The Value of Grassroots Supporters: It’s in the Secret Sauce

May 2, 2018

Spring has sprung! As Fundraising season begins to reach peak bloom, many groups are looking for ways to tap an existing market outside of major donors and expand their capacity to generate even more success.

Are you looking to increase contributions through your greatest asset: your current supporters? How do you find, assemble, and persuade your grassroots supporters anyway? It’s all about the secret sauce, according to Jeff Tippett.

The AFP Webinar on Grassroots Supporters: Why Are You Leaving This Valuable Asset on the Table, presented in April by Tippett, explores the value of building grassroots supporters – and provides successful tips on ways to turn these grassroots supporters into a massive, loyal community.

“The secret sauce is crafting messaging that persuades,” says Tippett. “It’s not about finding people, it’s about persuading them, or time is wasted and it’s of no value.”

The Secret Sauce can be defined in 5 ways:

Capture their attention–early

1. You need to stand out.
2. Use bullet points.
3. Create a sense of urgency.

Craft a simple message

1. If you lose them, you can’t persuade them.
2. Go through all content. What problem does it solve?
3. Hone in on the message.

Help others find their win

1. Listen to them. What matters to them?
2. Pause and ask people questions.
3. Seek alignment.

Make it sticky

1. You want your message to remain top of mind.
2. Use Alliteration, Repetition and Rhyming
3. Ask yourself which words are important and help to emphasize your main point?

Make a Connection

1. Seek to understand what’s important to your user.
2. Add humor, compassion, empathy and storytelling.
3. Operate from a place of authenticity.

Tippett also looked at how to grow your grassroots fanbase, providing five tips that yield the best results, and build masses of people for winning strength.

• Start with your existing base.
• Expand base through paid social.
• Using online petitions.
• Never underestimate the value of earned media.
• Maximize public events.

During his Grassroots Supporters AFP Webinar, Tippett explored the following key items in great detail:

1. How to craft persuasive messaging that engages and motivates supporters
2. How to build masses of people for winning strength
3. How to select the perfect tools – like online petitions, emails, town halls, social media, etc. to bolster campaigns
4. How to integrate campaigns into existing communications channels for maximum power and results

If you missed the live webinar event, it’s not too late to view the archived event. Visit: Grassroots Advocacy: Why Are You Leaving Your Strongest Asset on the Table [On-Demand Recording].

The archived version is available for permanent download, or six months for streaming from time of purchase.