Leveraging Grassroots for Modern Advocacy Campaigns

As Trump 2.0 continues, it’s more important than ever to build grassroots support for your policy positions, but doing so requires new strategies and tactics.  

As President Trump continues to make rapid progress on a range of policies that were previously stuck in gridlock, the traditional “blocking and tackling” approach, which focuses on Congressional committee leaders, has sometimes proven less effective than it was in the past.  

Modern advocacy campaigns must quickly rethink their strategies for influencing policy, including how to engage everyday Americans and demonstrate that their voices carry more weight than just a few emails. As populism gains momentum, grassroots campaigns should become even more essential.  

However, motivating busy, disengaged Americans on policy issues is becoming increasingly complex. Here are four ways to ensure your grassroots advocacy campaign adapts and meets the demands of today's landscape. 

1. Leverage Grassroots to Influence the Influencers. Grassroots can go beyond emailing Congress. It can educate powerful allies of the President and even increase media coverage on an issue. Viewing it solely as a tool to flood congressional inboxes is shortsighted, and as Congress's influence wanes, it’s becoming less effective. Campaigns that have adapted are collecting advocate stories, vetting, and training top advocates to serve as media sources on the issue. Others are engaging digital communities where problems are discussed, such as Reddit and X. Grassroots policy discussions on these platforms continue to attract the administration’s attention, and MAGA influencers have proven highly successful in raising the profile of a wide range of issues. Micro-influencers with 5,000 to 500,000 followers can be effectively reached through influencer marketing platforms. Engaging influential advocates through online communities and turning them into influencers can be significantly more impactful than a traditional email campaign to Congress.  

2. Utilize Video Storytelling. Platforms like Quorum’s Grassroots now enable you to gather and showcase video testimonials from supporters. This helps organizations humanize their causes by highlighting a constituent’s story to lawmakers. Storytelling has been shown to increase both persuasion and attention. Stories from a single legislative district or state can be posted on a webpage, allowing lawmakers to hear from multiple constituents about a particular issue.

   Additionally, these video testimonials, which do not require high production values, can serve as advertisements intended to engage policymakers or attract additional advocates. Nearly 80% of all internet traffic now comes from video, and social platforms are rewarding it. Video posts routinely earn double the engagement of photos or text. 

3. Unique Events and Texting Can Grab Attention. The most effective advocacy no longer happens solely online or offline, but it flourishes where the two intersect. A social media campaign can attract attention, but coupling it with a district-level roundtable, town hall, or DC fly-in creates a pressure campaign that lawmakers can’t ignore. The aim is to transform passive online support into active, real-world advocacy that lawmakers and influencers cannot dismiss.  There is a reason hundreds of groups host fly-ins each year, but how are other organizations leveling up their in-person advocacy?

   The Association of Equipment Manufacturers, which is currently running a grassroots bus tour, and AdvaMed, which held its Medtech Showcase on Capitol Hill. These events aren’t cookie-cutter fly-ins, but unique experiences. While an online-only grassroots army can raise an issue's profile, combining it with in-person efforts creates a multiplier effect. Organizations should also look beyond email to SMS and peer-to-peer texting. Advocate inboxes are inundated. Texting offers a higher open rate, quicker responses, and a more personal connection for advocates. Peer-to-peer texting platforms enable advocates to respond to questions in real-time, creating a more genuine experience that fosters trust and enhances engagement.  

4. Look to Non-Traditional Advocates. Today’s most effective grassroots advocates are unlikely to be your typical association leader or top-performing employee. It could be a nurse with a big TikTok following, or a veteran who moderates a private Facebook group, or even a small-business owner who can mobilize hundreds of customers overnight. Look beyond the folks who can deliver highly polished talking points and identify authentic voices. Identifying and activating these unexpected messengers can expand the campaign’s reach and credibility. The American Farm Bureau trains its next generation of leaders in a range of skills, from political advocacy to public speaking.  

Grassroots advocacy has always been about people, but in today’s environment, it’s about the right people, in the right places, saying the right things. The organizations that win will treat grassroots not as a volume game, but as a strategic lever. Effective grassroots campaigns blend authenticity with political influence, leveraging social algorithms.  

In my work leading grassroots campaigns at Narrative, I’ve seen how fast the playbook is changing. The campaigns that cut through aren’t just louder, they’re more human, more politically savvy, and more strategic about what moves the needle.