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​Environmental Activist's Tool Box

How to Approach Grassroots Advocacy

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How to Approach Grassroots AdvocacyIs there an environmental issue that you wish to affect? Need help getting started? The following information is presented to guide you through the process of community grassroots advocacy. It considers the logistical steps to defining your message, gaining supporters, spreading the word, contacting your legislators, and impacting change.

1. Define your message. Establish a clear message around which to build your campaign.  Try to be concise and compelling.  Highlight the problem, possible solutions, and incentives for others to get involved.
Message Development 

2. Networking: A multi-faceted approach. Where legislative decisions are involved, there is strength in numbers.  Spread your message using diverse methods for broader community support. Send your message via blast emails, post on bulletin boards and in public spaces, install in community newsletters, and actively reach out to different community groups with vested interests in the issue.  The Seattle Audubon Society provides helpful advice in the link below.
Grassroots Organizing 

3. Writing to your Legislator. Contacting your local legislators is an essential step both for educating decision makers on the issue and communicating constituent concerns.
How to Write a Strong Letter

4. Additional Lobbying Techniques. In addition to writing letters, the following techniques will further advance your advocacy.  Consider delivering your message through a call to their office, a face-to-face meeting with the legislator or their staff, sending an invitation to a town meeting, and testifying at a public hearing.
Effective Lobbying Methods 
Giving Effective Public Testimony at MoCo Planning Board

Find Your State Legislators
Maryland Residents
Virginia Residents 

County- Level Contacts
Montgomery County, County Council 
Frederick County, Board of Commissioners


5. Using the Media. Engaging local media outlets can deliver your message to a broader audience, further educating community members and decision makers alike.  Submitting an op-ed piece, writing a letter-to-the-editor (LTE) and contacting staff writers with issue-related material are all effective strategies.
How to Write Op-Eds and LTEs
Working with the Media

6. Reviewing Development Proposals. The Montgomery Country Planning Department provides this very helpful guide to researching development plans and participating in the development reviewing process.
Reviewing Development Applications 

​7. Farmland Preservation for Legislators. American Farmland Trust provides the following overview of effective programs and techniques used by state and local governments to protect farmland.
Farmland Protection Techniques

ABOUT US
What We Do
A Brief History
Board & AC
Staff & Volunteers
Contact
​​Buy MCA Gear
ABOUT Ag RESERVE
History of the Ag
Benefits of the Ag
Farm Facts
Threats to the Ag
​A Place with Purpose
NEWS
EVENTS
Local Events
Ride for the Reserve
Royce Hanson Award
SUPPORT LOCAL
Ag Guide
Local Food Connection
Community Supported Agriculture
Restaurants & Retail
​Artists of the Reserve
COMMUNITY RESOURCES
​Land Link
Producer's Resources
Directory of Services
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Montgomery Countryside Alliance
P.O Box 24, Poolesville, MD  20837
301-461-9831  •  ​[email protected]
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MCA is proud to announce that we have been recognized for a third time as one of the best small charities in the D.C. region by Catalogue for Philanthropy: Greater Washington. A panel of 110 expert reviewers from area foundations, corporate giving programs, and peer non-profit organizations evaluated 270 applications.

​MCA is known as an effective and innovative non-profit whose efforts to preserve and promote Montgomery County’s nationally recognized 93,000 acre Ag Reserve have brought increased public and governmental support of local food production and farmland and open space preservation. Most importantly, MCA’s efforts are putting more farmers on the ground and keeping them there.
COPYRIGHT © MONTGOMERY COUNTRYSIDE ALLIANCE 2008