Get Your Cause on the Agenda
Your side won, and the hard work has just begun.
You need to get your agenda in front of lawmakers. You need to drum up support for your cause, get attention, and make your case.
A win opens the door, but the window is short. New sessions start in January, and new members and committee chairs set their priorities in the first few months. The causes that make the agenda are the ones that show up early, with supporters ready to act, a clear read on who can move the issue, and the facts to back it up.
Mobilize support
Know which decision makers can advocate for you
Get the facts and stats to grab attention and inform
How Organizations Usually Handle This
Many hire a lobbying or government affairs firm. They know the process and the people, but they’re paid for access, so their read on your chances tends to be optimistic. Grassroots messaging is also outside their work.
Others lean on their own policy and organizing staff. They know the issue better than anyone, but after a long cycle they’re stretched thin, and they’re often too close to the cause to give an objective read.
Some bring in a pollster or communications firm. Polling shows where public opinion stands, but it doesn’t tell you who will act or what will move them. Messaging built without that research often comes down to instinct.
And many rely on reports from partners and think tanks. They’re free and ready to use, but they were written for someone else’s ask and someone else’s targets.
We can help you through it.
Mobilize Support
Know what to say and who to reach to activate grassroots support through messaging and audience research. Find the people who will call, show up, and bring others with them, beyond the ones who simply agree with you.
Know Your Decision Makers
Know who can help you on Capitol Hill and in your statehouse, as well as who may create challenges, through stakeholder analysis and power mapping. Get an honest and objective assessment of the state of play. We don’t lobby, so we have no access to protect and no reason to soften bad news.
Get the Facts and Stats
Make your case with in-depth policy research. Our specialties include healthcare access, women’s issues, LGBTQIA+ issues, energy, climate change, and foreign relations, including China’s influence abroad, US-China relations, and European relations.
What You Get…
Audience personas that show who is most likely to act, what moves each group, and the channels that reach them.
Messaging guidance for each audience, built from your supporters’ own words.
A stakeholder map of the champions, persuadables, and opponents for your issue, with an assessment of where each one stands and why.
Policy research ready to use with lawmakers and the press, from briefs and fact sheets to the key figures behind your case.
A focused project delivers in 4-6 weeks, in time for the opening of session.
When this is worth doing…
In the weeks after an election, before the new session opens. When a new chair takes over the committee that handles your issue. When a bill you care about is being drafted or heads to markup. When your coalition needs to agree on one ask and one message.
Work with a principal who has multiple cycles of experience in political organizing, whose research was cited in congressional testimony in favor of a landmark bill, and who has activated and engaged thousands of people for causes, created stakeholder maps, and built coalitions across multiple political organizations.
Where to Spend and Where to Skip: A National Map of Winnable Races
A climate organization needed to decide which Congressional races deserved its money and how voters respond to candidates who support climate action. We scored all 435 House districts on a decade of election results and demographic change, rated every primary candidate’s actual climate commitment, researched voter response across party lines, and delivered tiered funding priorities.
Turning Patient Experiences into Evidence Lawmakers Cite
A national advocacy organization needed evidence on who was being denied hospital charity care and why. Survey research and in-depth interviews traced the experience of seeking charity care across four stages, with survey results weighted to match the population carrying medical debt. The organization received a report built on representative data and patients’ own accounts. The report was cited in U.S. Senate HELP Committee testimony on the medical debt crisis.
Showing Where Early Childhood Services Are Needed Most
Head Start and Early Head Start programs in a major U.S. city and a U.S. territory needed to show, area by area, where families needed services most. We assembled public data from the American Community Survey, CDC, Department of Education, Feeding America, and state and local sources into zip-level needs assessments. Then we built a scoring formula that ranked every area by need. The programs used the rankings in grant applications and won more than $20 million in awards.
Rachel Gregory Consulting is led by Rachel Gregory, Ph.D., a research strategist with over a decade of experience across academic and industry research. Read more about us here.
Book a project call today.
