The Government is Out of Touch With the Average American
And the average American knows how to reduce the deficit. According to a Program for Public Consultation study released yesterday, most Americans would cut defense spending, increase taxes and spend 130% more
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Archives for blog topic “Advocacy Strategies”
Mar 04 2011
By Paul L. Sparks
Feb 25 2011
By Paul L. Sparks
Budget Wars, Yes, But it Could be Worse
Wisconsin’s budget battle has become a flashpoint in the broader partisan and philosophical conflict over U.S. government priorities. Despite general agreement that compromise is the preferred path, legislators at the
Feb 18 2011
By Paul L. Sparks
No One Likes Bed Nets Anyway
With all the deficit talk in Washington lately, it’s no surprise that Ron Paul is going after an easy target: US Foreign Aid. It was the least popular spending measure among Americans polled for a recent Pew study. But wait a sec… U.S. assistance
Feb 04 2011
By Paul L. Sparks
Fighting AIDS as Corporate Policy
“We Agree” that Chevron’s campaign to raise awareness about their work fighting HIV/AIDS is good advertising. In fact, it’s similar to the wildly successful approach taken by the Nike Foundation’s Girl Effect. The motives behind corporate social
Jan 21 2011
By Paul L. Sparks
United Citizens against Citizens United
How about a “Democracy Super-PAC” to combat corporate campaign finance? Might sound crazy, might sound hypocritical, but to Gideon Rosenblatt, it sounds like a good start. Whatever one feels about the merits of Rosenblatt's
Jan 07 2011
By Paul L. Sparks
Call Your Representative! … Or don’t, whatever, it doesn’t matter
Can the masses compete with K Street? Jake Brewer of the Huffington Post says, probably not. Compared to a lobbying industry that spends $3.5 billion annually, 3,000 constituent emails per day don’t add up to much legislative action. Apparently
Dec 10 2010
By Lisa Molinaro and David Devlin-Foltz
Paying Journalists to Advocate—In a New Way:
Advocates know that earned media coverage often has way more credibility than an ad you pay for. But you surrender control over the content. Our friends at the Vietnam Reporting Project have navigated this dilemma. Reporters receive stipends to get
Dec 03 2010
By Paul L. Sparks
Big Bucks for Healthcare Reform Advocacy: Worth it?
The Atlantic Philanthropies gave the largest grant on record for an advocacy campaign—to Health Care for America Now! to help pass healthcare reform. And naturally they wanted toevaluate its effectiveness. Ben Smith of Politico writes that, “their
Nov 05 2010
By Paul L. Sparks
Consensus Unlikely:
Tuesday's election delivered a partisan rebuke to excessive legislative gridlock. Will the next Congress do better? Not likely. Consensus-building NGOs and common ground solutions will get more attention. Our own Aspen Institute may find increased interest in
Oct 15 2010
By lmolinaro
Evaluating the Millenium Villages
Lawrence MacDonald of the Center for Global Development (CGD) writes: “In development, it’s good to try new, innovative ideas– but even better to know whether or not they work. Michael Clemens, senior fellow at CGD, and Gabriel Demombynes,
