CRW Creating Public Awareness Campaigns that Work

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by and welcome to the Creating Public Awareness Campaigns That Work webinar. This webinar is presented by The Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies and the Howard University Center on Race and Wealth.

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I would now like to turn the conference over to Melissa Wells, Conference Moderator. Melissa, please go ahead.

Thank you. Good afternoon. Thank you for joining us. My name is Melissa Wells. I'm a policy assistant at the Joint Center. Today's webinar will include a discussion about the tools necessary for designing and implementing public awareness campaigns. Namely, we'll focus on the four C's of campaign planning. They include careful planning, compelling messaging, campaign tool chest, and the tools that you would need in that tool chest, and coordinated grassroots activism and engagement.

After the webinar, we hope that you walk away with tools that will help you design and implement public awareness efforts that get your messages heard and that encourage meaningful action on behalf of the communities that you serve. Today's session will be hosted by Liz Winger of The Winger Group. The Winger Group is an award-winning change management and communications consulting firm in Washington, D.C., that has helped a wide range of asset-building, homeless service, and advocacy, educational, and other nonprofit organizations create and execute successful public awareness efforts, resulting in policy changes, funding allocations, and increased visibility for important issues.

The webinar today will be divided into two segments. Our first segment will run for 60 minutes and will be devoted to the discussion of the four C's that I mentioned earlier, the four C's of campaign planning. The second segment will run for 30 minutes and will be conducted as a clinic, during which Ms. Winger will answer questions from the audience concerning organization-specific public awareness campaigns.

As a reminder, this webinar is being recorded, and the audio as well as the presentation slides will be made available on both the Joint Center and Howard University Center on Race and Wealth websites. And also, at the end of the webinar, we ask if you could just please take a few minutes to complete a short survey because your valuable feedback is valued and will be used to improve future webinars. So with that, I'll turn the mic over to Liz Winger.

Great. Thank you, Melissa. And it's great to be with you this afternoon. And for those of you on the West Coast, it is, uh, probably mid-morning. So today, we're going to talk about, as Melissa said, you know, hopefully give you some tools and some different ways, perhaps, to think about public awareness efforts that you might be undertaking.

So, here's how we're going to organize it. Again, we're going to talk a little bit about what we mean by public awareness campaigns, because I think sometimes people mean different things when they use the term "public awareness campaign." We'll talk a little bit about timing. We'll talk about the four C's, and then, uh, we'll turn it over. We'll have some Q&A.

So, I want to begin by talking a little bit about, just so that we're all on the same page, of what we mean by a public awareness campaign. Because I think sometimes people tend to focus on the awareness side and forget that the reason you're undertaking this effort is because you want something to happen. You want to make some kind of change. You either want something someone to do something, or you want to stop something. And it's always important to remember that the public awareness campaign, you have to make people understand and help people understand about a particular issue, but that you also don't want to leave it there. You want them to understand so that you can bring about some sort of meaningful change.

And typically, what folks want to do in public awareness campaigns is to influence policymakers and legislation, which may also have funding attached to it. You're trying to get support and knowledge from allies, and also maybe unlikely allies. You have messages, you have things that are important for people to understand about the issue. Sometimes you're in a position where you have to define negative perceptions. You actually have to change people's thinking on something, and that's much harder to do. And that's where the awareness effort is going to take a lot longer to get people to understand.

If you think about, nobody wore seatbelts in the 50s and the 60s, and nobody even wanted to talk about safety with cars. And then over time, and kind of relentless effort, that's very much a part about safety and in terms of marketing automobiles. So, changing people's ideas and perceptions about an issue, as we all know, is much more difficult, but not impossible.

And then lastly, many times you want to reframe the conversation. Perhaps the other side has been very effective in capturing attention or their position on an issue, and you're trying to reframe the conversation so that people see your side and your perspective on the issue. So, those are some of the things that, why do we do a public awareness campaign? These are the kinds of things that we're trying to make happen.

So, what a public awareness campaign is not. And because often time in our work, people will be contacted by folks and they'll say, "Hey, we want to do a public awareness campaign." So, we want to do press releases and brochures and ad campaigns and town hall meetings and news conferences. Well, those are all tools, but that's not the public awareness campaign. Those are the tools that you use to help bring about the awareness and the action that you're really trying to achieve. And it's important to remember that these are not the ends in and of themselves. And I can't, it's something that makes a lot of sense when we say that, but often times, more often than not, people are always saying, "Okay, we're going to do a public awareness campaign," and they think press release or they think media relations effort, and that's it. And that's not really what we're talking about.

There's a little bit of a delay. I'm trying to get to the next slide.

