In this webinar we’ll broadly present the strategies that school and public libraries can use in your community in order to build the real political power and influence and engage community leaders and library supporters. The strategies that we introduce are designed to be scalable for libraries of all sizes and implemented by Library Support Organizations such as Friends and Foundations and library staff in all positions in both school and public libraries. In later webinars we’ll dive more deeply into the foundational concepts that we’re introducing here.
After taking this course you’ll begin to see many of these same strategies being used in your community by tax-funded government organizations like police, fire, parks and rec, and more. We’re teaching you what many other government departments already know in your town and building on new strategies from major causes, elections, and campaigns.
With this introduction to advanced advocacy strategies webinar we’ll also lay the foundational concepts for all of our Webinars throughout 2020 with an in depth-conversation about how to build and navigate political power and influence. The goal of this introductory webinar is to explore the underlying advanced strategies that we need to understand in order to identify, cultivate, and empower your local activists to take action for libraries.
First, we’ll explore the political and civic data about library support that must guide our advocacy work moving forward. Then, we’ll introduce strategies around public and community education such as the ladders of engagement used in Obama’s presidential campaign and our own Audience Engagement Roadmap. We’ll discuss the 4 “kinds” of library supporters used by major fundraising firms and campaigns to build a movement. We’ll talk about “surfacing” your library to voters and supporters to ensure that they’re ready to take action in the same way that major Political Action Committees and we’ll also look at the basics of proper messaging strategies used by campaigns and causes of sizes.