Earlier this week, a school shooting devastated Nashville, the city I called home for ten years. Three nine-year-olds were shot to death, and so were three of their school’s staff members. I’ve been urging people to call their lawmakers to ask them to pass legislation that can end the gun violence epidemic in our country.
This made me think about all the nonprofits I see on social media who urge their followers to call lawmakers. Some of those social media posts are awesome and empowering, but others fall flat. So I wanted to share my advice on how to actually get your supporters to call their lawmakers.
How to empower people to call their lawmakers
I have three tips to help you make an impactful call-to-action as you try to get supporters to call their lawmakers:
1. Share specific lawmakers’ phone numbers.
Instead of just saying, “Call your lawmakers,” actually tell people who to call and what number to use. It takes effort for your supporters to look up who their lawmakers are and their phone numbers, so make this as easy as possible by doing the work for them!
2. Tell supporters exactly what to expect.
A lot of people shy away from phone calls nowadays, so remove as many of the intimidating bits as possible. Let supporters know that when they make the call, they’ll probably reach an intern or an aide — not the lawmakers themselves.
3. Give supporters a sample script.
If supporters have never called a legislator before, they may not know what to say. Give them an extremely short, concise script to follow for the phone call. (I would say to make the script 1-3 sentences at the most.)
You do not have to tell supporters to support/oppose specific legislation. As long as the script doesn’t support/oppose specific legislation, your social media post won’t qualify as lobbying.
However, if you want to make your script more impactful, I definitely suggest including the names of specific bills that you want supporters to urge legislators to vote for/against and/or the names of specific laws that you want supporters to urge legislators to renew/repeal.
Want to take things a step further?
Here are some ways to make your call-to-action even more impactful:
1. Include contact information for state and local legislators.
Usually, I see nonprofits share contact information for senators and US representatives, but not for state and local lawmakers. State and local lawmakers typically receive fewer phone calls than federal lawmakers, so your supporters’ voices can be heard more loudly at the local level.
2. Get even more specific with your call-to-action.
Instead of simply asking supporters to call their lawmakers, consider how you can make the call-to-action more specific. For example, maybe you can ask supporters to sign up to get a text message reminder to make the call at a certain time of day that’s most convenient for them.
3. Record a video of yourself making a call to a legislator using the script you’ve written.
This shows supporters that you’re walking the walk, not just talking the talk. It also shows supporters just how easy it is to have an impact on the cause they care about.
Note: Do not record the side of the conversation of the person who answers the phone — only record your side of the conversation. Recording calls without informing the other person is illegal in some areas.
4. Share evidence that advocacy efforts can really work!
If your nonprofit has successfully supported legislative/systemic change in the past, share that information with your supporters. Let them know if your nonprofit has created a petition, organized a calling/letter-writing campaign, or signed onto a coalition letter which resulted in legislation reform. This helps supporters know their voices truly matter in supporting your cause.