So, when should you create a public awareness campaign? Well, there isn't a perfect time necessarily. It really is dependent upon what you're trying to do. My feeling is that public awareness is something that should be ongoing about your issues. Now, then there are specific opportunities. For example, if you know that your state legislature is going to be taking up, you know, the next fiscal year budget, and you know that there's a lot of folks arguing for cuts in programs that matter to you, or that you want to add something to the budget, and you know, then you want to get into that cycle very, very early on and start reaching out to folks and coming up with your messages and all of the things that we're going to talk about in just a minute, as early as possible.

Because sometimes what you want to do with a public awareness effort is you want to start preparing your audiences for what is coming. So you might want to start mobilizing your troops, as it were. Who are your allies? Who are some people who you want to bring along? Maybe you decide that you're going to form a coalition, and those things take time to organize. So that as soon as you see an opportunity or you see a threat, you want to start working on it.

And one campaign that I'm going to give an example of later on in the presentation, they actually started a full year before the city council budgeting process, and it was a very successful campaign, and they were able to get where they wanted to go and achieve the things that they wanted to achieve. But they, it was a very methodical and persistent, and again, this was a year-long campaign. Some campaigns last years. Some, when you're dealing with a short-term type of issue, a threat, maybe a number of months. But if you're really trying to reframe the conversation, if you're trying to change people's thinking on things, that is a multi-year engagement, most likely.

So, the four C's that we're going to talk about, and I'm going to repeat them, is careful planning, compelling messaging, the campaign tool chest, and coordinated grassroots organizing and engagement. The first one is careful, careful planning. And this is something that I think this step often gets shortchanged, sometimes even to the point ignored. Because what often happens is that folks want to run right to the tactical, they want to run right to the tool chest without really having thought through it. It's sort of like trying to go on a trip and not having a good roadmap. Well, you may eventually get there, but you might take a lot of wrong turns, you might waste a lot of gas taking those wrong turns. So, you really want to think this through.

And this really begins by asking some really challenging questions. But I think if you answer all of these questions, this is going to give you a good place to start. So, first, you have to ask yourself, who are you trying to influence? It may be first that you need to convince other partners and other allies to join with you, and that your message will be better heard if you join together than if you try to do this on your own. It may be that this is a campaign where you're really trying to influence legislation, either trying to stop legislation that you think would be bad for what you're trying to do, or you're trying to have new legislation that opens new opportunities for asset building, makes, you know, frees up additional monies, public monies to do so.

So, you really have to say, and even when you talk about who you're trying to influence, you want to be as specific as possible. You want to start naming names. If you think, I want to, a lot of times when we ask people, "Well, who are you trying to influence?" They say, "Politicians." So, we'll say, "Well, which ones?" And what is it that they, what's their role in this? Why do you want to reach them? The more specific you can be about who you want to influence, the better off you're going to be.

The other thing that people often say is, "I want to reach the general public." Well, the general public is this sort of amorphous entity. And is it really all of the general public, or are there certain parts of the public that you're trying to reach? Are they the public that is represented by the congressman, state legislator, state legislators that vote for those folks? Is that the public you're trying to reach? So, you really want to think carefully about that and be as focused as you can in identifying who you need to influence, and therefore, who is the audience for your campaign. That will help you in your ability to deploy whatever resources you have. The more you can focus on your audience, the better you are going to be able to use the resources that you have, and we all know there's never enough resources, or as much as we would like to have, to do these kinds of things.

The next question is, what do you want to make happen? What specifically do you want people to do? It may be you want them to vote a certain way. It may be you want them to go out and call 10 other people to tell them about this. It may be that you want them to think differently. Again, being able to articulate that and be very, very clear about that is critically important.

You also have to ask, who stands to benefit and who stands to lose from what it is that you want to make happen? And there are always winners and losers, perceived winners, perceived losers. And you have to understand who's going to benefit and who is threatened by this, because when people are threatened, they put up obstacles for you. So, it's really good to understand that, and in understanding that, how movable might those folks be?

You also want to sort of gauge, how much do people already know about you and your issue? And there are lots of different ways to do that. One is to look at media coverage, blog coverage, social networks, where these issues have been discussed, and sort of what are those conversations? What is it that people seem to be latching on to, correctly or incorrectly? As you're talking to people, just gauging where people are on the issue, or where do you think they are.

Who or what is in the way? Who could prevent you from getting to where you need to go? What are those obstacles that you're going to have to overcome? Who's on your side, and how active are they going to be? Many people, we all know, turn out to community meetings when they're really not happy with something. When they are happy with something, they tend to be less involved. So, you have to sort of understand where people are on the issue and how active are they going to be, or how active do you think that you could help them be with an awareness campaign, awareness effort.

