Quantity vs. Quality? Always Take Quality (psst…It Can Help Build Quantity Too!)

This is a question we often ask ourselves when building and engaging a coalition of advocates for a client. Do we want a lot of advocates, or do we want really engaged advocates? Both answers can be right at the same time, but we believe in focusing on quality first.

Every initiative has limited capacity, so prioritizing quality makes sense.  This means being extremely strategic and intentional on representation (demographically, geographically, ideologically, etc.) in the groups you engage with. It also means cultivating “the 10% that does 90% of the work” (more on them here).

Let me give a concrete example: while working with a client on a policy driven advocacy campaign, we started with inviting 400 members of the organization who signed up to be advocates.  We knew this number wouldn't hold, but we were looking for quality to build on. When the advocacy training sessions (multiple sessions to meet the varying schedules and availability of volunteers) started, that number dropped to “just” 50. As in 50 highly passionate advocates – now that’s a number we can work with.

The next step is to meet these passionate advocates where they are, meaning experience, comfort, legislative relationships, and skill level.  We never talked down to them. Instead we “opened it up.” We met them where they were in terms of understanding the legislative process, the importance of telling their story, and how and when to advocate.

If you don’t ask, you don’t get. That’s why we then made a few easy, but helpful asks of each advocate.  Don’t give them a ‘make work’ ask, but real asks that achieve real results. People can see through baloney.

But how do we turn quality into quantity, too?  By asking of course! Ask your quality team of advocates to recruit just one advocate like themselves before the next meeting. Our 50 quickly grew to 117 (and we’ll likely end up close to our original number of 400 in no time at all).

Remember: quality trumps quantity…and eventually leads to both.

Learn more about our coalition building and coalition management services here.