advocacy groups might feel tempted to take their supporters, petitions and activism to DC, but in our Advocacy Gap research, Hill staffers encouraged the opposite. Large impacts can be made by hosting an event in your representative’s hometown, at their district office, or organizing a press conference for local news outlets where you creatively showcase all of your petition signatures and tell your group’s story. MoveOn.org provides a very informative guide about starting campaigns and delivering petitions in-person, which can be one of the most effective offline tactics for supporting the momentum created by successful online petitions.

Constituents Only, Please
House and Senate offices only have the time and resources to address the issues and complaints of their constituents. Live outside the district or the state? Then please don’t waste your John Hancock on that petition and definitely don’t call that office. Doing so clouds the space for constituents to access their representatives.

To avoid having non-constituents contacting representatives, ActionKit generates a PDF of constituent signatures for each appropriate Legislative Director (LD) that can either be emailed directly to the LD or printed out for in-person delivery. Change.org also lets petition creators break down their list of signatures by state and district to ensure people’s voices are being heard by the appropriate decision maker.

After entering a zip code, Salsa generates an incredibly simple letter writing form with several suggested talking points for supporters to include in their personalized letter. For example, Standing on the Side of Love made it very easy and quick for constituents to engage with their representatives by removing the typical barriers to action that include, “I don’t know who to contact” and “I don’t know what to say.”

Our next post will discuss the battle between personalized and high-volume content and what staffers on the Hill unanimously think about it. Be sure to follow @fissionstrategy for more techniques and related news!


Kristin Fretz (@kristinfretz) is a New Media Intern at Fission Strategy and a rising senior at the University of Delaware.