And then you have to ask yourself, what are the issues' unique selling proposition? What's your take on this issue? And being able to articulate the benefits of what it is that you're doing. And then lastly, you have to say, why are you or your coalition credible? What expertise, what experience, what standing in the community do you have that makes you credible to lead or play an extremely active role in a public education effort?

So, it's really important to ask those questions and really take stock of all of those things, because that's going to help you figure out what you should do, then, and who should be involved, and what kind of resources you're going to need when you're thinking about putting together a public awareness effort. You want to, of course, get your internal operations worked out first before you start engaging people outside of your, as it were, immediate family.

So, again, you have to define your issue. And again, if you've answered all of those questions, you're going to be able to understand that. And also, I guess one of the things I didn't say in those questions, what are your values? What is really important to you? That's another question that you should ask. So, when you're working inside, be sure that you're clear about what's important about your issue that you think others should feel is just as important. Because sometimes you may think something's important, but that's not where the rest of the world is. So, you're going to need to be clear on what you think is important.

And then we'll talk in just a minute about the external world, what you stand for. And then, if you're working in a coalition, what are the points you all agree on? And be clear about what are the goals for your effort in terms of the action that you want to achieve. And in an ideal world, this is what we really want. And this is what would be okay in reality. If this is all we could get, we would be really happy with this and we would consider this a win. And you might want to have that very carefully thought through.

On the other side of this column, where we say "work outside in," so then what you want to, what you feel is important, what you want to communicate, you have to understand then how you fit into the outside world and how they see what you're doing. So, again, how do legislators and other influencers perceive you? Are they even on your radar screen? Where do they stand on this issue? Where have they stood on this issue? And of course, with the internet today, it's so much easier to find out all this information. All these folks have LinkedIn profiles, Facebook pages. There's just a lot of information about folks you're trying to engage with and groups that you're trying to engage with, and you can clearly see people leave an electronic trail, and you can see where they've been to understand where they are.

This sentence about "eating your own dog food." I heard a presentation a number of years ago from Guy Kawasaki, who's the chief evangelist for Apple Computer way, way back in the 80s. And he's written a book, "10 Rules for Revolutionaries," which was about really entrepreneurship, but a lot of it applies to many of the things that nonprofits would do. And one of the things he said is, "Eat your own dog food." Look at your, take a really good critical look at the materials that you do have and the ways that you have been communicating. And give it to somebody who doesn't know that much about you and see what do they take away from that? What are the messages that they're hearing? Is it the same? Is it what you would like them to take away? And that's really important to understand that.

And then the last part of this, working outside in, is having a mechanism that you are able to continually get feedback and absorb information and feedback from the outside, so that you can sort of in real time measure whether you're breaking through. So, you start kind of with this baseline. This is where we are. This is where we think our understanding of how people understand this issue, or this is how they view our issue, and this is where we're trying to move them. And we're going to continually monitor certain blogs, we're going to check in with certain people. But whatever it is, you need to be able to make sure that you're going to be able to get this kind of feedback so that you know if you're going down the road, once you start launching a campaign, that you can make mid-course corrections if necessary.

So, this next part, the second part, may even be perhaps the most important part of this, which is developing the right compelling messaging that is clear and sticky. In other words, people will remember it.

So, you know, messaging is really the ultimate weapon in these campaigns because it can help to engage your audiences, motivate them, inspire them, or energize them. And good messaging is simple, memorable, and short. One of the things that I see a lot of nonprofits do is they overcomplicate. And often we'll use, you know, a five-syllable word, everybody likes to talk about "utilizing" instead of just saying "we use." Certain things. Real short, simple language. There's a lot of jargon. And when you don't do messaging well, you simply confuse people. And at worst, when people are confused, they either ignore you, or if it's just complicated and confusing, maybe people misunderstand you and work against you.

Now, people can also work against you just because they don't like your message, but doing that right really is the centerpiece of a good campaign, and it will influence all the other tools that you will eventually use.

So, what's important is framing. And I want to speak to this. There's an excellent website. I think they're run out of Georgetown University called the Frameworks Institute. It's www.frameworksinstitute.org. They have a whole bunch of tutorials, a lot of exercises, it's all free. And they talk a lot about framing. So, what do we mean by that? Well, when people come to an issue, they come with their own set of experiences and perspectives. And two people, you know, the old, I look at a glass and I see it half full, and somebody else sees that same glass and sees it as half empty. So, you're working with that frame of reference, and they come to that. And it's important to understand the frames that people are looking at your issue through so that you can engage in a more productive and meaningful conversation with them.

