June 22, 2025
The Most Powerful Thing Nonprofit Leaders Can Do Right Now to Preserve Medicaid and SNAP
The potential for massive cuts to Medicaid and SNAP moved one step closer to reality when the Senate voted its version of the big ugly bill out of committee. The good news is there are still quite a few hurdles to clear before those terrible policies have a chance of becoming law. Which means there are that many more opportunities to defeat them.
Nonprofit leaders have a critical role to play in defeating these proposals. We are definitely not alone in this work. But we do have some unique abilities and opportunities to have a significant impact on the outcome.
We’ve also learned more over the last few months about what works in this particular environment. Our challenge now is to take those lessons and apply them to our advocacy work going forward, so that we can prevail in this fight.
In this episode, we share:
- The two keys to defeating the big ugly bills that would slash Medicaid and SNAP
- What our opponents are counting on, and how we can wreck their core strategy
- The top tactical maneuver we must anticipate and be ready to counter
- The biggest mistake we’re likely to make, and how to prevent it
- How to create a steady stream of high-impact advocacy messaging without devoting tons of time to it
- How to leverage the unique advantages you have as a nonprofit leader to build vocal opposition to these bills
Help spread the word! If you found value in this episode, I’d be grateful if you would leave a review on iTunes or wherever you listen. Your reviews help other nonprofit leaders find the podcast. Thanks!!
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You're listening to the Nonprofit Power Podcast.
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In today's episode, we share the most powerful thing Nonprofit leaders can do right now to preserve Medicaid and SNAP.
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So stay tuned.
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If you wanna have real and powerful influence over the money and policy decisions that impact your organization and the people you serve, then you're in the right place.
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I.
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I'm Kath Patrick, and I've helped dozens of progressive Nonprofit leaders take their organizations to new and higher levels of impact and success by building powerful influence with the decision makers that matter.
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It is possible to get a critical mass of the money and policy decision makers in your world to be as invested in your success as you are, to have them seeking you out as an equal partner and to have them.
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Bringing opportunities and resources to you.
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This podcast will help you do just that.
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Welcome to the Nonprofit Power Podcast.
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Hey there folks.
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Welcome to another episode of the Nonprofit Power Podcast.
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I'm your host, Kath Patrick.
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I'm so glad you're here for today's episode, which just happens to be the 100th episode.
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That's a milestone I envisioned hitting someday, but it felt really far away when I first started this podcast.
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It's been an extraordinary journey, and I'm so grateful for all of the Nonprofit leaders who've been part of this, who have shared with me the insights and ahas that they've gotten from different episodes and who've been so kind in sharing their appreciation.
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I'm super excited to have you here and I hope you'll keep listening for the next hundred episodes.
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And now I have to segue into the serious thing that is very much on my mind this week, which is that I feel like we're at a turning point.
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It may not be the only one.
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I'm sure it's not the only one along this bizarre journey that we seem to be on.
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But I think it's one of those points where the choices we make and the actions we take could make an outsized difference in how things turn out.
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I think that there is a lot to be excited about.
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I got a huge boost out of showing up for the local No Kings Day event in my community.
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And I hope you had the same fantastic experience and that you were able to not only be there yourself, but to have all of your friends and community members, and perhaps even supporters and clients of your organization showing up.
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It was incredibly powerful to be standing with several thousand neighbors, friends, fellow community members who were all there for fundamentally the same reason, which is that we reject what this administration is doing.
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We reject the cruelty.
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We reject the hostility to working people.
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We reject the mean spiritedness, the lying, and the plundering of critical functions of federal government that we all benefit from and that we all depend on.
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I so appreciated a sign that I saw at our local No Kings rally.
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A guy had a really big sign and on it, he had written, there's no sign big enough to list all the reasons why I am here.
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And I think that's how we all felt.
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That there's just so much to be concerned about and so much that we're pushing back against.
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That to be gathered together with other folks who are doing that same work and who are energized and ready to fight and continuing to fight was powerful and inspiring and made me even more certain that we will prevail in this process.
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It's not gonna be easy.
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It's probably gonna be ugly.
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But we will prevail.
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But not without taking action.
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One of the things that was so exciting to me on No King's Day was how many more people are realizing that and are stepping out into a visible role to stand and be counted.
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And to push back visibly, loudly and effectively.
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Cause that's what it's gonna take.
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It's gonna take more and more of us out there every day pushing back.
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Because what we know is that pressure works against this administration and we just gotta keep it up.
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So that was a wonderful experience.
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Very heartening on a lot of levels.
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At the same time, i'm also unnerved by a dynamic that's happening right now with 47 and the Republicans in Congress who continue to line up behind these horrible priorities.
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Even with all the vocal opposition, the Rs in Congress still seem to feel safer voting with him than voting against him.
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If we don't change that, we've got real trouble ahead.
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Because if they actually start legislating some of this.
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You know, 47's been doing a lot of illegal stuff through executive orders.
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And the vast majority of it is being struck down in court.
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He's being told that's illegal.
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You gotta stop.
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It's not legit.
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But if Congress starts codifying some of this craziness in legislation, that's a whole other ball game and will be much harder to undo.
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So I'm concerned.
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I'm very concerned that even as we are in the street and it is abundantly clear that more and more and more people every day are saying no.
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This is enough.
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We've had it.
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It's not okay.
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And we feel so strongly about it that we are willing to turn out in the street.
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But apparently it's not quite enough yet because the Rs are still going along with this stuff.
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Now what's interesting is that there's no question that 47 had a really bad couple of weeks where his failures and incompetence were on full display, and there was a lot of bad press for him.
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Part of it most recently was that big ill-conceived military parade thing.
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And the image of those two squeaking tanks crawling by, squeaky squeak, past nearly empty reviewing stands.
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That was pretty devastating.
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But even before that, the spotlight was on 47's falling poll numbers and the rising vocal opposition to the big ugly bill that they're trying to move through that would shred the social safety net.
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And do a huge transfer of wealth from the lowest income to the highest income in a giant reverse Robinhood move.
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When that bill first passed the House, it took a little while for everybody to deconstruct and analyze what was in it.
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And in fact, you heard a bunch of Republican members of Congress saying, oh, whoa, I didn't know this or that was in there when I voted for it.
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Wait a minute, that might not be so good.
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So there was some of that going on.
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That was getting coverage.
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All of the advocacy groups and the press were able to burrow in really analyze everything it was gonna do.
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There was tons of media attention on how it would devastate Medicaid, and that was beginning to dominate the conversation.
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And it was bad.
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People don't support this.
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People don't support tearing apart the safety net.
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And so the spotlight had been on the falling poll numbers and the rising opposition to that deeply unpopular bill In response, he did what he always does, which is do something dramatic to change where the spotlight is aimed.
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He did some things that were virtually guaranteed to move the spotlight.
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To generate dramatic made for tv, made for viral social media images.
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Big dramatic ICE raids on communities, especially in California.
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Deploying the National Guard and then the Marines over the governor's objections to do who knows what.
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And then what the big follow on was supposed to be was a big military parade to show what a big, tough, strong man he is.
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But it didn't work out quite the way he planned.
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First, a lot of people were very unhappy about the way ICE was chasing down hardworking immigrants who were well liked in their communities.
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And then the parade had hardly any spectators.
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We had those images of a sparse parade crowd, juxtaposed with the incredible images of millions of people peacefully protesting in the streets, in virtually every community across the country.
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In red states and blue, in big cities and small towns, and on rural highways.
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So that didn't totally work out.
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And I will just note that it was shortly after that day that 47 started saber rattling with Iran.
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Once again, shifting the focus away from stuff that is showing his weakness.
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Now, part of what worries me is how easily the press takes the bait.
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And how willing they are to drop the coverage of this unbelievably bad House bill, and now emerging Senate bill that would devastate the safety net and execute a stunning transfer of wealth in a reverse Robinhood move.
