Updated May 15, 2012  

Methods and Strategies

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New Media Strategies
Strategies for Global Advocacy  

The Pew Forum used responses to a mail and email questionnaire to gather data about the strategies religious advocacy groups use to try to influence public policy. Early in the study, questionnaires were mailed to 148 separate, active groups that had been identified as religious advocacy groups at that point, and 61 of these groups returned completed questionnaires. (For more details, see Methodology.)  

About nine-in-ten groups that responded to the questionnaire report that they contact policymakers in person (90%) and in writing (93%). Leaders of the groups say they use both issue-specific research and broader moral or theological arguments in these communications.

About seven-in-ten of the groups that returned a questionnaire say they give testimony at hearings (70%) or author policy papers (75%). Far fewer groups produce scorecards on how members of Congress vote on legislation (8%) or support candidates in elections (7%). Because of their tax status, many religious advocacy groups are barred from supporting or opposing candidates in elections. In addition, leaders of many groups say they eschew partisan political activity on moral grounds. Interviews conducted as part of this study found that many of the leaders, particularly those who represent official religious bodies, tend to view electioneering as divisive and theologically inappropriate.

More than nine-in-ten groups that responded to the questionnaire also say that informing their grassroots constituencies (95%) and informing the general public (97%) are among their advocacy strategies. About three-quarters of the groups say they initiate letter-writing or email campaigns (77%) and issue news releases (82%). More than half participate in demonstrations or rallies (57%).

Among the other activities listed by religious advocacy organizations are participating in other groups’ conferences and events, holding leadership workshops, and conducting academic and polling research to inform advocacy work.

The questionnaire also asked groups to report which activities they use most often. Informing constituents about issues is by far the most common strategy, cited by 41% of the groups as the one they use most often.

An increasingly common strategy that blends grassroots pressure and more-traditional Washington lobbying is the “lobby day,” when a group brings members from around the country to Washington, D.C., for a conference, provides training (and sometimes detailed scripts) to participants, then organizes their visits to congressional offices. One example is the Mobilization to End Poverty, sponsored by the group Sojourners along with other faith and anti-poverty groups in April 2009. The meeting drew more than 1,100 activists who visited 83 Senate offices and 200 House offices to advocate for inclusion of low-income people in economic recovery policies. Another example is the Sikh Advocate Academy, held for the first time by The Sikh Coalition in June 2011. Billed as “a week-long, all expenses paid, experiential learning course in Washington D.C.,” it offered activists from across the country a chance to be “certified” as members of a volunteer network, the Sikh Coalition Advocacy Corps.

Another category of strategy is litigation aimed at establishing national legal precedents. This is a prime focus of certain organizations, such as the Home School Legal Defense Association, Christian Legal Society, Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty, Americans United for Separation of Church and State, and the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty. For example, the Becket Fund has argued in federal courts that the denial of zoning permits to religious groups seeking to construct or expand houses of worship violates the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act.²¹ 

Nearly all religious advocacy group leaders interviewed for this study agreed that building coalitions is vital to their efforts. Similarly, 95% of the groups that completed the Pew Forum’s questionnaire said that signing coalition letters to public officials is one of their advocacy strategies, and several mentioned more informal collaboration with like-minded groups, such as attending other groups’ conferences or meetings.

New Media Strategies 

The growing popularity of new media has transformed the nature of constituent mobilization and woven it more deeply into the policymaking process. Previous studies of religious advocacy found that most religious groups did not have the means of operating large direct-mail operations to generate pressure on policymakers from constituents.²² Today, maintaining a large email list is relatively inexpensive, and with the click of a mouse constituents can register their views with their congressional representatives. And because email messages are easily shared, a group’s reach can expand beyond its core mailing list. For example, the executive secretary of the Friends Committee on National Legislation reported that some of its email alerts, such as its campaign against torture, have gone viral and generated as many as 160,000 messages to Congress, more than twice the number of people the Friends Committee has on its email list (60,000).