Because people come, and I love this quote from Susan Bales at the Frameworks Institute, "When the facts don't match the frame, it's the facts that get thrown out." So, most of the time, what happens in a lot of campaigns is you, people will throw out lots and lots of numbers and data, right, and say, "Well, you know, 75% of people who get, who use a low-income tax credit are able to build wealth and save money and send their kids to college." Well, that may be fact, but if I come to this and I think, "Well, this is just another government program, and I don't really know how effective it is," you can tell me till you're blue in the face about the 75%, but my frame is so strong that it hasn't moved me.

There have been studies where they've interviewed people who were backing certain political candidates, and they watch them in debates. And they may have severely messed up, and is this person a flip-flopper or not? Well, because they're already predisposed to like that person, they will like that person even more, even when the facts are presented to them that they flip-flopped, they haven't been always truthful. And then they'll show you the other candidate, who they don't agree with, and that person messes up, and they say, "Well, that person is really, that just confirms that my, that person's a mess." Whereas the person that they liked, who may have messed up, their support actually increases for them. So, these frames are very, very powerful. And it's important to understand what those frames are out there that you have to message with or against.

And according to the Frameworks Institute, there are a number of different things that you want to focus on when you're thinking about framing. First thing is, you want to lead with values. The research that they've done and that others have done shows that people reason on deeply held moral values. Now, let's look at some of those things: the idea of fairness, the idea of privacy, which is being debated greatly these last few days here in Washington and around the country. These deeply held values of what's important. You want to try to work with that and focus on that as part of the way that you might frame your messages.

So, framing the low-income tax credit, perhaps as being fair, as leveling the playing field, is one way to think about how you might approach it. Just now, I caution because sometimes just saying that something is wrong isn't going to be enough. You sort of have to appeal to these broader values. And you have to try to understand that. And one of the ways that you try to understand that is by looking at how the conversation is playing out in the press and in other, in social media.

Using metaphors as you're describing your issues is really helpful. I just love to kayak, and I just bought this very, very nice kayak. And somebody asked me about it, and I just blurted out, and I said to them, "You know, it's the Ferrari of kayaks." And right away, they knew exactly what I meant. That it moved fast, was beautifully built. I didn't have to say a lot because people understood what a Ferrari is. So, to the extent that you can find metaphors to describe what you're trying to get across is very, very helpful.

The other thing you want to think carefully about is who is your messenger. And you may have a great message, you may have a great idea, but if people don't like your messenger, or they can't relate to your messenger, they're not going to hear your message. So, that's something that you also want to think about. So, match the messenger to the message and, to some extent, to the audience that you're trying to engage.

Tone. And it is very important. The style, the mood, the philosophical outlook on the communication is very important. So, in some campaigns, you may want to strike a more aggressive tone. In some places, that might be a turnoff, and you just have to gauge that.

Wherever possible, you want to use visuals. The brain can process some 60,000 images per second. It's a staggering figure. So, don't just talk about it. Show me some pictures of what this might look like. And that's really helpful. And if you don't have the pictures, at least paint pictures in words. Again, the Ferrari of kayaks. I get an image in my head of what that might look like, and that helps your messages for people to remember them.

Offer solutions. So, if we have a, I can't tell you the numbers of organizations I'm working with. An organization right now that has said, "We're going to end homelessness." And the role that they play in that is incredibly important, but it's a part of a much bigger pie. And it's not credible that they alone are going to end homelessness. So, you want to be sure that the solution that you're offering is credible and that it's concrete. They can end homelessness by joining with other folks to lobby for more permanent supportive housing. So, yes, there's a solution, it works, and this is how it works. And yes, it's attainable because many times with many of the social challenges that we face, they just feel so big and so unattainable that people just tune out.

Context is very important. So, relating this to larger issues that are going on. How does what you're trying to do relate to making our city a better place, or helping a population that has been marginalized in so many other ways? So, putting that in context. Don't just tell us a piece of the story, tell us your piece, but relate it to what else is going on.

And then lastly, use your numbers and your hard data. I'm not saying you shouldn't use hard data because it's important, but too many times we rely only on the hard data without the other pieces. And it's the interplay of the framing and the metaphors and the values and the facts that can help make your message stick.

When we do messaging, what we like to do is we like to either create a triangle. I like to work in threes. Sometimes it's not possible, but you basically want to have a core message, an umbrella message, and then have that supported by three supporting messages. And we like to use a triangle because you can, depending on who your audience is, you can lead with any point of that triangle.

Let me give you an example. So, say you are, let's take this homeless organization, and your core message is that we work to, let's just say, we work to end homelessness by providing people with good meals and access to the services that they need to get them to a better life. And so, one of your key messages underneath that might be, "We have extraordinary, well-trained case managers who are non-judgmental who will help connect people to services." Second message might be, "We treat our guests with the dignity that they deserve, and that they feel that they now belong someplace." And the third message might be that, "There are solutions to this problem, and they're easily attainable, and here's what they are."