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They were all over that until something else shiny went by.
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And unfortunately they haven't really learned how to recognize and resist the way 47 manipulates them.
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So if we can't count on traditional media to stay on top of this, we're gonna have to do it ourselves.
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And here's the thing.
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Nonprofits are in the best possible position to shine a very particular type of spotlight on what the House bill and this proposed Senate bill would do.
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The Senate bill just got outta committee.
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So this is a really good time to be talking about it.
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And believe it or not, it is actually worse on Medicaid than even the House bill.
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Also alarming is that it's really unclear whether there will be four Republican senators who will have the spine to vote against it.
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That is not a given at all.
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And so far what we've seen on other bad legislation is there's a handful of Rs in the Senate who will say they're very troubled.
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This is very concerning.
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I don't know if I can vote for this.
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And then when it comes time to actually vote, they cave and they vote the way 47 wants them to.
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We really can't have that on the Senate bill.
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We need to peel away four Republican senators.
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And the only way that's gonna happen is if we have the spotlight relentlessly on the damage that bill would do, how devastating it would be for the people who live in the states that these senators supposedly represent.
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We cannot let them off the hook on this.
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They have to have this tied around their ankles and put under tremendous pressure to reject it.
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Because it will hurt the people in their state.
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Which they know, by the way, but they're hoping that we don't know.
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They're hoping their constituents don't know.
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The way we help them get the message that, yeah, their constituents do know.
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They are aware and they're not happy, is two things.
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One, we make sure the spotlight is on the details of the damage that bill would do.
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Constantly.
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Constant spotlight on that.
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And we have people visibly, vocally, showing up to express their opposition.
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And those two things go hand in hand.
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Now, at some point I think we're gonna hit a tipping point with the level of incompetence and unhinged ness and possibly dementia addled state that this president is in.
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There could come a time when that is so undeniably bad, and he's so undeniably incompetent that maybe the Republicans in Congress decide to start reassessing whether they need to be afraid of him.
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And whether maybe it would be better for their careers if they opposed him.
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But it would be naive to count on that happening on any particular timeline.
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And who knows, maybe it won't happen at all.
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There are a lot of dynamics of that arrangement that defy logic.
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It wouldn't be surprising if that eventually happened, but we can't count on it.
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And for sure timing matters in this case.
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We don't have months and months and months to work on this.
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We certainly don't have the luxury to hope that the relationship will start to break down enough that the Rs in Congress start going against him before this bill plays out in the process.
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Now the fact remains that there are still quite a few very difficult hurdles for both houses to get over before they can turn this bill into law.
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So that works to our advantage that this is not gonna be an easy process for them.
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Remember that the House bill passed by just one vote and they had to do a lot of special carve outs and giveaways to buy those votes among the Republicans in the House.
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And now the Senate has created a bill with a lot of provisions that are very different from what's in the House bill.
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It's not at all gonna be an easy thing to convince the members of the House that they should go along with a bunch of new stuff that's in the Senate bill that the House members didn't get anything in trade for.
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So there's a long way to go.
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And remember that ultimately in order for this to become law, both houses have to pass an identical bill at some point.
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The House has passed theirs, the Senate just pushed theirs out of committee, and it has yet to be voted on by the full Senate.
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And there's not a clear timeline for when that's gonna happen.
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And then there's a period, probably a long period of negotiation between the two houses, to get it to something that both can agree on.
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But here's where this could go sideways for us.
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If the spotlight stays off what those bills would actually do to people in communities, it will pass.
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What they're hoping to do is to just get this through.
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'Cause the entire point of it is a wealth transfer.
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The whole point of it is the reverse Robinhood move to even further gut the middle class.
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To take resources away from low income people and move it all up to the wealthiest few and corporations.
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That is the entire game.
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And they're willing to load massive additional debt on future generations of taxpayers in the process.
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They don't care.
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They just want to move the goodies to the top.
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That is their sum total of their agenda.
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And while they're at it, let's stick it to people on the lower end of the income spectrum too.
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If they can do that in the dark, they will gladly do it.
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But it becomes a different equation for them if there is a bright spotlight shining on what these bills will do.
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Because then they've gotta defend that.
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They've gotta go out and answer to angry constituents, to inquiring members of the press about how come you're supporting something that will hurt so many people?
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What is up with that?
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So they have a real interest in letting this go through quietly in the dark with nobody looking, nothing to see here, folks.
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Let's just slide this through and negotiate it quietly.
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We'll work it all out amongst ourselves, between the House and the Senate.
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We'll horse trade back and forth till we get something everybody can agree on.
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But the fundamental contours aren't gonna change.
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There is not a scenario in which they're gonna voluntarily say, oh, we were just kidding.
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We don't wanna take anything away from Medicaid.
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We'll fully fund that and we'll fully fund SNAP.
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That is not something they're gonna do on their own under any circumstances.
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The only way we stop this is if we create so much public pressure and so much awareness and shine such a giant spotlight on all of it, that it becomes more uncomfortable for at least four Republican members of the Senate to vote for it than it does to vote against it.
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'Cause the discomfort in voting against it is they'll make 47 mad and he'll mean tweet them or whatever.
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Or really what they're afraid of is that he'll primary them.
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So we know what we have to do.
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But we also need to be aware, because we've now been given clear evidence over the last few weeks of just how this is gonna roll.
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We have a significant opportunity to make an impact as this process plays out in the House and the Senate.
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And a key piece is shining that spotlight and generating opposition.
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But we also have clear evidence that as soon as the spotlight is on all those bad things, 47 will generate something dramatic to take the media's attention off of it.
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We should expect that and we should plan our own strategies for keeping the spotlight relentlessly on the damage that those bills would do, no matter what else 47 gets up to.
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And here's what we can't afford.
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We can't afford to do some messaging, do a little street action, do a little thing here and there, and then go, okay, great, we've done that.
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Check.
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Now we're gonna move on to all the other things on our plate.
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That won't work.
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This has got to be continuous.
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It's gotta be steady action.
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We're gonna talk about how to do that without it taking all your bandwidth.
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But remember that when all the mainstream media was starting to really focus on how bad the House bill was right after it passed, there were a lot of people who said, oh, good.
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Now the spotlight's on all those bad provisions, people will start to realize how bad it is, and that'll grow the opposition.
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And we can get on to other things.
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47 understands that too, which is why he does everything in his power to take the spotlight off whenever that attention starts to focus.
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So if we weren't clear about it before, we now know that in addition to our job of putting major pressure on every single senator and every single member of the house to vote against these things.
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We also have to keep the incredibly damaging effects of these proposals in the spotlight constantly.
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And we can't do that without a plan.
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This can't be a one-off when we think of it.
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There needs to be a steady stream of stories and messaging that are keeping public awareness at the highest possible level.
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Because remember, people did not vote for this.
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People did not vote for massive cuts to Medicaid.
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People did not vote for totally disrupting the Social Security Administration and threatening seniors' benefits.
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They did not vote for masked ICE agents grabbing people up in Home Depot parking lots and tearing communities apart.
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They didn't vote for any of that, and they don't like it.
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They hate it.
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But people's attention spans are short.
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They got a lot on their mind, and if it's not right in front of'em, they lose focus.
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So whether your issue is Medicaid or SNAP or whether it's immigration or all of the above, it's now clear that a key piece of our strategy has to be constantly refocusing that spotlight.
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Alright, so how do you do that without it taking all your time and all your bandwidth?
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You create a plan and you do things as efficiently as possible.
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And this is gonna take a page from probably how you do your grant writing.
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You don't start every grant proposal from scratch.
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Right?
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You have entire bodies of text and messaging and backup information that you pull from.
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And then you kind of paste that together in a way that will respond to what that particular RFP is asking for.
