From Volunteers to Champions: Recruiting & Training Grasstops Advocates

Grasstops advocacy isn’t about reaching the masses — it’s about activating the right people with the right influence. These advocates aren’t just passionate about your mission — they’re strategically positioned to make policymakers pay attention. But they don’t always come ready to go. To build a successful grasstops program, organizations must move volunteers up the ladder of engagement and give them the training, tools, and confidence to become trusted voices for your cause.

This guide walks through how to identify potential grasstops advocates, develop them into strategic assets, and support them with the systems that keep them engaged and effective.

Identify Grasstops Potential Inside Your Network

The best grasstops advocates are often already connected to your organization — you just haven’t activated them yet. The key is to identify individuals who have two things: influence and interest. That might include:

• Local business owners with civic leadership roles
• Alumni with ties to lawmakers or agency officials
• Board members with deep policy experience
• Volunteers with high engagement and storytelling skills

Rather than starting from scratch, audit your staekholder CRM, past meeting participants, social media ambassadors, and donors. Cross-reference these contacts with Quorum’s lawmaker data and engagement history to identify advocates who already have political access or credibility.

Develop Advocates Through Intentional Engagement

Recruiting grasstops advocates is a trust-building process. Unlike general grassroots outreach, it’s not about volume — it’s about value. Your invitation should feel personal and come with a clear ask.

Once you’ve identified prospects, don’t just drop them into your next campaign. Nurture them:

• Schedule one-on-one conversations to align on values and interests
• Offer small engagement opportunities (e.g., sign a joint letter or co-author a blog)
• Share context on your organization’s policy priorities and strategy
• Highlight the unique value of their voice and network

This onboarding phase is critical. The ALS Association, for example, used Quorum to align their grassroots and public affairs teams around a shared strategy — allowing them to develop targeted, high-trust relationships with advocates who could speak both personally and strategically.

Train Grasstops Advocates for the Spotlight

Grasstops advocacy only works if your advocates are equipped and confident. Training should go beyond how to write a letter or schedule a meeting. Focus on preparation that helps them become informed, persuasive policy messengers.

Key areas of training include:

• Understanding legislative timelines and the policymaking process
• Communicating with credibility to legislators and staffers
• Using personal narratives that align with policy goals
• Staying on-message in meetings, calls, and public forums
• Following up effectively and building relationships over time

Quorum’s grassroots advocacy tools help your team monitor engagement, track advocate participation, and measure training impact across time. You can also document interactions in Quorum’s stakeholder CRM, giving your team a unified view of who’s ready for more responsibility.

Empower and Sustain Your Champions

Once trained, grasstops advocates become your organization’s external policy ambassadors — but that role requires ongoing support. To keep them engaged and effective:

• Provide regular updates on legislative movement, tailored to their interests
• Give them early access to key campaigns and talking points
• Involve them in strategy sessions and Hill Day prep
• Celebrate their wins and recognize their influence

Quorum’s alerting tools can notify your grasstops network when a relevant bill is introduced or a lawmaker makes a public statement. That empowers them to respond in real time — whether on social media, in a call, or at a community event.

You can also use Quorum’s reporting dashboards to showcase advocate impact, whether it’s meetings held, statements influenced, or legislation moved. That kind of visibility reinforces value — both to the advocate and to internal leadership.

Conclusion

Grasstops advocates are a powerful force multiplier in your government affairs strategy — but they don’t appear overnight. It takes strategy to recruit them, intention to train them, and infrastructure to keep them effective. With tools like Quorum, you can identify promising voices within your network, invest in their growth, and turn passionate supporters into credible champions that policymakers trust.

FAQ: Grasstops Advocacy