And then, so depending on who you're talking to, you might walk in and talk to a congressman and say, "I want to talk to you about the vexing issue of homelessness in our state, and there's a clear solution that we need your help on." So, you might lead with that person on the solution. Someone else, if you're talking to a guest and trying to coax the guest to come in and get services, you could say, "You might lead with the first message about food and a good, warm, welcoming meal, and all we're saying is come in and have dinner with us and see what you think." So, that's how this messaging framework works. It's a way to organize your messaging.

And I could spend two days talking about messaging. This is just a quick overview. But the point is that you want to think about the key points you want to make. There's an overarching message, usually supported by three, no more than four, because it's too hard to remember any more than that. And I think one of the challenges that a lot of organizations have is that they have too many messages, and they're too complicated. Once you have identified those core messages, then what goes underneath those are proof points. That's your facts and figures, that's your stories, and so on. But you want to try to develop a messaging hierarchy.

And now I want to get to the point that I think a lot of you will probably be most interested in, which is the campaign tool chest. And there isn't any single tool that gets the job done. The most effective campaigns leverage a lot of different tools, and they know and they leverage them in the most appropriate way. So, let's talk about what some of those tools are.

First is the power of relationship building. And that is whether you're trying to reach out to a politician, a reporter, a blogger, an ally, your own constituents, the people who are going to benefit from what you're trying to do. But really building a relationship and understanding who they are and what matters to them and what makes them tick. And this is especially true with reporters. A lot of times people will say, "Well, now we'll go to the press." Well, you should be building those relationships. You should be looking at who's covering your issues. And when you see articles that you agree with or that you thought were well done, you should email that person and say, "Hey, that was a really good article. You really seem to understand this issue." Or email them and say, "You didn't understand this issue, and here's what you missed, and we could be helpful to you in the future." But you want to start building relationships. People like to deal with people whom they know.

And so, understanding who, again, going back to the original, the campaign planning, who are the people that you need to engage with, and starting to build relationships is really important. Again, research. There's no excuse for not knowing about things and people not knowing your target. There's just so much out there on the internet. And then focus. You're not even in your relationship building. There's some people you may want to try to get face-to-face meetings with. Some people that you know you're just going to reach out via email. You've got to focus. Who matters most to you? And then focus the level of relationship building accordingly. So, again, because we don't have unlimited time and money, and again, people like helping other people whom they know.

The media. This is the tool I think that most organizations want to use the most, and for good reason. And even with the death of newspapers and declining circulations, the media still plays an incredibly important role in our society. They're just playing it in a different way, and they're delivering their content in a different way. But there's still a lot of information that you can't trust. The Washington Post, New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Miami Herald, LA Times, etc., they have brands and people still trust those as information sources. So, you have to understand. And you will get after this call, there's a media relations primer that you can, we'll give you some more in-depth information on working with the media. So, that's one area. Again, op-ed pieces, social media, we'll talk about that, and then town hall meetings where you're bringing people together for conversations that you can then enlist people to cover, which will extend the reach of that event.

So, in talking about the media, what is it that gets media attention? Well, as one reporter said to me many years ago, "News is everything you don't want to tell me, and everything else is advertising." Reporters are looking to uncover truth, and that's of course in the eyes of the beholder. But reporters are interested in news and the unusual. Not, you know, that a dog bit a person, but a man bit dog. The news lives at the edges. It's not in the middle. News is about the "S"s, what I call the "S"s: the biggest, the first, those kinds of things. If it's a first time, large crowds or not enough crowds, the lowest. In other words, if you have a town hall meeting and you tell people you're expecting a thousand people and three show up, that may become the story.

Obviously, reporters like controversy. And people will often say, "Why is there so much negative news? Why don't the media cover anything positive?" Well, they do, but people tend to not remember the positive and not focus on the positive. And I think that's because our brains are hardwired in a way to protect ourselves. We focus on what threatens us. And the media is the same way. So, if there's a controversy, you are absolutely opposed, taking a different side, and there's some heat, that's the kind of thing that reporters and media looks for.

Also, who are your spokespeople? You know, we live in a culture of celebrity and known influencers. So, if you have known folks behind you, that will help get media attention. And again, heart-wrenching stories, emotional stories. We're not thinking machines who feel, we're feeling machines who think. And people make decisions based on their emotional. You really have to hit people both in the heart and in the mind. And having a good story retailer can help do that. And again, I'm not going to go into the specifics of how to deal with the press. That will, a lot of that's in your media relations primer that you'll get later.