00:20:14.359 --> 00:20:20.160
But you don't sit down with a blank screen and start saying, gee, how shall I propose this work?
00:20:20.490 --> 00:20:23.849
You already know what your messaging is around 90% of it.
00:20:24.029 --> 00:20:27.305
You already know your supporting facts and figures.
00:20:27.305 --> 00:20:29.765
You have all your budget stuff more or less worked out.
00:20:29.765 --> 00:20:33.394
You just massage it a little bit for the thing that you're asking for.
00:20:33.644 --> 00:20:38.914
A lot of what you're putting together in a new grant proposal isn't new to you.
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It's just a new way of structuring the same broad pieces of information.
00:20:44.817 --> 00:20:49.073
And then you build a narrative that is specifically responsive to the RFP.
00:20:49.595 --> 00:20:52.565
But a lot of that core content, you're not generating new every time.
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You wanna take the same approach to the work of keeping the spotlight on the worst of the things that these bills will do to harm particularly vulnerable members of the community.
00:21:03.214 --> 00:21:05.943
So there's some basic components to this.
00:21:06.443 --> 00:21:15.938
You're gonna create three or four messaging points that speak to what's wrong with the bills, with respect to Medicaid, and to SNAP in particular.
00:21:16.387 --> 00:21:20.038
And the profoundly negative impact that those pieces would have.
00:21:20.788 --> 00:21:31.268
And then you're gonna build a bank of content that you can drip feed on social media, in op-eds, and anywhere else you want to, or that you have access to.
00:21:31.768 --> 00:21:35.238
And then you're gonna push that out on a schedule so that it's constant.
00:21:35.738 --> 00:21:53.192
Now, obviously, if you had to start from scratch to generate a story and a message and all the supporting content, every time there's a new development on one of these bills attacking the safety net, you would be expending a lot of energy that you don't need to expend, and that you frankly can't afford to expend.
00:21:53.692 --> 00:21:56.692
So the first thing is to identify your key messaging points.
00:21:57.192 --> 00:22:06.016
And then come up with a combination of facts and data, plus stories of individuals and families and communities and how they would be harmed.
00:22:06.516 --> 00:22:14.256
You lay out what their life is like now with the support of Medicaid and/or SNAP, and what it would mean if those were taken away.
00:22:14.756 --> 00:22:20.952
Or if they were messed with severely, which is on the subject of the work reporting requirements.
00:22:21.509 --> 00:22:26.490
You specifically want to attack the lies that underpin the work requirement language.
00:22:26.990 --> 00:22:30.309
And you wanna go after some of the myths around who's receiving Medicaid.
00:22:31.214 --> 00:22:34.755
It's important to remember that you've got two audiences with this.
00:22:35.220 --> 00:22:37.559
And I've talked about this before in other episodes.
00:22:37.890 --> 00:22:42.646
One of your audiences is members of Congress, obviously, who are gonna vote on this.
00:22:43.146 --> 00:22:49.207
And Republican members specifically because the Dems are solid on this, they are gonna vote the right way for the most part.
00:22:49.416 --> 00:22:53.467
There are one or two exceptions, and those of you who live in those districts, you know who they are.
00:22:53.967 --> 00:22:56.180
And you know that I'm talking to you too.
00:22:56.987 --> 00:22:59.057
But the other audience is the general public.
00:22:59.717 --> 00:23:08.146
Because the more the general public knows about what's in these bills and the harm it will do, the more they oppose it.
00:23:08.646 --> 00:23:11.317
We have seen this over and over again.
00:23:11.707 --> 00:23:13.057
People didn't vote for this.
00:23:13.086 --> 00:23:13.866
They hate it.
00:23:14.376 --> 00:23:25.773
And the simple fact that the number of people who turned out for the No Kings Day protests vastly outnumbered the coordinated protest day that had happened just a few weeks before that.
00:23:26.074 --> 00:23:32.814
That's telling us that the opposition is growing and people are becoming more aware and more upset.
00:23:33.784 --> 00:23:41.863
But on these specific bills, if we want to shift the outcome, we've gotta shine the spotlight on the specific harm that these bills will do.
00:23:42.363 --> 00:23:50.182
And the thing is, when the media falls down on the job and gets distracted by the shiny objects, they stop creating that awareness.
00:23:50.932 --> 00:23:51.893
So it's on us.
00:23:52.393 --> 00:24:01.903
And it might feel like this is a lot extra to your normal job, but I believe that it in fact is essential to the work that we do.
00:24:02.624 --> 00:24:12.314
If those key elements of the safety net are torn out from under people, every single person just about who accesses services through nonprofits is going to be harmed.
00:24:12.814 --> 00:24:15.993
Most certainly many of the people you serve will be harmed.
00:24:16.493 --> 00:24:20.693
And it will make it that much harder for them to get to a place where they can thrive.
00:24:21.661 --> 00:24:28.400
We want to talk about the impact on the individual, the impact on the family, and the impact on the community.
00:24:28.900 --> 00:24:47.876
And include in your messaging what the current reality of those folks is, including the fact that overwhelmingly, in the case of both Medicaid and SNAP recipients, overwhelmingly they are either working for pay, often in multiple jobs, and/or they're working as caregivers or they're disabled.
00:24:48.426 --> 00:24:51.257
You make it clear who these folks are to begin with.
00:24:51.527 --> 00:24:55.336
And then lean into some outrage on this.
00:24:55.547 --> 00:24:59.406
Because demonizing hardworking members of our community is wrong.
00:24:59.906 --> 00:25:01.557
And we are here to tell the truth.
00:25:02.057 --> 00:25:03.527
Same goes for immigration.
00:25:04.027 --> 00:25:17.307
It's incredibly heartening that huge swaths of communities have immediately mobilized in protests when valued members of the community are swept up in these outrageous ICE raids.
00:25:18.134 --> 00:25:37.769
A lot of people might have voted for the promise of rounding up violent criminals who are here without legal documentation, but nobody voted for sweeping up law abiding members of the community who are hardworking and who are fully integrated into the community and are part of people's churches and PTAs, they're running businesses.
00:25:37.769 --> 00:25:40.619
Their kids are going to school with everybody else's kids.
00:25:41.119 --> 00:25:44.355
They're woven into the fabric of the community.
00:25:45.067 --> 00:25:57.039
So it's very heartening that when ICE goes after valued members of the community in that way, the communities are rising up immediately and demanding their release and fighting back hard.
00:25:57.894 --> 00:26:08.355
The truth is, every time the cruelty of this administration is exposed, people show their vehement opposition to it and they rise up and they fight back.
00:26:08.951 --> 00:26:11.142
And we can help mobilize that opposition.
00:26:12.088 --> 00:26:15.039
But it's critical that we keep the spotlight on.
00:26:15.519 --> 00:26:24.210
Because the other side knows that their stuff is deeply unpopular, and they're hoping to slide it through anyway in the dark.
00:26:24.509 --> 00:26:27.930
Because once it's in place, it's gonna be much harder to undo it.
00:26:28.430 --> 00:26:32.210
They know that the spotlight is absolutely their enemy.
00:26:33.049 --> 00:26:36.710
And in the same vein, it's the most powerful tool we have.
00:26:37.210 --> 00:26:40.569
And the good news is there are a lot of ways to generate that spotlight.
00:26:41.069 --> 00:26:47.644
A lot of it is consistent, regular messaging that is going out that raises awareness.
00:26:47.984 --> 00:26:52.422
Another is to show up in numbers for town halls, for protests, for rallies.
00:26:52.852 --> 00:26:58.989
Every time there's an opportunity to gather to voice opposition to what's in these bills, be part of that.
00:26:59.108 --> 00:27:02.108
And help your supporters and your clients be part of it too.
00:27:02.993 --> 00:27:09.775
And the last thing is to help your supporters and clients communicate directly with their members of Congress.
