This report will show how to effectively utilize equitable communication techniques that enhance and expand civic engagement organizations' issue-based programs' exposure to a broader audience, such as the Georgia Redistricting Alliance and support of other civic-minded alliances in Southwest Georgia. It will include how a cohesive relationship with ProGeorgia's partner's organization's programs worked together to fully enfranchised every New American Majority (NAM) voter, our more inclusive democracy.
It is challenging allocating funding to public relations and marketing when most nonprofits have extremely limited resources. Most of their budgets are distributed to basic program implementation and stated missions. Out of the 39 Georgia organizations that participated in this report, only 5 had a full-time employee who dealt specifically in communications.
The lack of creating an infrastructure that includes a communications person or program to disseminate information quickly is problematic, particularly in smaller organizations. This gap significantly impedes their ability to communicate with those who may benefit from their programming or mission, introducing their organization to new audiences to donors and funders.
Therefore, with an influx of funding due to intense media coverage and properly utilizing said media coverage, our company can provide the necessary tools and tactics essential for effective, engaging social media, press, and public engagement. ProGeorgia raised over $19 million, a 9.5 percent increase compared to any previous fundraising years.
Communication is one of the core elements of any organization's work, especially now with progression into a digital and polarized media landscape. ProGeorgia is a proven example of when an organization takes advantage of the joint efforts of coordinated communication strategies and how they capitalized and expanded on it.
"The most racist, debilitating messaging machine against blackness has always been the local newspaper.”
Kimberlyn Carter, Represent GA
Diverse groups are united by resilience. Organizations need to refine their approach to diminish politicized environmental issues and focus on shared funding resources. In the absence of governmental action, people are turning to bottom-up change through grass-roots work, bringing issues and causes into the limelight from beyond the shadows. Analysis from Media Matters for America and other organizations has shown that local news outlets in Georgia present disinformation, and others use voter suppression bills, plus other measures to disenfranchise NAM voters. The work of Go Vote Georgia, Tr3fecta, and its partners push back on this negative narrative and educate voters on their civic rights to fair, and equal access to the ballot box.
This report features strategies and actions that highlight the shared values of Trust, Diversity, Collaboration, Inclusivity, and Education. It will demonstrate how community-based organizations leveraged their core values to increase civic engagement ahead of the Georgia Runoff Election. From this report, it will show how organizations can:
Trust in everything from government to institutions, brands, media, and even individuals are in steep decline. The raging effects of polarization have driven a wedge by forcing organizations to establish a greater sense of trust with both the public and donors. The onus is on organizations to provide more proof of their trustworthiness and openness.
Disinformation, fake news, and public manipulation are fueling not only political polarization, but also adding anxiety and confusion to understanding what is true and what is not the truth. This is huge because knowledge can potentially make the difference between safety and death. Without ample time and resources for research and fact-checking, organizations can fall victim to misinformation and actively contribute to its spread.
Each member organization in ProGeorgia has its own constituency and its own audience. To those that follow and consume their content, they are trusted messengers to convey information. Whether these organizations already had large existing audiences, such as GAMVP, or were still growing and establishing themselves on social media, such as Georgia WAND, people depend on them to deliver factual and accurate information and then use this information to make decisions or find resources. With this trust comes a responsibility to deliver on their promises, especially during an important election cycle plagued by disinformation.
In order to enable these organizations to deliver on their promises, placement was suggested on emphasing fact-checking on all of the information provided, debunking common disinformation, and providing practical information to those consuming the content of the organization needed to make informed decisions and concrete voting plans. Incorporating the organizations' platforms gave their followers their own tools to fight disinformation, how to spot disinformation, how to prevent the spread, how to use their voices for inclusion, with the end towards building a community for change.
The development of weekly social media content plans were implemented that included two posts a day with graphics over three platforms on Monday through Friday. Included was the scheduling of the said content to be posted throughout the day. Each weekly content drop included at least one post on how to combat disinformation. Finally, a weekly disinformation was provided with updates on what narratives, strategies, and tactics were used to peddle a false reality.
All of the content that was provided was only developed from trusted media sources and was always double-checked for accuracy, in addition to using the platform to enable the partner organizations and their followers to actively fight disinformation.
The members of Go Vote Georgia each represent a different constituency, cause, or area but have all come together for social change. In order to make the biggest impact, the strengths of each member must be amplified and utilized in a cohesive and coordinated way. The opportunity to shape the narrative and expand exposure existed in a big way during such a consequential election, but the challenge was ensuring that those that had the most experience with NAM voters had the opportunity to share their information. That diversity already exists - we just had to match the voice to the opportunities.
Georgia’s runoff election garnered extensive media coverage for three reasons: the results determined control of the Senate, it was occurring at a time when no other elections were happening to compete with attention, and it came after Georgia’s swing across the political spectrum during the general election. In order to take advantage of the increased media attention and match those on the ground with those that could tell their stories, Go Vote Georgia became a central intake for media and press requests with two vital questions: “What happened in the general and what is going to happen in the runoff?”
Each organization within Go Vote Georgia played their own part in increasing turnout in Georgia by targeting different constituencies, using different tactics, and emphasizing different messaging, all with the same overall purpose - voter turnout. If a reporter reached out to Go Vote Georgia for media requests, we were able to funnel them to answer their questions - how did Latino turnout increase? Let’s schedule an interview with GALEO LCDF. How did you reach out to youth voters? Georgia Shift can tell you about youth outreach in Georgia.
We also included press training and messaging to ensure that the organizations being interviewed would be able to accurately convey their stories and avoid any misunderstandings.
Background talking points documents were provided to interviewees prior to their interviews they were could prepared for questions they would be asked and they could organize their thoughts and have a coherent interview.
