Environmental Fundraising: The Citizenship Conundrum

Advocacy work is hard, and so is raising money for it. The pool of potential donors for advocacy work is just flat out smaller than it is for other kinds of nature protection or pollution control work.

Here’s why I say this: I recently had the Due Diligence Test Panel review fundraising pieces from Clean Water Action and the League of Conservation Voters. Both pieces share a common purpose — raising money for policy advocacy work — and a common challenge — a lot of potential donors don’t understand how their money would be spent. In a 2003 environmental survey report, the Cosgrove Group summarized the dilemma these groups face like this:

… participants tend to focus on voting and donations as the means to political efficacy, they do not mention the potential impact of other forms of participation, like letter writing or engaging in protest, without prompting by the group moderator.

Here are a few fresh quotes from sounding board that corroborate that somewhat dated Cosgrove study:

• “From the piece, it is difficult to really figure out what this group is about…”
• ”I guess clean water is good but I don’t really know what they do”
• “Something about clean water, but I cant tell where or how”
• ”easy to read but hard to understand”

The bottom line is that a lot of regular people, who consider the work of the League and Clean Water Action as good causes, read phrases like “deploying the strategic methods” (LCV) or “grassroots power to shape policies” (CWA) and fail make the connection to citizenship — signing petitions, writing letters, visiting elected officials, attending rallies and protests, etc.

Just how much should you spoon feed potential donors about what you do? Well, how much do you like getting paid?

For a pointer in the right direction, check out this video that the Cascade Land Conservancy put together. I bet if anybody could make a strong case for funding policy advocacy work, it’s these guys!

Click the links below for the full reviews:

• League of Conservation Voters: Breaking News: Supreme Court Decision Favors Big Oil
• Clean Water Action: Why Your Support Matters

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