00:27:10.134 --> 00:27:13.976
Their US Senators, plural, and their US House of Representative member.
00:27:15.183 --> 00:27:18.304
Basically, be visible all the time in every way.
00:27:18.844 --> 00:27:25.089
But have a plan for how you're gonna do that so it doesn't become such a labor intensive exercise.
00:27:25.589 --> 00:27:27.329
Plan, your key messaging points.
00:27:27.869 --> 00:27:29.490
Plan your supporting content.
00:27:29.990 --> 00:27:33.125
Map out your strategy for where you'll publish your content.
00:27:33.625 --> 00:27:42.404
It should ideally be a combination of stuff going out on social media, and every platform you're on, this messaging should be there too.
00:27:42.904 --> 00:27:52.162
And then at the same time, you also want to be alert to creating traditional media coverage, taking advantage of op-eds, letters to the editor, things like that.
00:27:52.491 --> 00:27:55.582
I know it's old school, but it still reaches people.
00:27:55.852 --> 00:27:58.491
And you wanna reach people everywhere they are.
00:27:59.188 --> 00:28:04.163
If you have a social media manager, making this happen should become part of their regular work.
00:28:04.223 --> 00:28:12.018
The messaging is gonna be your advocacy team that puts that together, but your social media team is gonna be in charge of scheduling and publishing.
00:28:12.518 --> 00:28:15.667
If you have a social media team, they already know this.
00:28:15.667 --> 00:28:20.827
But if you don't, I will share that it is very helpful to batch your content.
00:28:21.637 --> 00:28:28.546
You don't want to be creating a new post every week or every three days or whatever your schedule is gonna be.
00:28:28.996 --> 00:28:35.403
You want to take your several messaging points, Let's say you have four main messaging points.
00:28:35.903 --> 00:28:44.827
It is more helpful to do a separate post on each of the points rather than a longer post that covers all four.
00:28:45.327 --> 00:28:50.419
Depends on the platform, but most of them favor short form content.
00:28:51.170 --> 00:28:53.509
Images are good, videos even better.
00:28:53.779 --> 00:28:55.519
Depends on what you've got to work with.
00:28:56.183 --> 00:29:05.065
Even if all you do is put together a post with your message point using Canva, and put that out there on all the different platforms.
00:29:05.305 --> 00:29:06.535
That is better than nothing.
00:29:07.035 --> 00:29:10.482
You're looking to build awareness, and keep the spotlight on.
00:29:10.982 --> 00:29:13.083
Some of your posts can be short and pithy.
00:29:13.202 --> 00:29:16.472
Some can be a little bit longer and more expository.
00:29:16.972 --> 00:29:24.246
But sit down and put together five or 10 posts at a time and have them ready to go.
00:29:24.336 --> 00:29:26.195
And then just schedule them to go out.
00:29:26.601 --> 00:29:28.520
Some of them will go out on a fixed schedule.
00:29:28.520 --> 00:29:31.280
Others may go out in response to the events of the day.
00:29:31.780 --> 00:29:37.695
But if you batch that content, you produce 10 or 15 posts in an afternoon, then that's done.
00:29:38.266 --> 00:29:43.786
And now if you're publishing on an every three day schedule or whatever it is, you've got content for two or three weeks.
00:29:44.286 --> 00:29:47.464
Obviously create a schedule for releasing your content.
00:29:48.270 --> 00:30:01.189
And then the last thing, this goes to organizing people, is have a plan for how you'll rapidly contact your supporters when it makes sense to show up as a group at a town hall, or a rally, or a protest.
00:30:01.578 --> 00:30:03.259
Have a way to quickly let them know.
00:30:03.946 --> 00:30:06.826
And of course you can always use social media for that too.
00:30:06.926 --> 00:30:09.386
You can just put together a post that says, Hey, everybody.
00:30:09.386 --> 00:30:17.760
And everybody who's connected to you on the socials has a decent chance of seeing that, especially if you've encouraged them to follow you so that they're gonna get that in their feed.
00:30:18.411 --> 00:30:21.701
You can also connect them to larger organizing efforts that are underway.
00:30:22.112 --> 00:30:37.692
Just this week, several of the national organizing groups, including moveon.org and Indivisible, put together a joint organizing effort where they've put out a call for volunteers who will phone bank to Medicaid recipients themselves.
00:30:38.207 --> 00:30:47.532
And talk the Medicaid recipients through how they can reach out directly to their members of Congress and make their voice heard on this super important issue.
00:30:47.772 --> 00:30:49.212
So you can do things like that too.
00:30:49.212 --> 00:30:54.313
You can connect your folks to national organizations that are doing that work.
00:30:55.023 --> 00:31:10.319
The bottom line is as Nonprofit leaders, we are in a really unique and advantaged position to be key players in keeping the spotlight on the harm that these bills could do to the people we serve, and to much broader sections of our communities.
00:31:10.819 --> 00:31:12.500
We have credibility in the community.
00:31:12.619 --> 00:31:13.519
People listen.
00:31:13.700 --> 00:31:15.140
They wanna know what you think.
00:31:15.200 --> 00:31:16.579
They trust your voice.
00:31:17.049 --> 00:31:21.670
So if you're out there saying, this is bad, this is harmful, this is what this will do.
00:31:21.984 --> 00:31:26.634
This is how this will play out in people's lives if this goes forward.
00:31:26.964 --> 00:31:28.734
It can't be allowed to happen.
00:31:29.234 --> 00:31:32.505
That's very powerful and carries a lot of weight.
00:31:33.414 --> 00:31:43.155
Similarly, whenever you put out a call to action to your folks, whether it's your own action or you're sharing an action organized by some national groups.
00:31:43.763 --> 00:31:49.644
In both of those cases, your voice urging them to take action is what matters.
00:31:50.865 --> 00:31:53.420
Don't underestimate the power that you have in this moment.
00:31:53.839 --> 00:31:54.799
It's substantial.
00:31:55.299 --> 00:31:59.819
And if we all do this together, it will have an enormous impact.
00:32:00.640 --> 00:32:05.818
Thanks for listening, and I'll see you in the next episode right here on the Nonprofit Power Podcast.
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You're listening to the Nonprofit Power Podcast.
00:00:02.899 --> 00:00:10.680
00:00:11.010 --> 00:00:12.240
00:00:18.341 --> 00:00:27.461
If you wanna have real and powerful influence over the money and policy decisions that impact your organization and the people you serve, then you're in the right place.
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I.
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I'm Kath Patrick, and I've helped dozens of progressive Nonprofit leaders take their organizations to new and higher levels of impact and success by building powerful influence with the decision makers that matter.
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It is possible to get a critical mass of the money and policy decision makers in your world to be as invested in your success as you are, to have them seeking you out as an equal partner and to have them.
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Bringing opportunities and resources to you.
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This podcast will help you do just that.
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Welcome to the Nonprofit Power Podcast.
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And now I have to segue into the serious thing that is very much on my mind this week, which is that I feel like we're at a turning point.
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It may not be the only one.
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I'm sure it's not the only one along this bizarre journey that we seem to be on.
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But I think it's one of those points where the choices we make and the actions we take could make an outsized difference in how things turn out.
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I think that there is a lot to be excited about.
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I got a huge boost out of showing up for the local No Kings Day event in my community.
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And I hope you had the same fantastic experience and that you were able to not only be there yourself, but to have all of your friends and community members, and perhaps even supporters and clients of your organization showing up.
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It was incredibly powerful to be standing with several thousand neighbors, friends, fellow community members who were all there for fundamentally the same reason, which is that we reject what this administration is doing.
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We reject the cruelty.
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We reject the hostility to working people.
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We reject the mean spiritedness, the lying, and the plundering of critical functions of federal government that we all benefit from and that we all depend on.
