Baseball was the most appropriate analogy to describe the service provided by Walk Up Advocacy.
Hammond’s son played a little league game where walk-up music was played before every hitter approached the home plate. When you stand up and advocate, you expect a home run. What have you done so far? Are you prepared?” said Hammond. What is your advocacy strategy, what are you issues? What efforts have you taken to train your employees to ensure everyone is on the same page and has a consistent approach as a second base? What have you done to inform the public about why this policy change could be good or bad? You’ll eventually hit home runs if you combine all three pieces and remain consistent.
Crouch and Hammond, both sports enthusiasts, decided that a home plate would be the perfect logo for their firm.
Crouch served most recently as executive director of North Carolina Advocates for Justice. She also spent 15 years working as the director of Government Relations for the NC Bar Association. She received her Juris Doctorate from the UNC School of Law.
Hammond was the NCAJ’s director of government affairs, working with Crouch. She was previously counsel for the NC Rules Review Commission, (the body which reviews nearly all rules before codification in the NC Administrative Code). She received her Juris Doctorate from the University of South Carolina School of Law.
Together, they have more than 30 years’ experience.
Gap in the Marketplace
Walk Up Advocacy is a firm that works with businesses, nonprofits and organizations located in the Southeast.
Hammond said, “We found a market gap around strategic planning and advocacy.” There are many people who do political communication work and lobbying, but very few groups put together a proactive strategic advocacy plan.
Entities are often blindsided by legislation that could be harmful; they then have to react. Crouch and Hammond encourage entities to swing at the ball as early as possible and create a proactive plan that will help them craft legislation with a positive impact.
Three Elements
Crouch says advocacy programs should have three components – lobbying and communications with the public. She also said that internal structure is often neglected.
Leadership must agree to the goals and strategy, even if there were differences of opinion during the planning phase. Crouch said that a plan is needed so everyone in the organization can work together to carry out the strategy. She pointed out that CEOs are replaced and boards of directors are reshuffled on an annual basis.
Hammond advised: “Make sure that you put everything down on paper.” “You need to have something concrete and tangible in place, so that expectations can managed and the advocacy program progress.”
Crouch and Hammond stated that they do not lobby for their clients and they do not help implement the nuts and bolts tactics. Their role is instead to help leadership establish its advocacy goals.
We’ll guide you through the entire process. We won’t tell you what goals to set. We will instead help you to identify your goals, possibly rank them and create a prioritization based on them. We’ll talk with you about what you really want to accomplish, your resources, and how realistically you can achieve it within the timeframe,” Hammond said.
Crouch said, “If you put in the money up front and create a game plan and strategy you will be ready to make a home run with advocacy.”
The article Walk up Advocacy: Planning proactive strategies first appeared on Attorney at Law Magazine.