As we recently shared, Empower Missouri has just begun a new phase in our growth, the start of our next strategic plan. Our team is especially excited about our plans to recommit and deeply invest in our work of supporting nonprofit organizations throughout the state in building their capacity to advocate for policy change that will help their clients thrive.
We often say that the core of our work is our three coalitions, Affordable Housing, Community Justice, and Food Security, and we have no plans to change that. If you’re a member of one of our coalitions, whether as an individual activist or representing an organization, your voice matters when it comes to policy change in Missouri. You offer invaluable insights on the policies that trap Missouri families in a cycle of poverty. You help us ensure that the policy changes we propose will have the intended positive impact on your clients. You serve as a watchdog to make sure that state agencies are doing their jobs and following the law. You carry the stories and statistics from your organization to the capitol through legislator meetings, site visits, and testimony on key legislation. We will continue to support our members in all of this work through our coalition meetings, Bill Trackers, sample testimony, webinars, and other free events and learning opportunities, like the annual Week of Action and our Advocates Book Club.
But, if your organization wants additional support and training opportunities, as well as the opportunity to showcase your advocacy efforts and promote your important work to Empower Missouri’s network, the newly rebranded Advocacy Alliance might be for you! We’ve revamped our organizational membership program to offer more benefits and more collaboration, to work together to create more effective policy change.
The Advocacy Alliance is meant to facilitate collaboration, and one of the key ways we are doing that is through our co-promotional opportunities. Member organizations can co-host our Week of Action and Day of Action, including a designated table in the Capitol rotunda to share information about your work. If you’re not quite ready to host your own advocacy day, but want to start bringing staff, board members, and supporters to the capitol, this is a great way to get started! Members also have the opportunity to partner with us to host an online Book Club (for your network and ours), be interviewed on our podcast, Under the Dome, and be featured on our website, in our email newsletters, or on our social media. Members will also be the first to know as new opportunities arise to work with us and promote your work! You’ll also receive some fun members only swag (no spoilers though!), and a discount on all other Empower Missouri merch.
Our membership program has always included robust training opportunities, and that will continue for the Advocacy Alliance. Members receive one of our three core trainings (Advocacy 101, Messaging 101, or Ethics in Advocacy), facilitated just for your staff, board, or community stakeholders. If more training is desired, Alliance members also receive a 25% discount on additional sessions, on tickets to the Anti-Poverty Advocates Summit (making tickets only $74.25 until September 15th!), and for our Advocacy Accelerator (formerly Advocacy Partners) program.
In addition to live training opportunities, Advocacy Alliance members will also have access to a collection of members only resources. Your team will have access to training videos, worksheets, calendars and templates to help you build your advocacy program and expand your impact. We have many resources ready to launch this September, and more will be added throughout the year. We’ll keep members updated through our newly launched Advocacy Alliance newsletter, coming once a quarter with new resources and opportunities for members.
Membership in the Advocacy Alliance is open to any organization that wants to further their partnership with Empower Missouri, expand their advocacy efforts and capacity, and collaborate with other organizations throughout the state for more effective policy change. In order to make the Alliance accessible to all of our wonderful partners, membership fees are on a sliding scale based on organizational budget size. The annual membership fees are:
| Org. Annual Budget | Base Membership Fee |
|---|---|
| Less than $100,000 | $150 |
| $100,000-$500,000 | $300 |
| $500,001-$1,000,000 | $600 |
| Over $1,000,000 | $1,200 |
Organizations that are current members of our Organizational Membership program are now rolled over to the Advocacy Alliance (shoutout to our founding members!) and will have access to all Alliance benefits.
We’re thrilled to be taking this next step and deepening our investment in the nonprofit community in Missouri, and we hope you’ll consider investing in us by joining the Advocacy Alliance. Sign up below, or visit our Advocacy Alliance page to learn more about the benefits of membership. If you aren’t quite ready to sign up, you can contact Amber Foster-Hobart at [email protected] with any questions.
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