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I so appreciated a sign that I saw at our local No Kings rally.
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A guy had a really big sign and on it, he had written, there's no sign big enough to list all the reasons why I am here.
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And I think that's how we all felt.
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That there's just so much to be concerned about and so much that we're pushing back against.
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That to be gathered together with other folks who are doing that same work and who are energized and ready to fight and continuing to fight was powerful and inspiring and made me even more certain that we will prevail in this process.
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It's not gonna be easy.
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It's probably gonna be ugly.
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But we will prevail.
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But not without taking action.
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One of the things that was so exciting to me on No King's Day was how many more people are realizing that and are stepping out into a visible role to stand and be counted.
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And to push back visibly, loudly and effectively.
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Cause that's what it's gonna take.
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It's gonna take more and more of us out there every day pushing back.
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Because what we know is that pressure works against this administration and we just gotta keep it up.
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So that was a wonderful experience.
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Very heartening on a lot of levels.
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At the same time, i'm also unnerved by a dynamic that's happening right now with 47 and the Republicans in Congress who continue to line up behind these horrible priorities.
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Even with all the vocal opposition, the Rs in Congress still seem to feel safer voting with him than voting against him.
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If we don't change that, we've got real trouble ahead.
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Because if they actually start legislating some of this.
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You know, 47's been doing a lot of illegal stuff through executive orders.
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And the vast majority of it is being struck down in court.
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He's being told that's illegal.
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You gotta stop.
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It's not legit.
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But if Congress starts codifying some of this craziness in legislation, that's a whole other ball game and will be much harder to undo.
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So I'm concerned.
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I'm very concerned that even as we are in the street and it is abundantly clear that more and more and more people every day are saying no.
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This is enough.
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We've had it.
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It's not okay.
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And we feel so strongly about it that we are willing to turn out in the street.
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But apparently it's not quite enough yet because the Rs are still going along with this stuff.
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Now what's interesting is that there's no question that 47 had a really bad couple of weeks where his failures and incompetence were on full display, and there was a lot of bad press for him.
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Part of it most recently was that big ill-conceived military parade thing.
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And the image of those two squeaking tanks crawling by, squeaky squeak, past nearly empty reviewing stands.
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That was pretty devastating.
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But even before that, the spotlight was on 47's falling poll numbers and the rising vocal opposition to the big ugly bill that they're trying to move through that would shred the social safety net.
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And do a huge transfer of wealth from the lowest income to the highest income in a giant reverse Robinhood move.
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When that bill first passed the House, it took a little while for everybody to deconstruct and analyze what was in it.
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And in fact, you heard a bunch of Republican members of Congress saying, oh, whoa, I didn't know this or that was in there when I voted for it.
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Wait a minute, that might not be so good.
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So there was some of that going on.
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That was getting coverage.
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All of the advocacy groups and the press were able to burrow in really analyze everything it was gonna do.
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There was tons of media attention on how it would devastate Medicaid, and that was beginning to dominate the conversation.
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And it was bad.
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People don't support this.
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People don't support tearing apart the safety net.
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And so the spotlight had been on the falling poll numbers and the rising opposition to that deeply unpopular bill In response, he did what he always does, which is do something dramatic to change where the spotlight is aimed.
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He did some things that were virtually guaranteed to move the spotlight.
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To generate dramatic made for tv, made for viral social media images.
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Big dramatic ICE raids on communities, especially in California.
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Deploying the National Guard and then the Marines over the governor's objections to do who knows what.
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And then what the big follow on was supposed to be was a big military parade to show what a big, tough, strong man he is.
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But it didn't work out quite the way he planned.
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First, a lot of people were very unhappy about the way ICE was chasing down hardworking immigrants who were well liked in their communities.
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And then the parade had hardly any spectators.
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We had those images of a sparse parade crowd, juxtaposed with the incredible images of millions of people peacefully protesting in the streets, in virtually every community across the country.
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In red states and blue, in big cities and small towns, and on rural highways.
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So that didn't totally work out.
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And I will just note that it was shortly after that day that 47 started saber rattling with Iran.
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Once again, shifting the focus away from stuff that is showing his weakness.
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Now, part of what worries me is how easily the press takes the bait.
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And how willing they are to drop the coverage of this unbelievably bad House bill, and now emerging Senate bill that would devastate the safety net and execute a stunning transfer of wealth in a reverse Robinhood move.
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They were all over that until something else shiny went by.
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And unfortunately they haven't really learned how to recognize and resist the way 47 manipulates them.
00:09:40.085 --> 00:09:46.288
So if we can't count on traditional media to stay on top of this, we're gonna have to do it ourselves.
00:09:46.788 --> 00:09:47.687
And here's the thing.
00:09:47.748 --> 00:09:58.313
Nonprofits are in the best possible position to shine a very particular type of spotlight on what the House bill and this proposed Senate bill would do.
00:09:58.813 --> 00:10:00.823
The Senate bill just got outta committee.
00:10:01.323 --> 00:10:04.083
So this is a really good time to be talking about it.
00:10:04.583 --> 00:10:09.774
And believe it or not, it is actually worse on Medicaid than even the House bill.
00:10:10.274 --> 00:10:16.693
Also alarming is that it's really unclear whether there will be four Republican senators who will have the spine to vote against it.
00:10:16.903 --> 00:10:18.703
That is not a given at all.
00:10:19.203 --> 00:10:28.682
And so far what we've seen on other bad legislation is there's a handful of Rs in the Senate who will say they're very troubled.
00:10:29.052 --> 00:10:30.852
This is very concerning.
00:10:30.852 --> 00:10:32.952
I don't know if I can vote for this.
00:10:33.163 --> 00:10:38.893
And then when it comes time to actually vote, they cave and they vote the way 47 wants them to.
00:10:39.649 --> 00:10:42.500
We really can't have that on the Senate bill.
00:10:43.000 --> 00:10:46.306
We need to peel away four Republican senators.
00:10:46.816 --> 00:11:00.275
And the only way that's gonna happen is if we have the spotlight relentlessly on the damage that bill would do, how devastating it would be for the people who live in the states that these senators supposedly represent.
00:11:00.990 --> 00:11:03.000
We cannot let them off the hook on this.
00:11:03.150 --> 00:11:10.537
They have to have this tied around their ankles and put under tremendous pressure to reject it.
00:11:11.167 --> 00:11:13.626
Because it will hurt the people in their state.
00:11:14.126 --> 00:11:18.437
Which they know, by the way, but they're hoping that we don't know.
00:11:18.618 --> 00:11:20.597
They're hoping their constituents don't know.
00:11:21.477 --> 00:11:26.381
The way we help them get the message that, yeah, their constituents do know.
00:11:26.501 --> 00:11:29.621
They are aware and they're not happy, is two things.
00:11:29.652 --> 00:11:35.020
One, we make sure the spotlight is on the details of the damage that bill would do.
00:11:35.591 --> 00:11:36.311
Constantly.
00:11:36.941 --> 00:11:38.380
Constant spotlight on that.
00:11:38.890 --> 00:11:44.351
And we have people visibly, vocally, showing up to express their opposition.
00:11:44.851 --> 00:11:46.652
And those two things go hand in hand.
00:11:47.404 --> 00:12:01.730
Now, at some point I think we're gonna hit a tipping point with the level of incompetence and unhinged ness and possibly dementia addled state that this president is in.
00:12:02.230 --> 00:12:15.168
There could come a time when that is so undeniably bad, and he's so undeniably incompetent that maybe the Republicans in Congress decide to start reassessing whether they need to be afraid of him.
00:12:15.347 --> 00:12:19.615
And whether maybe it would be better for their careers if they opposed him.
00:12:20.253 --> 00:12:24.585
But it would be naive to count on that happening on any particular timeline.
00:12:25.085 --> 00:12:27.754
And who knows, maybe it won't happen at all.
