Recently, more and more state associations have been holding events to support their advocacy efforts. “Day at the Capitol” events, for instance, allow people to gather and show their support for a position on a particular set of issues. These events serve two purposes; they not only show the legislature that there is a contingent focused on an issue, these events help engage supporters.
Advocacy managers may not realize that these events can be a great opportunity to gather advocates. It is critical for advocacy managers to capture event attendee’s contact information so they can increase their advocate base. This is where advocacy and events intersect.
Online event registration technology can help your advocacy by feeding your advocacy contact lists. If you are using advocacy software, these products can be bundled together to assist each other. The result is that as people register for an event, their contact information is captured. If you are asking for their address apart of the sign up process, there are tools to dynamically determine the legislative districts and as the registration is recorded, the person is connected to their state and congressional legislators.
Additionally, your advocacy network can be used to advertise your events. Imagine how powerful your advocacy efforts would be if you could register 300, 500 or 5000 people to attend a special event in the capitol, and the sign in process captures their contact information, links them to their legislators and confirms their attendance. Prior to the rally, you can alert legislators that there will be a specific number of people from their district at the event, which may make them more willing to attend themselves. The advocacy manager ends up with a solid list of people interested in the issues, and the event manager has found another use for their online registration software.
Is your Advocacy management system is connected to your event registration? If not, you could be missing out on a great opportunity to enhance both your events and your advocacy efforts. If you would like to learn more about integrated grassroots advocacy and event systems, click here!