Letter
Campaigns Letter
CampaignsLetter-writing/post card campaigns
Letter-writing and post card campaigns, like phone and fax zaps,
are a direct means of letting public officials and others know
how you feel about a particular issue and what you want them to
do. Like phone calls, they are counted and often used by politicians
or agency heads to justify their actions. Without taking personal
responsibility, they can then claim they were "responding
to their constituencies." Like faxes, letters and postcards
get extact entire messages across and yet are less expensive and
more accessible to most senders. In contrast to phone calls or
fax zaps, letter writing campaigns take more preparation and need
more people to be effective.
Different types of letter and post card
campaigns
Many large national, state, and local groups use letter-writing
campaigns on a regular basis. Usually they send a letter to an
extensive mailing list, explaining the issue at hand and asking
people to write their own letters to specific individuals or a
group. This type of campaign however, generally requires an established
mailing list, and a large one. You must contact considerable numbers
of people if you hope to extract a sizable response when you're
asking them to formulate their own letter, write it, and mail
it out. All of these are barriers to a large-scale response.
Another strategy is to provide people with
a sample letter and ask them to copy it onto their letterhead
or retype it on their own paper, changing what they want.The easiest
method, however, is to provide a letter and simply ask people
to sign and mail it. The likelihood is increased if you also provide
a stamped, addressed envelope, although this raises the cost to
your organization.
On the other hand, people who may not agree with the tone of the
pre-written letter or with its exact position will not send it
in. In addition, the person at the receiving end does not get
"personal" letters. He or she is more aware that this
is a "campaign" and may be less impressed. Still, the
number of people sending in any kind of letter is a strong indication
of community pressure.
If you do not have a large mailing list, you might make up letters
for people to sign and go to community events, shopping malls,
movie theaters, or other public places to solicit signatures.
This type of campaign allows you to do face-to-face education.
Generally, people sign the letters and you mail them to the targeted
person. You can also ask those signing if they're willing to be
on a mailing list.
Another option is to put pre-written letters (along with an explanatory
note or fact sheet) in waiting rooms of clinics or other social
service locations or at any community meeting place.
Each of the above strategies can be done with postcards as well
as letters.
In every case, make sure you ask people to include their address
on their letter when they sign it. This is one way to gauge the
effectiveness, since most officials will send a reply if they
get enough letters.
What should the letters say?
Letters should be direct and to the point. The tone of the letter
depends on the nature of your concerns, the person targeted, and
their relationship to you and the issue at hand. Some people prefer
to write in a tone that is not demanding but simply makes a request
for a set of clear reasons. Others can be more confrontational.
Whichever tone you choose, either in your own letter or in pre-written
letters or postcards, make sure you are clear about the issues
and the action you want taken. Also, if the targeted person holds
elected office, you might ask people to mention in their letters
that they are registered voters. If it's a pre-written letter,
and is likely to go out to some people who are not registered
voters, you can simply include a phrase like "As a resident
of your district...."
How many people do you need? How long
should the campaign continue?
Letter-wnting and postcard campaigns generally need a larger number
of people than a phone or fax zap, but the total number will depend
on the size of the locality. In some localities 25 letters can
make an enormous impact; in others, hundreds are necessary. You'll
have to be the judge. Decide on the number of letters you want
and plan on reaching at least 30 to 100 times that many people
in order to get the desired volume of letters, especially if you
expect them to write their own letters rather than simply signing
a pre-written one provided by you.
The length of a letter-writing campaign depends on its goal. Some
are of short duration, focused on a specific issue or vote. Others
may go on for months if the goal is less immediate. When you plan
a campaign, give yourself enough time before the target date to
develop and distribute the letters. If the campaign is a longer
one, you might want to do staggered mailings so that the targeted
person keeps getting letters throughout the duration of the issue.
How do you know the campaign was effective?
If an official responds with his or her own letter, you can assume
he/she received enough letters to believe it warranted a response
and, therefore, has gotten your message and your pressure. If
you do a face-to-face campaign, asking people to send letters,
the mailing list you develop is also a measure of your success.
In all cases this type of campaign definitely is an educational
tool for your community.
Direct Action
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