Online Advocacy Handbook

A RESOURCE GUIDE FOR ARTS ORGANIZATIONS AND ARTISTS IN NY STATE

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    The following tools & tips provide you with information, guidance and data that will inform and strengthen your position in advocating for local arts support in your community and at the state and national level.
    Ask your elected officials to invest in your communities:  in the future of your children, in your economy, and in the quality of your lives.  In asking for government and private support of the arts, you are asking for an investment that will yield a dramatic return while building valuable assets at home.

    Click the button to view the NYS ARTS Advocacy Handbook as a pdf.


     

    The Arts are core to the Vitality of the community and can be the catalyst for cultural community development

  • Don’t be timid or apologetic about asking for support or money.
  • The Arts are an investment in community development.
  • The Arts are essential to a full and complete community life. 

 

ECONOMIC IMPACT We have documented evidence about the benefits of the arts

  • On local economies and as an economic stimulator
  • On downtown revitalization and re-development
  • On the education of our children
  • As a solution to a wide variety of social problems
  • As an attraction to tourists and their dollars
  • On the value of our homes and the attraction of our communities to business
  • On the skills of all our citizens.

    • We are NOT asking for handouts. We are asking for our elected officials to INVEST in our communities: in the future of our children, in our economies, in our tax bases. This investment is a cost-effective solution to specific problems and yields an impressive return for every dollar invested. It is also important to remember that we are not asking for an expenditure of state or county or municipal or village funds which will simply be an “expense”— most of this money will ultimately flow directly back into the elected official’s district. This is critically important for it is much easier to justify voting in favor of an increase in a budget line item if the money is going back into the district or the town or the city or the county.

    BUILD LOCAL COALITIONS TO SUPPORT YOUR OBJECTIVES
  • 1. Build on historically successful alliances in your community.
  • 2. Involve people and organizations seen as leaders in the community.
  • 3. Foster mutual respect, understanding and trust.
  • 4. Validate participants’ self-interest.
  • 5. Be flexible; compromise; adapt.
  • 6. Participants must have a stake in the process and outcome.
  • 7. Clearly define roles and responsibilities.
  • 8. Ensure open, frequent and sustained communication.
  • 9. Develop personal relationships.
  • 10. Establish specific, concrete, limited and attainable goals.
  • 11. Have a shared vision.
  • 12. Ensure commitment of requisite time, energy, and resources at the outset.
  • 13. Demonstrate a high level of passion for the objective.

    Remember, the hallmark of politics is compromise. We need to adapt to changing situations and circumstances. What will work in one community might not work in another. The factors at play will vary, sometimes greatly, from one community to another, and from one year to another, and from one elected official to another.


    TIPS TO FOSTER COMMUNICATION WITH YOUR ELECTED OFFICIALS
    1. Communication
    2. Tips on personal visits, letter writing, phone calls, emails
    3. General Protocol in all communication with your legislator
    THE NY STATE BUDGET
    1. The NY State Budget Process
    2. NYSCA Budget Language
    3. NYSCA General Fund Appropriations
    4. NYSCA Grants Funding by year

    One of the most effective means for us to sway legislators to our side is to have those legislators who do support us, lobby their brethren who do not. Nothing is more effective than lobbying from one legislator to another.  Therefore, it is critically important that, as you continue to engage in the advocacy process with a supportive legislator, you enlist their aid in convincing their colleagues to come over to your position. So the bottom line is that you must continually spend time and energy with legislators who already support your position, so that they can help you bring other members on board.