“Never be afraid to raise your voice for honesty and truth and compassion against injustice and lying and greed. If people all over the world…would do this, it would change the earth.” ― William Faulkner What ensures successful advocacy? Strategic communications is the key to advocacy – just honor the process. Your campaigns will be stronger. And your nonprofit will create and run incredibly successful social change campaigns! Follow these 9 steps to advocacy strategic communications and these 6 social media steps to guide your nonprofit advocacy!

1. “Never be afraid to raise your voice for
honesty and truth and compassion against
injustice and lying and greed. If people all
over the world…would do this, it would
change the earth.” ― William Faulkner
I am a passionate, committed and
motivated advocate to issues in which I
believe. Advocacy means to speak up,
to plead the case of another or to fight
for a cause.

2. What ensures successful advocacy?
Strategic communications is the key to
advocacy.
And, advocacy includes most of the work
that is done by nonprofits!
When your nonprofits advocates you are
seeking to affect some aspect of society,
whether to appeal to individuals about their
behavior, employers about their rules, or
the government about its laws.
Good advocates are passionate, committed
and motivated. Who are your advocates?
 You
 Your staff
 Your board
 Your volunteers
 Your constituents
 Others with like interests (a coalition)

3. The 7 Habits of Highly Effective
Advocates (with apologies to Stephen
Covey):
 Be Proactive – Change starts from within
and highly effective people chose to
improve their lives through things they
can influence.
 Begin with the End in Mind – Develop a
principle-centered personal mission
statement and extend into long term
goals.
 Put First Things First – Identify key roles
you take on in life and make time for
each
 Think Win/Win – Seek agreements and
relationships that are mutually beneficial
 Seek First to Understand the other
person and then seek to be understood
 Synergize – Through trustful
communications find ways to leverage
individual differences to make a whole
greater than the sum of the parts

4.  Sharpen the Saw – Take time to build
capacity through personal renewal of
your physical, mental, social/emotional
and spiritual dimensions.
Reduced to its most basic level,
effective nonprofit advocacy is
about communication and
relationships.
Creating & Implementing Advocacy
Communications
Communications Matters created a
model designed to help communication
practitioners and their colleagues working
in other disciplines (program, evaluation,
and executive leaders) build a common
language and shared understanding for the
role that strategic communication plays in
advancing lasting social change.

5. This communications model is built around
four central pillars: brand, culture, strategy,
and action.
 Brand – Every social change
organization, no matter its size or
purpose, has three key assets that shape
its identity: resources, reputation and
relationships.
 Culture – Communicating organizations
cultivate certain qualities that make their
work compelling to others. You may not
have all in equal measure, but you need
a minimum supply of each to succeed.
 Strategy – Successful organizations are
consistently strategic (deliberate and
intentional) about their communication
choices, weighing several distinct, yet
related, variables before they act.
 Action – Communicating should never
be a one way activity. Success demands
a continuous, virtuous, self-correcting

6. cycle of sending and receiving, plus the
ability to cede control.
Strategic communications is the key to
advocacy – just honor the process. Your
campaigns will be stronger. And your
nonprofit will create and run incredibly
successful social change campaigns!
9 steps to advocacy strategic
communications:
1. Create clear goals
2. Target audiences
3. Utilize concise messages that resonate
4. Develop good planning skills
5. Tell people what to do
6. Make a case for why action is needed
now
7. Match strategies and tactics with
audience
8. Budget for success
9. Rely on experts when needed

7. 6 steps to social media for advocacy:
1. Set your goals. Is your goal narrow
(publicizing an event) or broad (building
and engaging with a community or
coalition)?
2. Identify your target audiences.
3. Select the social media platforms you
plan to use. Make your choice based on
your goals and target audiences. The
most well-known are Facebook and
Twitter.
4. Gather resources and materials to
create content and share.
5. Find volunteers to help manage social
platforms.
6. Be sure and integrate into your
marketing communications plan.
For a more in-depth understanding of
advocacy and strategic communications
 Writing a Communications Strategy
for Development Programmes

8.  Now Hear This – Now Hear This: The
Nine Laws of Advocacy
Communications
 How to Use Social Media for
Advocacy
Enjoy these extra resources on strategic
communications!
 Social Media Tips, Tricks and Best
Practices from the Pros
 Creating a Strategic Marketing
Communications Plan
 Using The Post Method to Guide
Nonprofit Marketing
Communications
We’d love to hear how your nonprofit uses
strategic communications and advocacy!
Deborah@creative-si.com
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