Grassroots Advocacy

The Importance of Grassroots Advocacy

Grassroots advocacy is the expression of popular support (or opposition) for a position that demonstrates the depth of constituent support and gives legislators an added degree of confidence in their position. You don’t need to be a professional lobbyist to influence how policy and legisation are created. Grassroots advocacy helps to personalize an issue. The PIDD patient community has unique needs that most legislators are not familiar with. All you need is personal experience, factual information to back up your personal experience, knowledge of who the key decision-makers and what is most likely to influence them. IDF can provide the factural and political information necessary for a successful advocacy campagin. But really, it all starts with you.

The IDF Grassroots Advocacy Toolkit

You can become a standard of excellence for grassroots advocacy. With a basic understanding of the “Do’s and Don’ts” of letter writing and telephoning legislators; writing letters to newspapers or engaging talk radio; and a strong understanding of the issues; you can be part of an unbeatable team that can help ensure that patients with PIDD receive the quality of care that they deserve.

• Telephone Calls
• Testifying at Public Hearings
• Letters and E-mail
• Letter to the Editor and Op-eds
• Find listings and contact information for local, state and national newspapers with the National and Local Media Finder

Keeping IDF Informed of all Grassroots Activity

For a grassroots advocacy campaign to work to its full potential, we must all be on the same page. Please take heed of the following reminders:

• Please forward or copy IDF on all e-mails correspondances with legislative offices using info@primaryimmune.org
• The same should be taken in consideration with mailed letters, please send us a copy or scan and e-mail us a copy of all correspondances that occur.