Despite the important role legislative advocacy plays in advancing animal protection, few resources offer in-depth, tailored strategies for animal advocates. While existing guides provide general advice on advocacy and government processes, they often lack practical, insider-informed tactics specific to the animal protection context. To help fill this gap, Faunalytics conducted a qualitative study examining effective communication strategies for engaging legislators and their staff. Building on past research and current advocacy materials, this study identifies best practices that animal advocates can use to navigate policymaking processes and strengthen their influence on animal protection legislation.
https://faunalytics.org/effective-communication-with-political-staffers
Background
While numerous animal advocacy organizations and grassroots advocates engage in legislative efforts at the state and federal levels, there are relatively few resources focused specifically on legislative advocacy tactics for animal advocates. Existing materials provide general guidance on advocacy and government processes but often lack in-depth strategies tailored to advancing animal protection legislation. Given the challenges of influencing policy, Faunalytics and its partners identified a need for insights into effective legislative advocacy approaches that can help animal advocates navigate the complexities of policymaking while more successfully influencing policy.
Several past and recent resources provide a foundation for understanding the basics of legislative advocacy in the animal protection space. A 2004 study by the Humane Research Council (now Faunalytics) examined how state legislative offices engage with animal advocates and their communication preferences, offering an initial framework for best practices. More recently, the Coller Animal Law Forum’s Advocating for Animals: A Guide to Legislative Advocacy overviewed key advocacy activities and government structures but offers limited details specific to advocating on behalf of animal-related legislation. These resources, along with booklets, blog posts, and webinars provided by other prominent animal advocacy organizations, offer helpful guidance and tips for animal advocates interested in engaging with policymakers, but a gap remains in understanding the communication strategies, policy messages, and leverage points that animal advocates can utilize to more effectively advance animal protection legislation.
Recognizing the need for a deeper understanding of legislative advocacy from an insider perspective, this qualitative study explores effective communication strategies for engaging legislators and their staff. This study aims to identify best practices for engaging with staffers to strengthen legislative advocacy efforts to advance animal protection policies by building on existing resources and incorporating insights from those working within the legislative process.
Key Findings
- Understanding legislative processes and the specific context of a given legislative body is crucial to advocacy success. Advocates don’t necessarily need to be experts, but having a clear understanding of the legislative process, the role of legislators and their staff, and the unique aspects of a given legislature can go a long way in strengthening legislative advocacy efforts. It is particularly beneficial to understand how staff support legislators, as they often serve as gatekeepers and policy advisors.
- Personalized communications are best. While form emails and calls may, in the aggregate, have some level of impact, personalized communications have a far greater chance of capturing the attention of policymakers. Politicians may be most impacted by personal stories, one-on-one meetings, or otherwise individualized communications, not fill-in-the-blank formulaic emails.
- Having a clear legislative “ask” is fundamental to effective communication. Participants emphasized that communications to legislators lacking a clearly articulated request are far less likely to lead to legislative action, especially given the limited time and capacity of legislators and their staff. While personalized messages can capture legislators’ interest, clearly specifying a desired legislative action is essential to motivate a meaningful response.
- Building relationships with legislators and their staff is an important step toward building the political capital of the animal protection movement more broadly. Participants consistently highlighted the value of building rapport with legislators and their staff toward achieving legislative goals, suggesting that animal advocates should not underestimate the benefit of taking the time to build relationships and trust within the legislature.
- Building a diverse coalition of advocates is essential. Aligning animal protection policies with other issue areas can create opportunities for collaboration across advocacy groups, amplifying efforts and increasing the likelihood of success. Examples of prospective collaborators include climate groups, alternative protein companies, human and labor rights organizations, and even local animal farmers who are motivated to fight back against industrial farms.
- Maintaining flexibility and being willing to accept compromise may lead to long-term success. As participants shared, compromise is inherent to the legislative process, and windows of opportunity are always shifting. Legislative staffers expressed that animal advocates can compromise on their strategy without compromising on their ultimate goal of ending animal suffering and should be both flexible and persistent in their approach.
- How an issue is framed can have a significant impact on buy-in. Although the ultimate goal of advocating for a policy is to protect animals, framing the issue around priorities and interests that tend to have more bipartisan support, such as economic benefits or impacts to human wellbeing, can go a long way in generating the kind of broad support that is often needed to propel legislation forward.
Conclusions
The Basics Of Effective Communication
Effective legislative advocacy depends on thoughtful, strategic communication that aligns with the realities of how policymakers and their staff operate. This study highlights the importance of direct, personalized outreach, where advocates make a clear and specific ask rather than relying on broad or emotional appeals. Legislative staffers play a key role in filtering and prioritizing information, making it important for advocates to build rapport with them. Further, effective communications are those tailored to align with a legislator’s existing priorities to increase the likelihood of support.
Personal meetings, testimony, and individualized emails or phone calls were identified as the most effective forms of engagement. While form emails and mass petitions may bring attention to an issue, they rarely drive action unless paired with more direct advocacy efforts. Maintaining ongoing communication, providing useful data or policy solutions, and following up after meetings helps establish credibility and build long-term relationships that can influence legislative decision-making over time.
Opportunities To Influence Policy
While legislative barriers exist—such as partisan gridlock, competing policy priorities, and the strong influence of the animal agriculture lobby—advocates can adopt strategic approaches to overcome these challenges. One key finding is the value of incremental policy changes. Instead of advocating for sweeping reforms, small, targeted legislative fixes are often more feasible and present opportunities for advocates to make progress while building broader momentum.
Leveraging successful policy precedents is another critical strategy, as noted in a previous Faunalytics study on the impact of local action. Legislative staffers noted that policies proven effective in other states can provide a compelling case for similar measures elsewhere. This strategy is particularly useful when engaging lawmakers who may be hesitant to take a leadership role on an unfamiliar issue. Additionally, building coalitions with other advocacy groups—such as those focused on rural development, environmental sustainability, or public health—can expand political support and help animal protection policies gain traction.
Identifying legislative champions, even among those without a history of supporting animal protection, is another key opportunity. Some policymakers may be receptive to these issues when framed in ways that align with their values or constituency concerns. Advocates should also recognize windows of opportunity, such as shifts in public sentiment, emerging legislative trends, or policy gaps, to strategically advocate for new initiatives at the right time.
Future Research
While this study offers valuable insights into effective advocacy strategies, further research is needed to refine best practices for engaging legislators on animal protection issues across different political and geographic contexts. Future studies could explore the long-term impact of various messaging strategies, the effectiveness of coalition-building in passing legislation, and the role of digital advocacy in legislative engagement in the animal advocacy space. Additionally, examining how specific legislative wins have influenced broader policy landscapes could provide useful lessons for animal advocates looking to scale their impact.