The last major topic I wanted to talk about is coordinated grassroots organizing and engagement. And this is really where the rubber meets the road. And you really need to think that everyone who you come in contact with can be an ambassador for your cause. And that's why it's really important when you do your messaging that everybody inside your organization really understands, is very clear about the messages, and that they're short, and they're simple, and they're clear, so that they can be passed on through others. Because you can't, chances are, with limited budgets and limited time, you need to enlist other people to help carry the water and help get your message out there.

And again, it's identifying in that planning, in that planning question, who are your allies? How to get them on board? And making sure that they have the materials and the things that they need to deliver the messages. Events can be a really good way to engage people. Holding town hall meetings, breakfasts, coffees, to take a page out of political campaigns, because in a sense, that's kind of what you're running. And all the different kinds of coffees, using online events to raise issues, much as we're doing today.

And you want to provide a hook for people. What is it that they can tangibly do? Why is this so important? And what can they do to make this happen? You also want to make sure that you're telling real-life stories, that your event somehow reflects what you're doing with your organization. I remember there was a great thing that AARP did a few years ago when they were talking about cutting Medicare, and they sent cakes to every member of the House of Representatives with a slice cut out of it. And the point was, what slicing, making that piece out of Medicare would mean. And it was a very graphic image, and it got covered by all the press, which further enhanced their ability to talk about the issue.

So, coming up with an event like that, whether you, there's an event here in Washington, and I think it's been traveling around the country, and I'm going to get the number wrong, about genocide. And it was several thousand million bones. And basically, they took these plastic bones and they're lining them all up along the mall between the Washington Monument and the U.S. Congress building, a large expanse of these plastic bones. And obviously, it's a media event, and then they're drawing people to it, and they're holding lectures to talk about genocide and what people can do to be aware of it, and also what people might do to prevent it in the future. So, again, thinking of that's a very large-scale type of thing, but again, you can think of creative ways in your own communities to do things that express what you're doing.

You obviously need to think about budgets. And many times in nonprofit organizations, they think about only the hard costs, the cost for printing, the cost of buying ads, or whatever. But there's also the cost in terms of staff time. And trying to get a list of sponsors and a benefit to those sponsors for being involved. And lastly, and I have this in as a third bullet, but it really should be towards the end, is you want to make sure you're thanking people all along the way, and that you're continually providing opportunities to recognize their efforts on your behalf.

In terms of policymakers, you want to identify legislators. You want to make appointments. You show up even without having appointments. You won't get to see a member of Congress or maybe even your state legislator, but you know their chief of staff, some of their legislative assistants. You want to even leave behind some materials and see if you can make an appointment. But showing up and making those personal appearances is really important because it shows you're really serious. To present your case, and you have to be very persistent. Follow up. Use, they all have legislators all have email engagement systems, but you.

probably want to use that you want to use the phone. You want to use all avenues to communicate with them, and you want to mobilize your supporters to do the same. And again, they can't do that if they don't have clear messaging and very clear goals that you're trying to get across.

The other thing that people might want to think about is writing op-eds and other kinds of authored pieces to influence, and guest posting on other blogs. Writing op-eds. And the key with the op-ed is making sure you're really expressing a strong position and an opinion, and what you want to have happen. Too many times, the op-eds that I've seen organizations write have been, and they don't get published, is because they say, "Oh, this is this issue is really bad, and it's hurting people," but then they don't offer a solution. And if you can offer the solution as well, you may have a better chance of getting published.

Again, social media is your friend. Using Twitter, Facebook, the blogosphere. You can see the power of these things, but again, you have to be dedicated towards it. You have to say that you're going to be serious about this and dedicate the resources. The tools themselves may be free, but you really have to. These are participatory media, and it's very important to be very active. And if you can't provide that level, then don't play in that game, because it's not going to be effective for you.

And again, many times people say, "Well, we'll just turn our Twitter account over to our intern or to somebody's kid who happens to be working in the summer." But this is an important communications channel, and it's very important that whoever is tweeting for you or posting on Facebook understands your messages and is also moderating any comments appropriately and understands where you're going.

Try as much as possible to have people who are affected by your issue tell their own stories. And that's, you know, there's a big move for everybody's talking about storytelling now, and it is incredibly important. But it also isn't the only thing. People often rely on that too much. And we know even in the case of gun control legislation, that people had these very, very compelling emotional stories, and that didn't necessarily get the points across. There were other factors as well. The other thing to think about with the stories is that if people don't like your storyteller, they're not going to listen.

Okay, so I'm going to move this along because we are running out of time. So, you know, and this I would just say again, going back to the planning. And I keep interjecting this throughout this presentation because it's really about making sure that you understand where you're going, what are your values, and what you're trying to achieve.

