A national advocacy strategy only works if local teams can put it into action. For Americans for the Arts, that means supporting roughly 5,000 local arts agencies — often through state affiliates with limited capacity.
Americans for the Arts uses Quorum to connect its national advocacy operation with about 22 state and local affiliate accounts. AI-generated message variations reduce work for advocates, social media monitoring surfaces comments the team might otherwise miss, and linked accounts give affiliates practical tools without taking away local control.
“Our average state affiliate has about half of one staff person,” said Jay Dick, Senior Director of Advocacy and Partnerships at Americans for the Arts. “Some have one, some have three, some have none. So we have to make advocacy as simple, turnkey, and easy as possible.”
Challenge: Make National Advocacy Work for Small Local Teams
Americans for the Arts supports local arts agencies, while independent state and local partners lead advocacy in their own communities. How could one national organization give those affiliates useful infrastructure while preserving their independence?
Any system would need to help the network:
- Connect a national account with state and local affiliate accounts.
- Make participation easy for advocates and small teams.
- Track legislation and elected officials’ public comments.
- Support advocacy at the federal, state, and local levels.
- Expand beyond email as audience behavior changed.
Affiliate leaders often balance advocacy with running an entire organization. They need timely information without hours of searching or system administration.
“They have a lot of other responsibilities,” said Dick. “They know grassroots work matters, but they’re busy running organizations. They need an automated system they can quickly update or receive alerts from.”
Email presented a second challenge. It remained important, but advocates did not always have time to personalize messages. Americans for the Arts also wanted to incorporate social media and relationship-building into a broader approach.
Solution: Build a Connected, Low-Friction Advocacy Network
Americans for the Arts uses Quorum in five practical steps to help its national team and affiliates turn information into action.
Step 1: Connect National and Affiliate Advocacy
Americans for the Arts established a master account linked to about 22 state and local accounts, connecting the network while allowing each organization to focus on its own priorities.
“One of them was an affiliate package. I had to have a master account that linked to child accounts,” said Dick.
Americans for the Arts subsidizes Quorum as a member benefit, with affiliates paying roughly one-third of the amount the national organization pays. It provides infrastructure and shares ideas, while local partners decide what makes sense for their communities.
Step 2: Use AI to Reduce the Work of Personalization
Americans for the Arts can write one sample advocate message in Quorum and use AI to create multiple variations. The team typically generates about 15 versions without requiring each advocate to start from scratch.
“One of the nicest things I like about it is being able to write one sample message that an advocate can send to Congress and have it automatically rewritten multiple different ways,” said Dick. “We don’t do 50 versions, but being able to generate maybe 15 different versions helps make the emails look unique.”
“It really is easy for our advocates,” said Dick. “Using AI components when they’re creating emails and messages.”
Step 3: Turn Public Activity Into Timely Intelligence
Quorum alerts Americans for the Arts when elected officials discuss the arts on social media. Dick received one such alert when a member of Congress from New Jersey posted about a National Endowment for the Arts grant awarded to a constituent — information he said he would not ordinarily have seen.
“Having Quorum scour all the elected officials’ social media and notify me whenever someone mentions the arts — that’s really valuable,” said Dick.
State affiliates also use Quorum’s bill search tools. Together, monitoring and search help small teams find relevant information without checking every bill, post, or official’s activity manually.
Step 4: Layer Email, Social Media, and Relationships
Americans for the Arts combines advocate messages, social media, in-person engagement, and ongoing relationships with officials and their staff.
“It’s also helping make the transition toward more social media, because email is becoming a little less impactful,” said Dick. “It still has a place and a purpose, but it can’t be the only thing.”
Quorum helps the team monitor messages sent to officials and follow what those officials say publicly.
“Quorum lets us keep track of things, know when emails are going to specific members, know what members are saying on X,” said Dick. “Knowing that means we’re not surprised. We don’t like surprises.”
Step 5: Match Local Stories With Relevant Data
Americans for the Arts pairs evidence with personal stories and tailors both to the official it wants to reach.
“We have a saying: no data without a story, and no story without data,” said Dick.
National figures can establish scale, but local evidence often makes a stronger case. Quorum’s monitoring gives the team clues about which issue or story may resonate with an official.
“My job is to get to ‘yes’ as efficiently as possible,” said Dick. “That’s another place where Quorum helps. If I can see what a mayor has been posting about, I get a better idea of what matters to that person.”
Impact: Easier Advocacy and Better Visibility Across the Network
Quorum gives Americans for the Arts a shared system designed around the realities of its network. The national organization can support about 22 linked accounts, while affiliates gain tools that would be difficult for small teams to maintain independently.
The impact appears in the day-to-day work:
- Advocates can act from a prepared message instead of drafting one from the beginning.
- AI can turn one sample into about 15 variations.
- Affiliates can receive alerts and search for relevant bills without monitoring every source manually.
- The national team can see outreach and public comments across levels of government.
- Social media insights help the organization prepare relevant stories and avoid surprises.
Adoption also proved manageable. Dick said the first-year learning curve was smaller than anticipated, even with more than 20 people learning the platform across the country. Affiliates, he said, generally find Quorum effective.
“I would say this: Quorum is a strong product that quickly and easily enables advocates to let their voices be heard, whether at the federal, state, or local levels,” said Dick.
What Other Advocacy Teams Can Learn From Americans for the Arts
Americans for the Arts shows how Quorum can support a distributed advocacy network without replacing local expertise.
Teams building a similar program can apply five lessons:
- Design around actual capacity. Choose workflows that a small affiliate can maintain alongside its other responsibilities.
- Connect the network without centralizing every decision. Shared technology can provide consistency while local teams retain control of local strategy.
- Use AI to remove friction. Message variations can make outreach more distinct without adding another task for advocates.
- Layer channels. Use Quorum to connect email, social media monitoring, legislative research, and relationship-building.
- Make the message locally relevant. Pair a constituent story with data that reflects an official’s district, city, or priorities.
For Americans for the Arts, Quorum brings those elements together in one practical toolset.
“Quorum helps us with email, social media, and AI to tell stories in a more authentic way to elected officials, giving advocates and lobbyists another tool in the toolbox to advocate — in our case — for arts and culture,” said Dick.
About Jay Dick
Jay Dick is the Senior Director of Advocacy and Partnerships at Americans for the Arts. He has worked in Washington, D.C. for more than three decades, including roles in the U.S. Senate, the nonprofit sector, and advocacy technology. He works across federal, state, and local policy.