00:12:28.254 --> 00:12:33.201
There are a lot of dynamics of that arrangement that defy logic.
00:12:33.682 --> 00:12:37.371
It wouldn't be surprising if that eventually happened, but we can't count on it.
00:12:38.020 --> 00:12:41.525
And for sure timing matters in this case.
00:12:41.948 --> 00:12:45.941
We don't have months and months and months to work on this.
00:12:46.441 --> 00:12:58.009
We certainly don't have the luxury to hope that the relationship will start to break down enough that the Rs in Congress start going against him before this bill plays out in the process.
00:12:58.509 --> 00:13:07.706
Now the fact remains that there are still quite a few very difficult hurdles for both houses to get over before they can turn this bill into law.
00:13:08.277 --> 00:13:13.140
So that works to our advantage that this is not gonna be an easy process for them.
00:13:13.410 --> 00:13:22.772
Remember that the House bill passed by just one vote and they had to do a lot of special carve outs and giveaways to buy those votes among the Republicans in the House.
00:13:23.162 --> 00:13:29.552
And now the Senate has created a bill with a lot of provisions that are very different from what's in the House bill.
00:13:30.070 --> 00:13:42.932
It's not at all gonna be an easy thing to convince the members of the House that they should go along with a bunch of new stuff that's in the Senate bill that the House members didn't get anything in trade for.
00:13:43.442 --> 00:13:45.033
So there's a long way to go.
00:13:45.273 --> 00:13:53.643
And remember that ultimately in order for this to become law, both houses have to pass an identical bill at some point.
00:13:54.253 --> 00:14:00.932
The House has passed theirs, the Senate just pushed theirs out of committee, and it has yet to be voted on by the full Senate.
00:14:00.932 --> 00:14:03.842
And there's not a clear timeline for when that's gonna happen.
00:14:04.342 --> 00:14:13.613
And then there's a period, probably a long period of negotiation between the two houses, to get it to something that both can agree on.
00:14:14.399 --> 00:14:17.389
But here's where this could go sideways for us.
00:14:17.419 --> 00:14:25.796
If the spotlight stays off what those bills would actually do to people in communities, it will pass.
00:14:26.296 --> 00:14:30.110
What they're hoping to do is to just get this through.
00:14:30.471 --> 00:14:33.280
'Cause the entire point of it is a wealth transfer.
00:14:33.791 --> 00:14:39.080
The whole point of it is the reverse Robinhood move to even further gut the middle class.
00:14:39.320 --> 00:14:46.197
To take resources away from low income people and move it all up to the wealthiest few and corporations.
00:14:46.565 --> 00:14:48.245
That is the entire game.
00:14:48.629 --> 00:14:55.753
And they're willing to load massive additional debt on future generations of taxpayers in the process.
00:14:56.023 --> 00:14:56.773
They don't care.
00:14:57.013 --> 00:14:59.592
They just want to move the goodies to the top.
00:14:59.592 --> 00:15:01.753
That is their sum total of their agenda.
00:15:02.097 --> 00:15:06.087
And while they're at it, let's stick it to people on the lower end of the income spectrum too.
00:15:06.803 --> 00:15:09.958
If they can do that in the dark, they will gladly do it.
00:15:10.458 --> 00:15:18.128
But it becomes a different equation for them if there is a bright spotlight shining on what these bills will do.
00:15:18.730 --> 00:15:20.529
Because then they've gotta defend that.
00:15:20.830 --> 00:15:32.339
They've gotta go out and answer to angry constituents, to inquiring members of the press about how come you're supporting something that will hurt so many people?
00:15:32.578 --> 00:15:33.658
What is up with that?
00:15:34.418 --> 00:15:42.666
So they have a real interest in letting this go through quietly in the dark with nobody looking, nothing to see here, folks.
00:15:42.666 --> 00:15:46.416
Let's just slide this through and negotiate it quietly.
00:15:46.416 --> 00:15:49.836
We'll work it all out amongst ourselves, between the House and the Senate.
00:15:49.836 --> 00:15:53.125
We'll horse trade back and forth till we get something everybody can agree on.
00:15:53.125 --> 00:15:56.155
But the fundamental contours aren't gonna change.
00:15:56.597 --> 00:16:03.080
There is not a scenario in which they're gonna voluntarily say, oh, we were just kidding.
00:16:03.230 --> 00:16:05.210
We don't wanna take anything away from Medicaid.
00:16:05.210 --> 00:16:07.850
We'll fully fund that and we'll fully fund SNAP.
00:16:08.350 --> 00:16:12.070
That is not something they're gonna do on their own under any circumstances.
00:16:12.580 --> 00:16:31.058
The only way we stop this is if we create so much public pressure and so much awareness and shine such a giant spotlight on all of it, that it becomes more uncomfortable for at least four Republican members of the Senate to vote for it than it does to vote against it.
00:16:31.778 --> 00:16:37.573
'Cause the discomfort in voting against it is they'll make 47 mad and he'll mean tweet them or whatever.
00:16:37.573 --> 00:16:39.990
Or really what they're afraid of is that he'll primary them.
00:16:40.490 --> 00:16:42.321
So we know what we have to do.
00:16:42.821 --> 00:16:50.471
But we also need to be aware, because we've now been given clear evidence over the last few weeks of just how this is gonna roll.
00:16:50.971 --> 00:16:57.105
We have a significant opportunity to make an impact as this process plays out in the House and the Senate.
00:16:57.135 --> 00:17:01.035
And a key piece is shining that spotlight and generating opposition.
00:17:01.485 --> 00:17:12.965
But we also have clear evidence that as soon as the spotlight is on all those bad things, 47 will generate something dramatic to take the media's attention off of it.
00:17:13.465 --> 00:17:26.546
We should expect that and we should plan our own strategies for keeping the spotlight relentlessly on the damage that those bills would do, no matter what else 47 gets up to.
00:17:27.306 --> 00:17:28.685
And here's what we can't afford.
00:17:28.685 --> 00:17:36.162
We can't afford to do some messaging, do a little street action, do a little thing here and there, and then go, okay, great, we've done that.
00:17:36.221 --> 00:17:36.731
Check.
00:17:37.001 --> 00:17:39.354
Now we're gonna move on to all the other things on our plate.
00:17:39.854 --> 00:17:40.634
That won't work.
00:17:41.503 --> 00:17:43.094
This has got to be continuous.
00:17:43.465 --> 00:17:44.756
It's gotta be steady action.
00:17:45.576 --> 00:17:49.550
We're gonna talk about how to do that without it taking all your bandwidth.
00:17:50.050 --> 00:18:00.736
But remember that when all the mainstream media was starting to really focus on how bad the House bill was right after it passed, there were a lot of people who said, oh, good.
00:18:01.510 --> 00:18:06.907
Now the spotlight's on all those bad provisions, people will start to realize how bad it is, and that'll grow the opposition.
00:18:07.262 --> 00:18:08.962
And we can get on to other things.
00:18:09.462 --> 00:18:18.363
47 understands that too, which is why he does everything in his power to take the spotlight off whenever that attention starts to focus.
00:18:18.863 --> 00:18:30.363
So if we weren't clear about it before, we now know that in addition to our job of putting major pressure on every single senator and every single member of the house to vote against these things.
00:18:30.932 --> 00:18:37.928
We also have to keep the incredibly damaging effects of these proposals in the spotlight constantly.
00:18:38.478 --> 00:18:40.518
And we can't do that without a plan.
00:18:41.018 --> 00:18:43.688
This can't be a one-off when we think of it.
00:18:44.188 --> 00:18:51.557
There needs to be a steady stream of stories and messaging that are keeping public awareness at the highest possible level.
00:18:52.057 --> 00:18:55.567
Because remember, people did not vote for this.
00:18:56.198 --> 00:18:59.407
People did not vote for massive cuts to Medicaid.
