Fundamental Techniques to Augment the Effectiveness of Your Environmental Lobbying Organization

Environmental advocacy is a diverse area. It involves both safeguarding the public from environmental hazards and protecting the resources of nature. As gains have been secured at the local, state and national level, there is a growing awareness in the field that further gains will be contingent on developing the same professional skills as private and government organizations that encapsulate best management practices.

When you read about successfully launching an environmental lobbying organization you might find some good advice in the literature. Yet the ongoing actual management of such advocacy groups is another matter. That is why many environmental lobbying groups labor to effectively manage. This article shares several insights from the field.

Collaborate with other environmental lobbying organizations

The State of New York alone has over 400 environmental advocacy organizations listed by the Environmental Conservation Department of Environmental Conservation. And in the last five years, there has been increasing levels of collaboration between geographically diverse environmental lobbying groups.

One underlying reason for this trend has been lower air travel costs – a trend that may now be reversing with skyrocketing fuel costs. A separate driver is the availability of free conference calling services such as Rondee.com.

All of these companies work on the same central principle: they provide you a personal access number and a toll number to dial. If all participants dial the same number and enter the same PIN code, they are put into the call together.

Involve academic experts

A frequent erroneous conception is that campus curricula is too far removed from the realities of environmental politics to be meaningful. However, programs such as that offered by New England School of Law provide graduate level training in environmental advocacy as wells as organizing. Indeed, they train young campus leaders for careers as advocates and community organizers.

Students at these programs are great candidates to be inspired as volunteers or leaders for your organization. Also consider seeking the involvement of a faculty or staff member who can offer perspective and advice to your group. While students arrive and depart as the years go by; faculty tend to remain.

Stay well focused

The most effective environmental organizations are ones that stay clearly focused on their mission and do not allow members or leaders to get enmeshed in peripheral goals. Virtually all environmental lobbying organizations operate under significant time limitations. Focusing on three goals with total effort will generally yield superior results compared to going after nine goals at 33% effort.

Augment your network

The most successful lobbying organizations create networks of supporters who share their philosophy and goals. While the word networking frequently gets a bad connotation, the simple fact is these networks can provide substantial support and members can keep connected more effectively through conference calling systems. Indeed, associations provide the emotional support which is so critical to maintaining enthusiasm among group officers and members.

Use technology strategically

Some environmental advocacy groups have distributed leadership teams, and it is impractical to expect in person meetings. One solution is to use an application for desktop sharing.

Whether it's sharing a PowerPoint presentation illustrating the group's fundraising initiatives or a spreadsheet showing the tracking of volunteer participation, desktop sharing can be extremely useful for not a few advocacy groups.

The silver lining in all this is that these suggestions are not expensive. Environmental advocacy groups can improve their performance through these techniques.