A member of our communications team always attended live interviews setting guidelines for the interview prior to it beginning to ensure the conversation was steered in the direction intended.
Regardless of whether a coalition is made up of 5 members or 35 members, there is always the challenge of ensuring that messaging among members is coordinated and acceptable to all members. Each member has their own individual goals, but as a coalition, they are working together to achieve mutual goals. In order to do this they must be conveying the same messaging regarding specific goal.
Both the breadth and speed of information pose the biggest roadblock to developing coordinated messaging. With communications being spread across a plethora of mediums, from traditional press to social media, messaging can get lost in the fray if there isn’t a concerted effort to standardize messaging. The instantaneous nature of information also can catch people off guard and force them into offering judgment without nuance or knowledge.
We developed a system for delivering information to the partner organizations that included resources for coordinated messaging as well as news updates that directly mentioned them or were relevant to their work.
A daily tip sheet is delivered to the inboxes of all partner organizations at 8am ET, which includes talking points to relevant political and social updates, as well as, a news roundup from the last 24 hours of both conservative and progressive press sources.
The talking points are adjusted for early voting and election day, as well as being updated to reflect poll location closures, turnout numbers, and other relevant information. It also allows partner organizations to understand disinformation narratives to combat them publicly and to voters.
How to capitalize in a tangible and lasting way instantly when the nation’s - and world’s - attention is turned on you? How to ensure that you are exercising and utilizing all avenues at your disposal to increase your audience? While coalitions have more opportunities to prove that they are having an impact due to their sheer size, if they do not have the built-in resources to convert that attention to dollars and volunteers, they could squander their opportunity to shape the narrative.
On top of that, how do you attempt to organize and advocate when you cannot even interact with people in-person? When all the data and research shows you that the most effective persuasion is done with one-on-one, in-person interactions, how do you navigate and adapt to a virtual world thanks to a global pandemic?
Organizations need to acquire the skills and talents needed for digital engagement as fundraising and community building activities moved online. However, without the existing infrastructure, coalitions can provide a whole-of-comms resource to them to ensure that they are reaching audiences that go beyond their organic and existing capabilities. By working together with Go Vote Georgia’s other firms on paid advertising, forward-facing messaging, and taking advantage of opportunities when other organizations wanted to assist in capacity building, we were able to bounce ideas off each other, collaborate on strategy, and reach beyond the constraints of our existing audiences. Not only that, thanks to the Go Vote Georgia’s support system, they were able to deploy internet-capable technology to over 100 canvassers, and we at Tr3fecta have worked to educate and give those canvassers the tools necessary to organize in a virtual world. Through digital advocacy, fundraising, and disinformation research and training, we prepare people on the ground to make the change they want to see happen.
Collaborating to increase their audiences contributed to fulfilling the biggest need of every organization - fundraising and volunteers. We were able to collaborate with a group that represented celebrities interested in raising awareness and money for the Georgia election, and with their social media posts, we raised over $50,000 for the partner organizations. We also used social media as a way to recruit volunteers, moving them up the ladder of engagement from follower to organizer by communicating all the opportunities they had to engage with the partner organizations.
collaboration
Social media, both organic and paid, as well as press to increase the platform of partner organizations and allow them to both expand their audience and transform their existing audience into contributing members.
Collaborating with all those involved in external communications and taking advantage of all opportunities to raise money and recruit volunteers.
The coronavirus pandemic is fundamentally changing everything from survival to social norms and our economy, leaving a lasting imprint on how we communicate with our constituencies meaningfully in an increasingly virtual world.
As a coalition, Go Vote Georgia is made up of organizations with varying levels of capacity and experience, with some organizations employing entire communications teams and others having just one or two part-time staff members. This means that while some organizations were able to seamlessly pivot their operations digitally, others who didn’t have the capacity and infrastructure were not prepared to thrive in the digital space.
The challenge is in an era where there are two information ecosystems, factual narratives and the ones that fits the agenda of bad actors, how does the correct information get to organizers and activists to educate and empower them?
Our approach has been to not only take ownership of growing the digital and media footprint of organizations, but to also leave them with tools and infrastructure that will enable them to continue to grow beyond our involvement. With digital advertising and social media, there are low cost, minimal time, high impact strategies that can be used by anyone to grow audience and engagement. Couple this with media literacy training and advocacy, and you have all the tools necessary to get your voice to your audience, expand them, and activate them.
In the months leading up to the runoff election, we hosted a digital organizing training that was available to all of the coalition members. The purpose of this training was to establish the biggest challenges to digital engagement and establish the areas for growth that exist. During our training, we helped the organizations in attendance understand how to:
The specific takeaways that we emphasized during our training were the tools and tactics that would contribute to their success in communicating timely, accurate, and engaging information.
Provide examples of content calendars as well as suggestions of content scheduling tools to tee up social media content in advance. Using this method ensures social media content is regularly posted.
With misinformation and disinformation running rampant during and after this election season, an explanation of ways to stop the spread of misinformation, including avoiding sharing or engaging with misinformation to include to avoid the algorithm does not bump this content to a more prominent position. This included providing a disinformation tip sheet of the latest narratives, strategies, and tactics used by bad actors.
Georgia Votes is a bold, trusted, and diverse collaborative that champions an equitable and inclusive democracy, for and with traditionally underrepresented communities. Georgia Votes supports and coordinates the civic engagement programs of our diverse partner organizations, and develops the infrastructure, executes the joint strategies, and employs new tools and technology to assure a government that is more responsive to the needs of our constituencies.
Tr3fecta Media, LLC is a multi-faceted communication company that creates impactful and engaging experiences for socially conscious companies, organizations, and individuals