During the first full week of February, I was in Washington, DC, as part of the advocacy efforts of Habitat for Humanity, training to talk to the staff of congressional representatives and then doing that actual talking! It was an amazing experience. Habitat branded its efforts #HabitatOnTheHill.

I’ve worked in communications related to causes since the mid-1980s, before I had graduated from university, and I’ve certainly done a lot of elevator speeches, usually while tabling for an organization that’s registering voters or trying to educate people about issues related to reproductive rights. But I’ve never talked directly to legislators and their staff to advocate for affordable housing. It was an invigorating, intense experience – these folks are all super busy and we had to make every second count. It also was easier for our group than others, since the legislators my group approached each support legislation and funding to improve the availability of affordable housing and believe everyone, especially those working full-time, should get a chance to buy a house.

In the photo, that’s the Oregon contingent with Senator Jeff Merkley, a staunch advocate for housing. I’m standing on the viewer’s far right, in my Habitat-blue dress.

Some things Habitat International did that other organizations could learn from:

• They held two highly-informative webinars for participants, crash-courses in the specific legislation we needed to advocate for and in other preparations we needed to make before the trip.
• They had well-established relationships with most legislators; therefore, when they contacted the offices of members of Congress to say we were coming, most representatives and senators cared we were coming and wanted to meet with us.
• They gave us all those matching scarves. As a result, on Capitol Hill that day, it looked like Habitat representatives were EVERYWHERE. Representatives of some tribal groups that were also there to advocate for their issues told my group they would absolutely be doing something similar next year.
• All participants had an app on their phone that provided us with the names of all speakers we heard from in the days prior to the actual advocacy day, that provided profiles of our legislators, and that provided us with regularly-updated information on our meetings with legislative staff, info that changed minute-to-minute the day of.
• They fed us. Always feed your advocates.

If you are going to meet with city, county, state or federal officials about a cause, make sure you:

• know what you are going to say. REHEARSE IT. And if you will be in a group, know who is going to say what, who is going to “open” the talk, etc,
• know exactly what you want from them: the name of the legislation you want them to support, for instance.
• have a one-pager about your cause or nonprofit to leave behind.
• thank the officials both after the meetings, in writing, and via email every time you read that they have supported your cause in some way.

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