Effective Charter Public School Advocacy Communication Guide
Advocacy Communications are crucial for charter public schools to build support, influence policy, and engage the community. Effective advocacy communications can help charter schools secure funding, improve public education policies, and enhance their reputation.
Remember that “advocacy” really just means telling your story to influencers, policy makers and lawmakers, with a goal of persuading them to support your school and the broader charter school community. And you don’t have to do this alone, in fact, the schools that do this work well engage a “team” of advocates from within their school community to support these efforts.
This guide provides a step-by-step approach to developing and executing a successful advocacy communication strategy.
Step 1: Define Your Goals
Before you start any advocacy effort or campaign, it’s essential to clearly define your goals. Ask yourself:
• What do you want to achieve?
• Who are your target audiences?
• What are the key messages you want to convey?
Step 2: Build the Team
Once you know your goals, you can identify the members from within your school community who should help you achieve them.
• Think about engaging a range of supporters from students to alumni, from teachers to families, and from board members to community leaders.
• Be specific with what your ask is of each person.
• Start simple with easy asks, like post on social media and tag a lawmaker.
• Provide ready to use content or tools to make it easy to participate.
Step 3: Identify Your Audience
Understanding your audience is critical. Your audience may include:
• Families, students and alumni
• Teachers and staff members
• Local community members including business, community and faith-based leaders
• Policymakers and legislators at the local, state and federal levels
• Potential or current donors and sponsors
Step 4: Craft Your Message
Your message should be clear, concise, and compelling. Focus on:
• Free, public and open to all students as core messages
• Describe how you care about ALL students and you are working to ensure EVERY family can decide which school will work best for each child
• Focus messages on how you personalize education to meet the needs of every student at your school
• The unique benefits of charter schools and specifically of yours
• Success stories and positive outcomes
• Data and statistics that support your claims but keep the data to only a few points (note: do not compare your school to others to use any negative language with respect to other public schools)
• Personal testimonials from students, families, teachers and board members
Step 5: Choose Your Communication Channels
Select the most effective channels to reach your audience and focus on the tools that you can manage directly. These may include:
• Social media platforms (Facebook, X, Instagram, YouTube)
• Email newsletters or stand-alone emails
• Press releases and media outreach
• Community events and town hall meetings
• School websites and blogs
• School facility – bulletin boards, posters, flyers, events
Step 6: Develop Your Materials
Create materials to support your efforts. They can be simple or high-quality designed but the focus should always be on target audience, message and distribution rather than slick materials. And be sure whatever you create will work for the target audience you hope to reach. These might include:
• Use QR codes so your audience can access more detailed information
• Host content and drive as much traffic as possible to your website
• Brochures and flyers
• Infographics and fact sheets
• Videos and podcasts
• Social media graphics and posts
• Determine what languages you need to have your materials in
Step 7: Engage with Your Audience
Engagement is key to successful advocacy. Remember that virtual events may be more accessible for a wider audience as they are convenient and in-person events allow your audience to experience you school and you to showcase your successes visibly. Encourage interaction by:
• Hosting Q&A sessions and webinars,
• Responding to comments and messages on social media (be sure to create clear rules for deleting or hiding comments that are unacceptable)
• Encouraging supporters to share their stories and experiences and tag influencers and/or lawmakers
• Building a network of supporters who can amplify your message
Step 8: Monitor and Evaluate
Track the progress of your advocacy efforts by:
• Monitoring media coverage and social media engagement
• Collecting feedback from your audience
• Analyzing website traffic and email open rates
• Adjusting your strategy based on what works and what doesn’t
Conclusion
Effective advocacy communications can make a significant impact on the success of charter public schools. By defining your goals, building your team, understanding your audience, crafting compelling messages, and engaging through the right channels, you can build strong support for your school and its mission.