The other thing about your campaign is to make sure you're thinking big enough. Connect the dots. Events can be tied to media outreach. If you don't get any media to come to your event, maybe you can write an op-ed about the issue that uses a lot of the information that you gathered for your event. Or maybe you had a well-known person, and maybe they could guest write. Leverage everything that you're doing. And you've got to be very persistent.

So I wanted to just give you a couple of examples of some campaigns that have really worked. And we all know about Mothers Against Drunk Driving. They've been working since 2006. Well, they've been working longer than that, but they unleashed a campaign to get certain things passed in legislatures around the country: mandatory ignition interlocks, increased law enforcement, advanced vehicle technology, and to get concerned citizens behind this. And they have had a very steady, engaged campaign. You can go on their website and look at some of the things that they did. But they've gotten 18 states to have ignition interlocks. It's something that's being talked about a great deal, and now insurance companies are also talking about this to enhance safer driving. So they have helped to really shine a spotlight on that.

Another campaign, and this is on a much, much smaller scale, in Prince William County, which is a suburb of Washington D.C., a group of homeowners launched a foreclosure and predatory lending campaign to really reverse predatory lending and foreclosure practices. And they went to Richmond. They took busloads of people down there and visited everybody in the state legislature. They just showed up, sometimes with appointments, sometimes without. They wrote op-eds and editorials in all the community papers. They used social media. They engaged. They went to the various lending organizations. They held demonstrations in Richmond and in their local community. They organized people to write letters, and they did meetings. And they also engaged people like Senator Mark Warner, the Attorney General, leaders like Bank of America, to come to these events. And they had an event a few weeks ago that was covered on all the local television stations. And they've been successful in raising funds and in generating awareness, and they've gotten bipartisan support for their housing trust fund for the Virginia Housing Trust Fund. So this was a very well-thought-through grassroots effort, and they have been able to achieve a lot through this very coordinated, well-thought-through campaign.

And the last one is the Center for Nonprofit Housing and Economic Development Coalition of nonprofit development groups working on ensuring that low and moderate-income folks in the District of Columbia have access to housing and economic opportunities. And this was what I was talking about at the beginning. They waged a year-long campaign to ensure that there was more money for housing in the DC FY14 budget. And one of the things that they also did is every time they asked people to write letters or to get involved, and they had lists of things that people could do to get involved, they also then thanked them for doing it. And encouraged people, after they had won the funding, to write to the DC council members and thank them for their support. So they didn't just stop with getting what they wanted, but they're continuing the relationship because they know there's going to be another battle.

So I'm going to stop here, and we have a few questions. And I think then they're also going to open up to the phone. So one of the questions is, what advice do you have in terms of making the campaign interactive? What methods are best to get the message across? Well, first of all, I think it's knowing the audience and knowing where on which platforms your audiences are living. If they're on Facebook or Twitter, then you've got to use the medium. So in terms of making them interactive, you don't want to just broadcast information using those platforms, but you want to encourage people to give you feedback, encourage people to ask them to do things. And I think that the methods to get the message across really are going to depend on who your audience is and where they play and where they hang out and how they get information.

So if you're dealing with legislators, they pay attention. They all have Twitter and Facebook. I'm thinking of Congress now, but you need to look at where they're doing and get on their sites, raise questions, and have other people raise questions on their sites, respectfully, of course. You want to keep the tone respectful because you're trying to engage, not tick people off so much that they don't want to talk to you. I hope that answers your question.

And there was another question. I saw maybe that was the one. Are the phones open? Ladies and gentlemen, if you would like to register for a question, please press the one followed by the four on your telephone keypad. You may also use the chat feature located in the lower left corner of your screen. One moment.

So there's one question. Let's see. Okay, so there's a question about guidance on any circumstances under which running a dual public awareness campaign might be successful, for example, seeking funding for state EITC or seeking establishment of a Housing Trust Fund, or is running dual public awareness campaigns in and of itself self-defeating? Well, it seems to me that you, some of this would be addressed in what's the ultimate goal? What's the message that you're trying to get across? So seeking funding for what you're trying to do is, you may even want to wrap the two together as solutions to an issue in helping people. This is about helping people help themselves. This isn't about another government program that, you know, the perception, the frame that is the handout, we're spending too much on this. This is about helping people help themselves. So you're offering two solutions. Now, I think you have to be careful because you're going to the same audience. And I guess you have to ask yourself, in the case of the EITC and the Housing Trust Fund, which one, do both have a shot at having both accomplished? How difficult will it be? And you may have to make a choice as to which one you go with.