00:18:59.617 --> 00:19:06.326
People did not vote for totally disrupting the Social Security Administration and threatening seniors' benefits.
00:19:06.744 --> 00:19:14.318
They did not vote for masked ICE agents grabbing people up in Home Depot parking lots and tearing communities apart.
00:19:14.818 --> 00:19:17.759
They didn't vote for any of that, and they don't like it.
00:19:17.969 --> 00:19:18.808
They hate it.
00:19:19.778 --> 00:19:21.729
But people's attention spans are short.
00:19:21.969 --> 00:19:26.617
They got a lot on their mind, and if it's not right in front of'em, they lose focus.
00:19:27.205 --> 00:19:39.536
So whether your issue is Medicaid or SNAP or whether it's immigration or all of the above, it's now clear that a key piece of our strategy has to be constantly refocusing that spotlight.
00:19:40.435 --> 00:19:44.395
Alright, so how do you do that without it taking all your time and all your bandwidth?
00:19:44.858 --> 00:19:49.118
You create a plan and you do things as efficiently as possible.
00:19:49.618 --> 00:19:54.056
And this is gonna take a page from probably how you do your grant writing.
00:19:54.608 --> 00:19:58.814
You don't start every grant proposal from scratch.
00:19:59.086 --> 00:19:59.507
Right?
00:19:59.836 --> 00:20:06.576
You have entire bodies of text and messaging and backup information that you pull from.
00:20:06.636 --> 00:20:14.150
And then you kind of paste that together in a way that will respond to what that particular RFP is asking for.
00:20:14.359 --> 00:20:20.160
But you don't sit down with a blank screen and start saying, gee, how shall I propose this work?
00:20:20.490 --> 00:20:23.849
You already know what your messaging is around 90% of it.
00:20:24.029 --> 00:20:27.305
You already know your supporting facts and figures.
00:20:27.305 --> 00:20:29.765
You have all your budget stuff more or less worked out.
00:20:29.765 --> 00:20:33.394
You just massage it a little bit for the thing that you're asking for.
00:20:33.644 --> 00:20:38.914
A lot of what you're putting together in a new grant proposal isn't new to you.
00:20:38.914 --> 00:20:44.224
It's just a new way of structuring the same broad pieces of information.
00:20:44.817 --> 00:20:49.073
And then you build a narrative that is specifically responsive to the RFP.
00:20:49.595 --> 00:20:52.565
But a lot of that core content, you're not generating new every time.
00:20:53.336 --> 00:21:02.571
You wanna take the same approach to the work of keeping the spotlight on the worst of the things that these bills will do to harm particularly vulnerable members of the community.
00:21:03.214 --> 00:21:05.943
So there's some basic components to this.
00:21:06.443 --> 00:21:15.938
You're gonna create three or four messaging points that speak to what's wrong with the bills, with respect to Medicaid, and to SNAP in particular.
00:21:16.387 --> 00:21:20.038
And the profoundly negative impact that those pieces would have.
00:21:20.788 --> 00:21:31.268
And then you're gonna build a bank of content that you can drip feed on social media, in op-eds, and anywhere else you want to, or that you have access to.
00:21:31.768 --> 00:21:35.238
And then you're gonna push that out on a schedule so that it's constant.
00:21:35.738 --> 00:21:53.192
Now, obviously, if you had to start from scratch to generate a story and a message and all the supporting content, every time there's a new development on one of these bills attacking the safety net, you would be expending a lot of energy that you don't need to expend, and that you frankly can't afford to expend.
00:21:53.692 --> 00:21:56.692
So the first thing is to identify your key messaging points.
00:21:57.192 --> 00:22:06.016
And then come up with a combination of facts and data, plus stories of individuals and families and communities and how they would be harmed.
00:22:06.516 --> 00:22:14.256
You lay out what their life is like now with the support of Medicaid and/or SNAP, and what it would mean if those were taken away.
00:22:14.756 --> 00:22:20.952
Or if they were messed with severely, which is on the subject of the work reporting requirements.
00:22:21.509 --> 00:22:26.490
You specifically want to attack the lies that underpin the work requirement language.
00:22:26.990 --> 00:22:30.309
And you wanna go after some of the myths around who's receiving Medicaid.
00:22:31.214 --> 00:22:34.755
It's important to remember that you've got two audiences with this.
00:22:35.220 --> 00:22:37.559
And I've talked about this before in other episodes.
00:22:37.890 --> 00:22:42.646
One of your audiences is members of Congress, obviously, who are gonna vote on this.
00:22:43.146 --> 00:22:49.207
And Republican members specifically because the Dems are solid on this, they are gonna vote the right way for the most part.
00:22:49.416 --> 00:22:53.467
There are one or two exceptions, and those of you who live in those districts, you know who they are.
00:22:53.967 --> 00:22:56.180
And you know that I'm talking to you too.
00:22:56.987 --> 00:22:59.057
But the other audience is the general public.
00:22:59.717 --> 00:23:08.146
Because the more the general public knows about what's in these bills and the harm it will do, the more they oppose it.
00:23:08.646 --> 00:23:11.317
We have seen this over and over again.
00:23:11.707 --> 00:23:13.057
People didn't vote for this.
00:23:13.086 --> 00:23:13.866
They hate it.
00:23:14.376 --> 00:23:25.773
And the simple fact that the number of people who turned out for the No Kings Day protests vastly outnumbered the coordinated protest day that had happened just a few weeks before that.
00:23:26.074 --> 00:23:32.814
That's telling us that the opposition is growing and people are becoming more aware and more upset.
00:23:33.784 --> 00:23:41.863
But on these specific bills, if we want to shift the outcome, we've gotta shine the spotlight on the specific harm that these bills will do.
00:23:42.363 --> 00:23:50.182
And the thing is, when the media falls down on the job and gets distracted by the shiny objects, they stop creating that awareness.
00:23:50.932 --> 00:23:51.893
So it's on us.
00:23:52.393 --> 00:24:01.903
And it might feel like this is a lot extra to your normal job, but I believe that it in fact is essential to the work that we do.
00:24:02.624 --> 00:24:12.314
If those key elements of the safety net are torn out from under people, every single person just about who accesses services through nonprofits is going to be harmed.
00:24:12.814 --> 00:24:15.993
Most certainly many of the people you serve will be harmed.
00:24:16.493 --> 00:24:20.693
And it will make it that much harder for them to get to a place where they can thrive.
00:24:21.661 --> 00:24:28.400
We want to talk about the impact on the individual, the impact on the family, and the impact on the community.
00:24:28.900 --> 00:24:47.876
And include in your messaging what the current reality of those folks is, including the fact that overwhelmingly, in the case of both Medicaid and SNAP recipients, overwhelmingly they are either working for pay, often in multiple jobs, and/or they're working as caregivers or they're disabled.
00:24:48.426 --> 00:24:51.257
You make it clear who these folks are to begin with.
00:24:51.527 --> 00:24:55.336
And then lean into some outrage on this.
00:24:55.547 --> 00:24:59.406
Because demonizing hardworking members of our community is wrong.
00:24:59.906 --> 00:25:01.557
And we are here to tell the truth.
00:25:02.057 --> 00:25:03.527
Same goes for immigration.
00:25:04.027 --> 00:25:17.307
It's incredibly heartening that huge swaths of communities have immediately mobilized in protests when valued members of the community are swept up in these outrageous ICE raids.
00:25:18.134 --> 00:25:37.769
A lot of people might have voted for the promise of rounding up violent criminals who are here without legal documentation, but nobody voted for sweeping up law abiding members of the community who are hardworking and who are fully integrated into the community and are part of people's churches and PTAs, they're running businesses.
00:25:37.769 --> 00:25:40.619
Their kids are going to school with everybody else's kids.