Additionally, many groups use sophisticated lobbying software to monitor constituent communications. Not long ago, Washington advocates had no way to know how many people responded to issue alerts urging them to write to members of Congress. Now, through email messaging software, many can track who wrote to which congressional offices and when.

Six-in-ten of the groups that responded to the questionnaire (61%) maintain blogs on their websites, and more than eight-in-ten use targeted emails (85%) or mass emails (89%) to mobilize constituents. As of 2009, when the questionnaire was administered, more than sixin- ten groups already were using social networking tools, such as Facebook and Twitter, to engage and grow their audiences. Since new media usage – particularly social networking – has continued to grow since then, it is likely that new media use is even more prevalent today.²³ 

In addition to the Web-based activities listed in the graph above, religious advocacy groups also reported hosting webinars, sending email newsletters, circulating online petitions and posting videos online.

The size and sophistication of constituent operations vary, but new technologies act as a kind of equalizer, enabling even small Washington staffs to reach deeper into the lives of their constituents through online networks.

Digital technologies also speed the process by facilitating the real-time response of grassroots constituencies to breaking developments in Washington, D.C., or around the world. And new media also allow people to take action easily, even from a distance, as religious leaders and advocates connect with other individuals and groups across the globe. In an interview for this study, for example, the Washington director of World Vision reported that the organization gained more than 100,000 new activists by using Facebook Causes. Similarly, the lobbying director of NETWORK, which describes itself as a national Catholic social justice lobby, observed that Twitter allowed her to generate virtually immediate discussion among constituents about breaking legislative developments.

Strategies for Global Advocacy 

Some strategies are specific to groups that engage in global advocacy. Ninety groups promote their causes to governments outside the U.S. or to international bodies, and many of them have gained official nongovernmental organization (NGO) status at the United Nations, giving them an ongoing platform for their advocacy. Achieving “consultative” or “observer” status at the U.N. requires considerable time and dedication and bespeaks a serious ongoing commitment to international advocacy. An increasing number of groups also press their concerns before specific U.N. agencies, such as the Human Rights Council or the High Commissioner for Refugees in Geneva.

Some religious groups concerned with poverty and economic development strive to influence other global institutions, such as the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank. Given that legal precedents influence the enforcement of international law on human rights and religious freedom, American legal advocacy groups also take cases before the European Court of Human Rights, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe and other international tribunals.

Establishing offices in other countries also facilitates global advocacy. Several faith-based international relief and development organizations maintain offices on every inhabited continent, and some of the larger organizations – such as Catholic Relief Services, World Vision and Adventist Development and Relief Agency International – staff operations in nearly 100 countries, or more. Several groups concerned with human rights and discrimination against minorities also maintain offices around the world. These include B’nai B’rith International (offices in London, Paris and Santiago, Chile, as well as other international cities), the International Campaign for Tibet (offices in Amsterdam, Brussels and Berlin) and the American Islamic Congress (offices in Cairo and Basra, Iraq).

Grassroots mobilization of constituents is another important strategy in global advocacy.²⁴ For example, American activists monitor events along the border between Sudan and the newly independent nation of South Sudan, alerting congressional staffs, the State Department and the news media to developments they think are important.

For some organizations, advocacy takes a more diplomatic turn. The Institute for Global Engagement, for instance, seeks to promote religious freedom abroad through a combination of quiet negotiations with governmental officials and grassroots workshops to help religious communities practice their new freedom responsibly. The group cites as an example its work with Vietnamese Christians and the government of Vietnam to enable churches to operate more freely there.

Footnotes: 

21 For more on the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act, see “A Fluid Boundary: The Free Exercise Clause and the Legislative and Executive Branches,” Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life, 2008, http://pewforum.org/Church-State-Law/A-Fluid-Boundary-The-Free-Exercise-Clause-and-the-Legislative-and-Executive-Branches.aspx. (return to text) 

22 See Hertzke 1988. (return to text) 

23 See, for example, “65% of online adults use social networking sites,” Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project, 2011, http://www.pewinternet.org/Reports/2011/Social-Networking-Sites.aspx. (return to text) 

24 For more information, see Hertzke 2004. (return to text)