There was another question. Talked about having a message as specific as possible, but when dealing with broad impact, a broad issue that impacts a diverse range of audiences, how can you shrink the messaging to grab the audience's attention? Well, that is a really good question. So I think what you have to do is think about what is it about what you're trying to get across that matters most. Again, if it's about help, we know that you could frame it around the fact that this country has been about fairness, about the dream in this country that anybody who works hard enough, who plays fair, is going to be successful. The whole idea of the archetype of people who started in the mailroom and became the CEO. And that dream is still there. We don't have the mailroom so much anymore, but maybe started in data entry and became a CEO.

So I think what you would want to do is really look at framing that message not from, "Okay, here are all the solutions that we want to have happened," but the grabber is, "We can ensure that fewer people will live in poverty," or "We can ensure that more people will be able to go to college if their parents have the opportunity to build savings, and then they won't need any outside help to be able to achieve those goals." So part of this is really having to spend the time to look at what you're doing, and what is it in the end that you're really trying to achieve for people? The goal may be the EITC, but what does that make possible for people? How does that benefit society as a whole? How does it help us save money, save taxpayer money? And I hope that answers your question.

I'm trying to think. Okay, I'm not sure about the question about MailChimp. MailChimp is an email marketing platform that can be very effective. And I'm not sure what the question was about whether you should use those platforms or not. They can be extremely helpful, but again, those platforms are only as good as having the right list of people communicating to the right list of people. And I want to make it clear that you should go for the low-hanging fruit. Don't, the people who are way on the other side of your issue, you're not going to get them over to your side. Focus on the people who you can move more easily, who are either with you or may be halfway with you, and you could move them over.

Okay, and there was another question. Let's see. I think I've answered the questions. The news. Yeah, we're asking about MailChimp because the question flashed across the screen and then it disappeared.

Hi Liz, this is Melissa. I have two more questions. The first one asks, should the campaign offer alternatives? For example, if a campaign is intended to educate communities on the negative effects of predatory lending, should there be a presentation of other financial or loan alternatives? Yes, absolutely. Because if you're going to say this is bad, and you're not going to offer an alternative, it's going to be less effective. Because, okay, I might agree with you that it's bad, but then what's somebody else supposed to do? And the payday loan folks and other folks can say, "Well, we're providing a service in the community. There isn't anybody else in that community who can provide that kind of service, so we're doing a good thing for people because we're providing a service that they wouldn't have any other way." So I think if you're going to, in that case, yes, you should be able to offer some alternatives. I think that would be very, very important.

Another question that I have, Liz, for you. It asks, what kinds of handouts or presentations are most effective at a town hall or community meeting? I think the most effective things are one-pagers. They're very short, bulleted items that say, "Here's the issue. Here's what we're trying to change. Here's what we're trying to make happen. A couple of bullet points. And then here are the things that you can do. Here's a website where you can go for more information." The thing about handouts is that you don't want to overload people with too much information, but being able to be very succinct and directing them to a website. And most people, even if they don't have a computer at home, they can have access to one in a library or other places. Those are the most effective things. I think the big mistake is people hand people masses amounts of information, and they don't always get through it all.

All right, and there's one last question for you, Liz. It says, on slide 19, you stated that news is what you don't want to tell. Can you provide an example of something related to an asset-building issue that would be that type of news and serve as a ready hook for reporters? Well, you know, somebody made the comment that they were struggling with the issue of asset limits, which is negatively perceived. And so that might be a hook, but not for the reasons that you'd like it to be a hook, which is that it's something that a lot of people are against. So that's one where you might want to avoid it if you can. But that's the reason I bring that up because it smacks of some controversy. And here are these people that want to remove limits on assets. And so now, as a taxpayer, you're going to be spending more money. Okay, that might be one frame on that that a reporter might grab onto, and especially if the reporter is with Fox News, they may be more likely to latch onto that. That's an example that really comes to mind.

Or programs that maybe didn't work, or there was corruption in the way the program was run. Those are always the kinds of things that reporters go for, whether it's actually true or not. I hope that answers the question.

Okay, operator, are there any questions over the phone?

There are no questions at this time.

Okay, well, in that case, I would like to thank all of you for joining us today. I hope that the presentation was helpful and that it will provide you with tools that you can use moving forward as you build and implement your public awareness campaigns. Again, all of the presentation slides, the audio, as well as the media toolkit that Liz mentioned during her presentation, they will be posted on the Joint Center and the Center for Race and Wealth at Howard on our websites. And at the end, I asked if you guys could all participate in a short survey. We would love to get your feedback and hear about what you enjoyed about the presentation and what you would change moving forward, as well as any ideas about potential webinar topics you would like for us to cover. So, thank you all for joining us and have a great day. Thank you.