00:25:41.119 --> 00:25:44.355
They're woven into the fabric of the community.
00:25:45.067 --> 00:25:57.039
So it's very heartening that when ICE goes after valued members of the community in that way, the communities are rising up immediately and demanding their release and fighting back hard.
00:25:57.894 --> 00:26:08.355
The truth is, every time the cruelty of this administration is exposed, people show their vehement opposition to it and they rise up and they fight back.
00:26:08.951 --> 00:26:11.142
And we can help mobilize that opposition.
00:26:12.088 --> 00:26:15.039
But it's critical that we keep the spotlight on.
00:26:15.519 --> 00:26:24.210
Because the other side knows that their stuff is deeply unpopular, and they're hoping to slide it through anyway in the dark.
00:26:24.509 --> 00:26:27.930
Because once it's in place, it's gonna be much harder to undo it.
00:26:28.430 --> 00:26:32.210
They know that the spotlight is absolutely their enemy.
00:26:33.049 --> 00:26:36.710
And in the same vein, it's the most powerful tool we have.
00:26:37.210 --> 00:26:40.569
And the good news is there are a lot of ways to generate that spotlight.
00:26:41.069 --> 00:26:47.644
A lot of it is consistent, regular messaging that is going out that raises awareness.
00:26:47.984 --> 00:26:52.422
Another is to show up in numbers for town halls, for protests, for rallies.
00:26:52.852 --> 00:26:58.989
Every time there's an opportunity to gather to voice opposition to what's in these bills, be part of that.
00:26:59.108 --> 00:27:02.108
And help your supporters and your clients be part of it too.
00:27:02.993 --> 00:27:09.775
And the last thing is to help your supporters and clients communicate directly with their members of Congress.
00:27:10.134 --> 00:27:13.976
Their US Senators, plural, and their US House of Representative member.
00:27:15.183 --> 00:27:18.304
Basically, be visible all the time in every way.
00:27:18.844 --> 00:27:25.089
But have a plan for how you're gonna do that so it doesn't become such a labor intensive exercise.
00:27:25.589 --> 00:27:27.329
Plan, your key messaging points.
00:27:27.869 --> 00:27:29.490
Plan your supporting content.
00:27:29.990 --> 00:27:33.125
Map out your strategy for where you'll publish your content.
00:27:33.625 --> 00:27:42.404
It should ideally be a combination of stuff going out on social media, and every platform you're on, this messaging should be there too.
00:27:42.904 --> 00:27:52.162
And then at the same time, you also want to be alert to creating traditional media coverage, taking advantage of op-eds, letters to the editor, things like that.
00:27:52.491 --> 00:27:55.582
I know it's old school, but it still reaches people.
00:27:55.852 --> 00:27:58.491
And you wanna reach people everywhere they are.
00:27:59.188 --> 00:28:04.163
If you have a social media manager, making this happen should become part of their regular work.
00:28:04.223 --> 00:28:12.018
The messaging is gonna be your advocacy team that puts that together, but your social media team is gonna be in charge of scheduling and publishing.
00:28:12.518 --> 00:28:15.667
If you have a social media team, they already know this.
00:28:15.667 --> 00:28:20.827
But if you don't, I will share that it is very helpful to batch your content.
00:28:21.637 --> 00:28:28.546
You don't want to be creating a new post every week or every three days or whatever your schedule is gonna be.
00:28:28.996 --> 00:28:35.403
You want to take your several messaging points, Let's say you have four main messaging points.
00:28:35.903 --> 00:28:44.827
It is more helpful to do a separate post on each of the points rather than a longer post that covers all four.
00:28:45.327 --> 00:28:50.419
Depends on the platform, but most of them favor short form content.
00:28:51.170 --> 00:28:53.509
Images are good, videos even better.
00:28:53.779 --> 00:28:55.519
Depends on what you've got to work with.
00:28:56.183 --> 00:29:05.065
Even if all you do is put together a post with your message point using Canva, and put that out there on all the different platforms.
00:29:05.305 --> 00:29:06.535
That is better than nothing.
00:29:07.035 --> 00:29:10.482
You're looking to build awareness, and keep the spotlight on.
00:29:10.982 --> 00:29:13.083
Some of your posts can be short and pithy.
00:29:13.202 --> 00:29:16.472
Some can be a little bit longer and more expository.
00:29:16.972 --> 00:29:24.246
But sit down and put together five or 10 posts at a time and have them ready to go.
00:29:24.336 --> 00:29:26.195
And then just schedule them to go out.
00:29:26.601 --> 00:29:28.520
Some of them will go out on a fixed schedule.
00:29:28.520 --> 00:29:31.280
Others may go out in response to the events of the day.
00:29:31.780 --> 00:29:37.695
But if you batch that content, you produce 10 or 15 posts in an afternoon, then that's done.
00:29:38.266 --> 00:29:43.786
And now if you're publishing on an every three day schedule or whatever it is, you've got content for two or three weeks.
00:29:44.286 --> 00:29:47.464
Obviously create a schedule for releasing your content.
00:29:48.270 --> 00:30:01.189
And then the last thing, this goes to organizing people, is have a plan for how you'll rapidly contact your supporters when it makes sense to show up as a group at a town hall, or a rally, or a protest.
00:30:01.578 --> 00:30:03.259
Have a way to quickly let them know.
00:30:03.946 --> 00:30:06.826
And of course you can always use social media for that too.
00:30:06.926 --> 00:30:09.386
You can just put together a post that says, Hey, everybody.
00:30:09.386 --> 00:30:17.760
And everybody who's connected to you on the socials has a decent chance of seeing that, especially if you've encouraged them to follow you so that they're gonna get that in their feed.
00:30:18.411 --> 00:30:21.701
You can also connect them to larger organizing efforts that are underway.
00:30:22.112 --> 00:30:37.692
Just this week, several of the national organizing groups, including moveon.org and Indivisible, put together a joint organizing effort where they've put out a call for volunteers who will phone bank to Medicaid recipients themselves.
00:30:38.207 --> 00:30:47.532
And talk the Medicaid recipients through how they can reach out directly to their members of Congress and make their voice heard on this super important issue.
00:30:47.772 --> 00:30:49.212
So you can do things like that too.
00:30:49.212 --> 00:30:54.313
You can connect your folks to national organizations that are doing that work.
00:30:55.023 --> 00:31:10.319
The bottom line is as Nonprofit leaders, we are in a really unique and advantaged position to be key players in keeping the spotlight on the harm that these bills could do to the people we serve, and to much broader sections of our communities.
00:31:10.819 --> 00:31:12.500
We have credibility in the community.
00:31:12.619 --> 00:31:13.519
People listen.
00:31:13.700 --> 00:31:15.140
They wanna know what you think.
00:31:15.200 --> 00:31:16.579
They trust your voice.
00:31:17.049 --> 00:31:21.670
So if you're out there saying, this is bad, this is harmful, this is what this will do.
00:31:21.984 --> 00:31:26.634
This is how this will play out in people's lives if this goes forward.
00:31:26.964 --> 00:31:28.734
It can't be allowed to happen.
00:31:29.234 --> 00:31:32.505
That's very powerful and carries a lot of weight.
00:31:33.414 --> 00:31:43.155
Similarly, whenever you put out a call to action to your folks, whether it's your own action or you're sharing an action organized by some national groups.
00:31:43.763 --> 00:31:49.644
In both of those cases, your voice urging them to take action is what matters.
00:31:50.865 --> 00:31:53.420
Don't underestimate the power that you have in this moment.
00:31:53.839 --> 00:31:54.799
It's substantial.
00:31:55.299 --> 00:31:59.819
And if we all do this together, it will have an enormous impact.
00:32:00.640 --> 00:32:05.818
Thanks for listening, and I'll see you in the next episode right here on the Nonprofit Power Podcast.
