Oct. Lunch Recap: Advocacy PR, take 3

And in our third and final installment, we hear from:

Martin Montorfano, Public Relations Manager, The Humane Society of the United States:
-- "Have a good mission statement. The Humane Society recently adopted 'Celebrating Animals & Confronting Cruelty.' That says it all in terms of what we do."
-- "Be aware of where your communications intersects with your organization's fundraising activities. Because we're a non-profit, donations always have to be back-of-mind in what we're doing."
-- "Know the other organizations in your area and how you stack up against them. Sometimes your job made be made a little easier if you're not seen as the most radical of the organizations out fighting for or against a cause."

Questions for our speaker? Advice he gave that you found particularly helpful? Share now...

And if you didn't see the earlier advice from our other two speakers, make sure you scroll down the page and read it.

Looking for Part 3 of our Series on Oct. Advocacy Lunch?

It's coming tomorrow. I figure today people care more about election news. (See fun item below.)

Additional Tips from Bill Malone

We're feeling lucky today! Because October speaker Bill Malone, Bread for the World, just sent us two more tips to post to the blog. So here you go:

1. In the practice of advocacy PR, you must do more than just inform an audience. You need to build partnerships so that others will act for and with your organization -- turning awareness into support, and support into action.

2. The key strategy of advocacy is encouraging others to "toot your horn" by showing them how they can benefit by doing so, providing objective, third-party credibility: "WE are not the only ones saying what we're doing is great. THEY also are saying what we're doing is great."

Great advice, if you ask me. What do you think?

-- Robin

Oct Lunch Recap: Advocacy PR, Take 1

For those of you who missed Wednesday's lunch, the topic was Advocacy PR.

And despite some problems with the location -- Mackey's told us we'd have a private room and the room was, well, less than private, which made it hard to hear our speakers with all the diners having their own conversations -- the speakers took it all in stride and shouted their advice to our 40+ attendees.

Over the next three days, we're going to post pearls of wisdom from our three speakers for those of you who couldn't make it. First up...

From Bill Malone, Press Secretary, Bread for the World
-- "I rely heavily on data and research to make my case."
-- "You need to reach out to like-minded groups who will help you make your case. Share notes. Share story opportunities. Share information. When you work together, the sum is greater than the parts. And your partners don't need to have the same motivations for you in what they're doing. They just need to want the same outcome."
-- "Look local. I rely heavily on my local people as an advocacy tool. It's crucial to find the right person at the local level who has a name and credibility with that audience."
-- "For every press release I issue, I write three op-eds."
-- "In terms of social media, I contribute to a lot of 'open' blog sites. I also thought I knew a lot about social media. Then I met the 20-somethings who work at Bread for the World and realized I knew very little."

Still to come...
-- Danielle Roeber, Deputy Director for the Office of Safety Recommendations and Advocacy, National Transportation Safety Board
-- Martin Montorfano, Public Relations Manager, The Humane Society of the United States

Keep an eye out early next week for the next two updates.

And to those who attended yesterday -- and could actually hear our speakers -- did I miss any important points from Bill?

Also, since there wasn't a lot of time for Q&A, what questions do you still have for our speakers? Let us know, and our speakers are happy to respond here on our blog so we can keep the lunch conversation rolling...

-- Robin